As a seller on Amazon, one of the hardest challenges you may face is unauthorized sellers. These are typically selling fake or unauthorized products on your brand’s account. While quick measures such as utilizing Amazon’s tools might be immediately necessary, a long-term proactive plan that consistently protects your listings is the key to effective brand protection. In this guide, we’ll show you how to remove unauthorized sellers on Amazon, protect your brand, and get assurance that only authorized partners are selling your products.
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How to Remove Unauthorized Sellers on Amazon
Why Unauthorized Sellers Are a Problem
Unauthorized sellers on Amazon pose a threat for brands and authorized sellers alike. Such sellers usually sell without the permission of the brand owner and end up selling spurious or substandard products. These sellers do damage not just to your brand’s reputation, but also interfere with the pricing model, especially by breaching Minimum Advertised Price (MAP) agreements.
Unauthorized listings frequently lead to suboptimal customer experience because the consumer receives a substandard product. The repercussions of such instances are far-reaching as they extend to harm the reputation of your brand, customer loyalty, and bottom line.
Steps for Getting Unauthorized Sellers Removed on Amazon
Parallel importing isn’t a one-size-fits-all operation. Different players engage in this practice for various reasons. Here are the main types of parallel importers:
1. Register Your Brand with Amazon Brand Registry
The first step in protecting your brand from unauthorized sellers is registering with Amazon’s Brand Registry. By doing so, you gain access to a suite of tools to help you protect your intellectual property. With Brand Registry, Amazon allows you to report violations, giving you the power to identify and remove unauthorized sellers quickly. Learn more about how to register your brand on Amazon through the Brand Registry.
2. Monitor Your Listings
Regularly monitor your Amazon listings to detect unauthorized sellers early. Tools like Keepa can be used to track pricing history, inventory changes, and product availability. Keep an eye out for changes in your product’s listing, as this is often where unauthorized sellers make their move.
(You can incorporate graphs from Keepa that show the price and stock trends over time. This will help demonstrate the fluctuations that occur when unauthorized sellers enter the market.)
3. Enforce MAP Policies
A strong MAP (Minimum Advertised Price) policy is a critical tool for maintaining your brand’s pricing integrity on Amazon. Unauthorized sellers often violate MAP agreements, offering products at lower prices to win the Buy Box unfairly. By enforcing your MAP policy, you can ensure that only authorized sellers are able to sell your products at competitive prices.
Amazon provides several ways to enforce MAP, including reporting violations to the platform. You can also request that unauthorized sellers be removed by submitting the necessary documentation through Amazon’s infringement reporting process. For more on handling MAP violations, check out our detailed guide on how to deal with MAP violations and MAP violators.
4. Report Unauthorized Sellers to Amazon
Once you’ve identified unauthorized sellers, report them to Amazon through the ‘Report a Violation’ tool on your Brand Registry dashboard. Be prepared to provide evidence that the seller is unauthorized, such as proof of your reseller agreements and product authenticity. Amazon typically responds to these reports swiftly, removing the offending sellers from your listings.
Proactive vs. Reactive Enforcement: A Strategic Approach
Others rely on the model of reacting by addressing the problem once the unauthorized sellers have already established themselves within the market. That involves complaints or take-downs of a fraudulent basis and short-term gains at the expense of medium- and long-term viability since the unauthorized sellers find new ways of getting into the market.
We have a proactive approach at Brand Alignment that gets ahead of the problem before the unauthorized sellers are even able to list. Our process provides long-term protection by keeping listings and brand reputation under your control where they are consistent and sustainable.
On the chart below you’ll see the difference that’s created by making the shift from reactive enforcement (which encompasses complaints and misleading takedowns) over to proactive enforcement. The orange line shows where the results begin improving as soon as the brand made the switch over to working with Brand Alignment. As you can tell by looking at the chart, proactive enforcement creates consistent, sustained gains on possession of the Buy Box and brand protection.
To better understand the difference between enforcing mechanisms that are proactive and enforcing mechanisms that are reactive, read our article on Reactive vs. Proactive Enforcement.
5. Remove Unauthorized Listings with Amazon's Takedown Program
Amazon offers a Takedown Program that allows brand owners to remove unauthorized listings. By submitting a Notice of Infringement (NOI), you can have counterfeit or unauthorized products removed from the marketplace. This process is faster when you have a registered trademark and are enrolled in the Brand Registry. If this is part of a larger, proactive enforcement strategy, the Takedown Program can be a powerful tool for protecting your brand.
If you encounter any issues, it might be helpful to consult with a brand protection service like Brand Alignment, which specializes in handling unauthorized seller and infringement cases.
6. Use Amazon's Buy Box Recovery Program
The Buy Box is a key element of Amazon’s marketplace, and unauthorized sellers often hijack it to offer discounted or counterfeit products. If an unauthorized seller is suppressing your product from the Buy Box, it’s essential to take quick action.
Brand Alignment’s Buy Box Recovery Program can help restore your rightful position and ensure that only authorized resellers are winning the Buy Box.
What to Do If Unauthorized Sellers Are Not Removed Quickly
While reporting unauthorized sellers is essential, a proactive plan is the solution to long-term protection. By having a broad brand protection plan in place, you are able to keep unauthorized sellers away from getting into your listings altogether. When there are sellers who get past the cracks anyway, then partner with a brand protection service that specializes in going about monitoring, enforcement, and intervention as early as possible. Not only do they take away unauthorized sellers more effectively, but they leave you at the helm of the presence of your brand on Amazon.
The Power of Proactive Brand Protection
Proactive protection when dealing with unauthorized sellers on Amazon means consistently monitoring accounts for potential violations as they happen. Enforcing MAP pricing as a policy and the use of the multiple tools of enforcement available on Amazon are both parts of a continuous, proactive effort that forestalls repeat offense. Perhaps the most effective and surefire means of addressing unauthorized sellers would be the utilization of a professional brand protection service.
Watch this interview with the CEO and COO of Brand Alignment to gain deeper insights into how businesses can fight back against unauthorized sellers on Amazon.
Conclusion
Combating unauthorized sellers on Amazon is a key aspect of brand protection. Registering your brand under Brand Registry, keeping a close eye on listings, enforcing MAP discipline, and making use of Amazon’s multiple tools of enforcement will keep you one step ahead of the game and keep listings under your control. For long-term success and continued protection, a proactive method of operation needs to be adopted. If assistance is required, specialized services are provided by Brand Alignment to safeguard intellectual property and keep unauthorized sellers away. Don’t delay—act today and protect your brand and sales.
Act now to remove unauthorized sellers from your Amazon listings
Don’t wait for the damage to accumulate. Reach out to Brand Alignment today and let us help you safeguard your brand with expert protection services.
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