Sellers suspended for abuse of Brand Registry reporting system

By Lesley HensellPublished On: August 26, 2019Comments Off

These “abuse of Brand Registry” Code of Conduct suspensions are very difficult to overturn

Recently, we have seen multiple seller accounts suspended for abuse of Brand Registry reporting system.

Sellers and private-label brand owners became extremely frustrated that their competitors were violating Amazon’s rules in their listings. For example, these competitors were offering endless money-back guarantees, including prohibited images, and making misleading statements that disparaged other products.

Their solution? The private-label sellers logged into their Brand Registry accounts and filed reports against their competitors’ ASINs. Unfortunately, they were much too aggressive. As a result of these dozens upon dozens of complaints, their accounts were suspended for violating Amazon’s Code of Conduct.

Why the suspension? Here is what we know:

The Brand Registry is intended for brand owners to file reports regarding their own ASINs. For example, if another person has listed a counterfeit product on an ASIN “owned” by that brand owner. In this case, brand owners were using the Brand Registry to file complaints about other ASINs in which they had no ownership or interest.
It’s one thing to file a complaint. It’s another matter completely to file dozens of complaints in a matter of days. Amazon considers that abusive behavior. Abuse of Brand Registry.
There already exists a “report a violation” feature in the “contact us” section of Seller Central. This is where sellers should file reports against competitors who are not following the rules.

The moral of the story? If you’re fortunate enough to have a Brand Registry account, make every complaint a valid and true one. Just because your competitors are bad actors does not mean you will get away with aggressively reporting them.

Riverbend Consulting navigates online retail. Get your Amazon account reinstated, sell with confidence, and increase your bottom line. Contact us.

Author

Lesley Hensell

Lesley is co-founder and co-owner of Riverbend Consulting, where she oversees the firm’s client services team. She has personally helped hundreds of third-party sellers get their accounts and ASINs back up and running. Lesley leverages two decades as a small business consultant to advise clients on profitability and operational performance. She has been an Amazon seller for almost a decade, thanks to her boys (21 and 15) who do most of the heavy lifting.