As predicted, the California legislation will not make Seller Performance any friendlier
This summer, optimistic Amazon sellers believed there was change in the air. Amazon made changes to its Business Solutions Agreement (see our previous blog post), and the California legislature began work on a bill that purported to protect sellers from abusive online marketplaces.
Also as predicted, the California legislature’s AB-1790 has been watered down to a point that it means almost nothing. The most recent version of the bill strikes out the few provisions that I truly believed would have a positive impact for sellers. At the same time, it’s clear that someone (an Amazon lobbyist?) explained “risk management” to the legislature, as there are now provisos to protect every step of the investigation and enforcement processes in Seller Performance.
Striking out the good
One provision originally in the bill said it would “prohibit a marketplace from destroying products in its possession that are the property of a marketplace seller without offering the marketplace seller a reasonable opportunity to retrieve the marketplace seller’s property.”
That language was struck out completely, however, from the most recent version of the bill.
Why? I’m speculating. But I believe this was far too broad, as it would allow bad actors to place removal orders for counterfeit or stolen goods. The legislation refused to wade further into the devilish details by saying something like, “a reasonable opportunity to retrieve authentic, legitimate goods.” I suppose they believed it would take too much work to define “authentic” or “legitimate,” so they just abandoned the hard work altogether.
Embracing risk management
What does it all mean?
In these rare cases, the account is closed with no notice whatsoever. The seller cannot login, and there is no appeals process in place. Sometimes, we can get these accounts reinstated if the fraud designation was made in error (yes, it happens – twice in the last month at Riverbend, in fact!). But it is an extremely tough uphill battle.
Have more concerns about the California legislation? Riverbend Consulting navigates online retail. Get your Amazon account reinstated, sell with confidence, and increase your bottom line. Contact us.