I started selling on Amazon a couple of months ago and I was importing camping gear such as flashlights and solar chargers for iPhones and iPads etc.
One day I received an email saying that my Amazon account had been suspended because of some IP infringement.
I got really confused because I wasn’t selling any branded goods and so I just couldn’t understand how I was infringing on someone else’s IP.
At first I thought that maybe some competitor tried to shut me down because they didn’t like the fact I was selling the products at a very competitive price. However, it turned out that a third-party had made an IP infringement claim on some of those items I was selling on Amazon. I also started to understand that there is a huge difference between IP infringement and inauthentic goods suspension.
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If your account is suspended because of inauthentic goods it means that you are selling something like a cheap iPhone knock off charger. Having your account suspended for IP infringement, however, means that someone’s patent rights had been violated when someone else designed a product. It is important to understand that even if the price does not look similar to the original it can still be considered an infringement on someone else’s IP.
The issue working with the Chinese suppliers is that actually everyone is always very close to infringing on someone’s IP. It is also because of China that now everyone has a very different attitude towards protecting intellectual property. When I purchased those goods from my supplier I trusted that the company I was buying from owned the intellectual rights for that product.
I understand that I made a mistake by selling something that may have been infringing someone’s IP, however I believe that I still deserved a warning from Amazon before they suspended my account.
Having made a decent amount of money over the last couple of months from selling on Amazon, I decided that I wanted to appeal that decision of suspension.
So I sent off my first letter of appeal and I got some pre-written reply that they were not willing to reinstate my account. I tried to appeal a second time and this time I was basically told not to contact Amazon anymore in the future.
I was so frustrated by having lost my business, I decided to open a new Amazon seller account. It took only a couple of hours until the new account was suspended for the ‘multiple accounts’ reason. Amazon seems to use a very sophisticated algorithm to link and suspend accounts. I will not give up easily and let someone destroy my business like that. I believe that Amazon has gotten too much power and they have started building a monopoly in e-commerce.
We have anti-monopoly laws in place because having one company controlling an entire sector can lead to higher prices and poor customer service.
What really infuriated me is that Amazon has not given me a chance to learn from my mistakes or any warning before suspending my account.
If your Amazon seller account has been suspended please leave a comment below and share your story with us.