These goods have been “disposed of” by third-party sellers, or by Amazon at the direction of Seller Performance and Vendor Performance. Amazon allows several companies – including its wholly owned subsidiary Woot! – to piece together lots of inventory. If Amazon Warehouse Deals doesn’t want the “fake” inventory, it most often goes into liquidation lots sold out of the Amazon warehouses.
Liquidation spreads the problem far and wide And then, it popped up as an Amazon Warehouse Deal. What happened after the client won his appeal? Amazon claimed it had destroyed the inventory. Unfortunately, by the time he hired Riverbend, Amazon had already seized $180,000 worth of his ASIN. The seller came to us for help, and we helped win the appeal. He was accused of an IP violation on his own trademarked, private-label item. Here’s a great example from one of our own clients. At what point does this become both theft from the seller and/or fraudulent behavior on the part of Amazon? It certainly shows cognitive dissonance and corporate schizophrenia. Yet Amazon seizes them and sells them on its own 3P account. After all, Amazon’s own in-house risk management team decided the goods could not be confirmed as authentic. Rather, they put it up for sale on their Amazon Warehouse Deals account. They tell the seller no dice, you cannot sell that ASIN again, and we are going to dispose of it.īut then, Amazon does not dispose of the item. For whatever reason, Amazon will no accept the invoices. The seller submits the invoices – real ones – to Amazon. Amazon suspends the seller’s ASIN and asks for proof that the products are authentic – in the form of invoices. A buyer says that the perfume doesn’t “smell like she remembered this brand smelling” and complains that the item must be inauthentic. Imagine a third-party seller is listing perfume for sale. This is a legal requirement that is likely followed to the letter.īut then there are the rest of the goods. In cases of counterfeit (or accused counterfeit) goods, Amazon destroys the goods. Then, the company refuses to return inventory if it has been characterized as counterfeit, an intellectual property violation, or inauthentic.īut what happens to the goods then? To dispose or not dispose In essence, Amazon either suspends their products (ASINs) or even their selling accounts. This shocking strategy reasonably upsets veteran Amazon 3P sellers.
In similar fashion, third-party sellers who purchase liquidation lots from Amazon’s warehouses are buying stock fraught with authenticity and IP problems. Is Amazon liquidation safe? Unsuspecting members of the public are buying goods Amazon labeled as “inauthentic” or in violation of a brand’s intellectual property (IP). Does Amazon really believe 3P sellers offered bad products, or is it trying to make a quick buck?