Last year, Amazon's banning wave attracted many Chinese sellers, and tens of thousands of Chinese sellers were affected, causing industry losses of more than 100 billion yuan.

Recently, a big seller in Dongguan successfully fought back! Won an arbitration case with Amazon to get back all the money that the store was blocked from.

1. A big seller in Dongguan successfully recovered the frozen funds, but Amazon lost the lawsuit!

It is understood that the store of the big seller was banned by Amazon last year, and all the funds of the store were frozen, so the big seller hired a team of lawyers to apply for arbitration.

At present, the arbitration in the US court has ended. The result of the arbitration is that the second clause of the Amazon agreement to freeze the seller's funds is invalid . Amazon not only needs to unblock all the frozen funds of the seller, but also needs to compensate him for 12% of the interest.

This is undoubtedly exciting news! It brings hope of unblocking to many sellers whose stores have been blocked.

As long as Amazon sellers do not touch the red line of the platform, they can apply for arbitration. In March of this year, some sellers in Shenzhen successfully appealed and unlocked the frozen funds of the store .

It is reported that the seller's store was blocked in the wave of bans last year, and all the funds of the store were frozen at that time.

Amazon stipulates in the sealed email that if the seller wants to appeal, he must wait 90 days to submit the appeal material. The seller submitted the complaint materials within the specified time, but Amazon did not unblock it. To get back the blocked funds, the seller insisted on an appeal and went through emergency procedures with the help of a lawyer. Finally, in March of this year, a U.S. court ruled that Amazon’s terms of freezing seller funds were invalid, and Amazon also needed to pay all arbitration and other costs.

At present, among the appeal cases concerning the tide of Amazon bans , 6 cases have been won in the world , and 4 cases have been won in China . This undoubtedly gives great confidence to the banned sellers, and more sellers will choose to use legal means to safeguard their legitimate rights and interests.

Second, the big sale suffered heavy losses, and a large number of sellers sued Amazon collectively!

Last year's title wave spread widely. At the beginning of May 2021, Aoji, Patosun, Zebao and many other brands under the banner of South China's biggest sellers were banned. In June, the brand accounts of many top sellers were blocked one after another, and a large number of products were removed from the shelves.

According to statistics, as of the end of 2021, Zebao had a total of 367 sites whose sales had been suspended by the Amazon platform, and the balance of the frozen funds was equivalent to about RMB 32.2492 million. The revenue of the Amazon platform decreased by 55.76% year-on-year.

A total of nearly 340 sites of Shenzhen Big Sale Youkeshu were blocked, and the frozen funds reached 130 million yuan.

Not only did the big sales suffer heavy losses, but a considerable number of small and medium-sized sellers were not spared from this wave of titles.

So, in July 2021, a group of sellers in Shenzhen decided to join forces and initiate a class action lawsuit against Amazon.

According to the complaint, these sellers demanded that the funds frozen by Amazon be retrieved, and all Amazon’s illegal freezing and improper use of seller funds should be stopped, and Amazon should be compensated for related costs and attorney fees.

It is understood that some sellers have successfully reached a settlement with Amazon and can get back most of the frozen funds. Although this is not a true victory for the seller, being able to get back some of the frozen funds is also a victory for the seller to a certain extent, which is of great significance to the seller who will sue later.

3. How can sellers avoid account closure?

Most sellers still have lingering fears about the wave of bans last year. At the beginning of June this year, more than 40 sellers were banned overnight .

On the eve of Prime Day this year , a large number of seller accounts were unfortunately recruited, and even 16 accounts were blocked overnight.

Recently, Amazon has upgraded the seller account rating function, and a large number of sellers have been blocked due to low ratings.

Amazon’s account ban is still ongoing. Amazon sellers must avoid the red line of the platform, abide by the platform’s rules, and understand the reason for the account ban.

The Amazon platform account is blocked mainly for the following reasons:

1. There is a behavior of brushing orders in the store

Many banned sellers ask for positive reviews by issuing gift cards to consumers, and at the same time, there are still swiping behaviors, which are serious violations of the platform's regulations.

2. There is a problem with the store product itself

For example, the quality of the product is not up to standard, and it does not match the product description. After receiving the product, the consumer will complain to the store if it does not meet the expectations. If the number of complaints is too many, the seller will receive a warning from the platform, which will directly lead to a ban.

3. Accounts are associated

Amazon clearly stipulates that a person or a company can only have one Amazon account , and multi-account operation is prohibited. The platform often detects whether the seller's account is associated by obtaining the seller's related account information, product information, trademark association, hardware conditions and software conditions. Once any information is detected by Amazon, the seller's account will be closed.

In early June and on the eve of Prime Day, part of the reason why a large number of seller accounts were blocked was related to brand association and account association.

4. Product infringement

The international market attaches great importance to the protection of intellectual products. Once any of the product's appearance, trademark, pictures, etc. is infringed, it will be immediately requested to be taken off the shelf, and in serious cases, the store will be blocked directly . Therefore, sellers must understand the specific situation of their copyrights, trademarks and patents before the products are put on the shelves to avoid infringement.

5. Poor store performance

Amazon has formulated performance indicators for third-party sellers , and requires sellers to operate their stores well according to the requirements of the indicators. If the seller's performance is too poor, it may also lead to the closure of the store.

6. The account has a violation record

If the seller has too many account violation records, it may lead to account suspension.

Recently, Amazon updated its seller account rating feature to display the account status rating score on a number from 0 to 1,000 , through which sellers can clearly see the severity of each violation . At present , the accounts of a large number of sellers have been blocked, and the number of violation records involved by the blocked sellers ranges from 1 or 2 to as many as 30 or 100. Therefore, Amazon sellers should pay more attention to the score of the account rating on a daily basis, and deal with violations in a timely manner to avoid the account being affected.

All in all, Amazon sellers must not challenge the rules of the platform for temporary interests, improve their awareness of compliance operations , and at the same time carefully study products, improve operational skills, and always pay attention to the update of new Amazon platform account functions .

At the same time, sellers cannot rely too much on the experience of a single platform such as Amazon, and eggs cannot be placed in one basket at the same time. It is necessary to establish a multi-platform and multi-market business awareness . It should also be noted that sellers can focus more on optimizing the supply chain, enhancing the core competitiveness of their products, and building an influential brand.