Retail Arbitrage on Amazon

There is a lot of confusion and argument about this. Sellers that have been doing RA for many years, get suspended over a single inauthentic claim. Others have 50% negative feedback, less than 10 ratings, inauthentic claims in their feedback and are still happily selling. Of course those coming here, having been suspended, don't understand what is happening. I will try to explain.

Here, retail arbitrage can get your account permanently suspended and your funds and inventory confiscated.....but NOT until Amazon pushes that button. That can be today, next week, next month or next year.

Example:

Nike

Hundreds of sellers have been suspended for selling Nike, because it can only be sold retail arbitrage, as Nike does not authorize online resale. Yet there are thousands of Nike sellers on Amazon, new ones every day........not their turn yet. Maybe not enough in their account to confiscate...

Without commercial invoices, you cannot fight an inauthentic claim and Amazon can request such invoices anytime they want and you are expected to have them.

Reasoning:

As an end consumer (and that is what you are buying at retail) the brand has lost control at the point of purchase. The product you resell, is no longer "New". Why? Because for it to be new it must come with ALL warranties. It must be fully backed by the brand. Insured. Safe.

Let's assume Brand A has a recall on contaminated Peanut butter. You bought yours at Walmart in Ohio and shipped it to a buyer in Texas. Brand A announces "Peanut butter sold in Ohio Walmart's.... dates this to that". Consumer in Texas thinks "Oh I am in Texas and got it from Amazon, my peanut butter is good" Now they get sick, maybe die and guess who can be sued? No, not just you, they will sue Amazon too.

Amazon will protect itself, as they see fit.

Or, let's assume you are buying a pallet of power tools and the buyer tries to get a warranty claim on it and will be told "We don't have authorized sellers on Amazon, there is no warranty on this product" God forbid whatever you sold as new burst into flames, burns down the house or causes an internal electrical fire in the receptacle. At the very least, you made unhappy Amazon customers and Amazon ADORES their buyers and will protect them, and itself, as they wish.

Pallet sell-outs are usually also RESTRICTED by the brand and clearly labeled that they CANNOT be resold as new. Many have individual stickers on them saying so, clothing usually has part of the tags cut off, UPC's are marked/cut out.....it is ILLEGAL to resell these items as "new"

BUT......

I am sure some guru somewhere told you "All not true, I've been doing RA, they accepted my receipts"

and "Why would receipts be good enough to get approved for a brand, but not later"

Nearly anything will get you approved for brands that are not heavily restricted. Approved to sell isn't the same as "brand authorized". Amazon quietly expects you to BE brand authorized, but will not ask.

NOBODY can count on anything or hope for it. Retail arbitrage on Amazon is NOT OFFICIALLY forbidden. The inauthentic claim is what turns it into a section 3 violation that 99% of the time leads to permanent suspension. If you cannot clear the authenticity issue, your funds and any FBA inventory you have is gone. But better yet, FBA inventory is held for months, even years, while you are billed for storage and the endless cost of "long term storage". Until they decide to dispose of it, you are on the hook.

There are random exceptions. Every now and then someone gets around this, has their account reinstated, one even got help from a mod a some time ago and got their issues resolved in 24 hours. That was ONE out of hundreds posting. ONE. Some people have more "status" a few have more luck. Do you feel lucky?

I'm posting in the hope that an admin might read this and assist. I'll cut to the chase:

Customer opened an A to Z for a package that got lost in the mail.

I shipped the package a day earlier than required.

Shipping was purchased through Amazon.

Order page says "Claims protected."

Despite this, the A to Z was found in favor of the customer.

But wait...I'm not just out the cost of the item. The claim resulted in an order defect rate of 1.27% that essentially shut my shop down so I can't even sell to overcome that defect rate!

My livelihood is affected because of somebody incompetent in the A to Z department who can't even give me an explanation for their illogical decision. I've contacted customer support but all they do is transfer it and I got a second rejection. My follow-up support ticket isn't moving after a couple days.

What options do I have?

I received an "[Action Required] Information needed for your Selling on Amazon payment account" email from seller central asking me to update my legal entity on the .ca marketplace.

I have a North America Unified Account but I ONLY sell on Amazon.com (US). I have never listed or sold anything on Amazon.ca. I don't want to sell in Canada.

The email says I "incorrectly selected the individual legal entity during registration" and is asking me to update to the correct business type (Sole Proprietor, etc.) on sellercentral.amazon.ca.

My question: What is the safest way to handle this without risking my .com account?

Specifically:

Should I complete the .ca verification as requested?

Should I ignore it?

Is there any risk to my .com selling privileges if I don't respond?

Has anyone been through this exact situation with a Unified Account?

I do NOT want to close the .ca account — I've read that can cause problems with the linked .com account. I just want to make sure whatever I do doesn't affect my active US selling account.

Email below:

"[Action Required] Information needed for your Selling on Amazon payment account

Hello,

We are contacting you because you have incorrectly selected the individual legal entity during registration, but your selling activity fits the criteria for a business or partnership. If you think that your selling activity fits the individual legal entity criteria, reply to this email to confirm the following.

What do I have to do?

To proceed with the verification, you have to register with the correct legal entity.

Use the following information to select the correct legal entity:

-- Individual: Select this option if you do not intend to sell on Amazon commercially or professionally. This option allows you to sell personal items that you no longer want or need, for example, old DVDs or books.

-- Sole Proprietor: This legal entity is applicable for any commercial individuals who sell for profit. A sole proprietorship is registered with the local authorities. There is no legal distinction between the owner and the business.

-- State-owned business: This is a business that is either wholly or partially owned and operated by a government.

-- Publicly-listed business: This is a business with shares listed on a stock exchange for public trading.

-- Privately-owned business: These entities, such as limited companies or partnerships, are businesses controlled and operated by private individuals.

-- Charity: This is an incorporated or non-incorporated tax-exempt body.

How do I update the required information?

....

Thanks in advance.

I have Amazon customers calling me directly asking where can I buy this?

I have an active listing for the item, but my price doesn't meet the "Competitive Price"

So the listing has no featured offer and cannot be advertised and when searching for the item the listing isnt visable (I tried).

I search the web for external prices for the item and find multiple prices inline with my price, but 1 major retailer has them offered at cost.

So this 1 retailer is liquidating and the result is that Amazon customers cannot buy the item. The 1 retailer who has them at cost is not advertising and it took me about 10 minutes to find.

So ultimately the customer is the one punished. I though Amazon was supposed to be about taking the work off of the customer, delighting the customer. I think this policy is doing the opposite.

FYi we are a tier 1 distributor and brand authorized respresentitive. This isnt about me, this is about people trying to buy an item and Amazon making it hard.

Case #19878134021