The other side of IP complaints against Amazon sellers
Oct 28, 2019
Many brands are clueless about the damage they do with IP complaints and fake claims
Anatomy of a lawsuit
The seller fights back
- Tortious interference. Essentially, this claim asserts that the brand owner wrongly and intentionally interfered in the business relationship between Amazon and Acme.
- Slander. By stating that Acme was selling counterfeit merchandise, the brand owner slandered the company as a lawbreaker and someone whom nobody should engage in business with.
Amazon’s culpability
- Brands trying to control distribution lie about IP violations
- Brands concerned about product quality report all sellers on a listing instead of pinpointing bad actors
- Brands rely on lawyers or services to report “bad actor” sellers on their listings, which often results in authorized sellers being reported as well
- Brands don’t recognize storefront names of their authorized sellers and report them
- Brands don’t bother conducting test buys and just call everything “counterfeit”
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 (19 and 13) who do most of the heavy lifting.