IP and inauthentic complaints on Amazon: what resellers should do first

Getting a complaint on a product you know is genuine feels unfair, and sometimes it is. Amazon doesn't decide these on how sure you feel, though. It decides them on what you can show. This guide is for wholesale and arbitrage sellers who buy real, brand-name goods, and it runs in the order you'll need it: what kind of complaint you have, what to do first, the paperwork, retractions, lawyers, and the checks that make the next one less likely.

Amazon's rules here come from its own US pages, listed in Sources: Amazon staff posts on the US Seller Forums, and Seller Central help pages that need a sign-in and whose current wording nobody signed in has rechecked for this page. The notice in your account always comes first. This is general information, not legal advice.

The kinds of complaint

Complaints about intellectual property and authenticity show up on the Account Health page in Seller Central, under Policy Compliance. Two Amazon staff posts on the US Seller Forums, from Topher_Amazon and Kris_Amazon, give the path for rights owners' complaints: Performance, then Account Health, then Policy Compliance, then Received Intellectual Property Complaints. Each one also comes with a Performance Notification, the message in Seller Central that sets out the complaint.

An Amazon moderator's guide to common violations splits IP complaints in two. Suspected complaints are usually generated by Amazon's systems and typically need an edit to remove infringing content from the listing. Received complaints come from a rights owner about a particular listing, and the way to answer depends on the reason given. The guide lists the common reasons as counterfeit, counterfeit without a test buy, trademark, copyright and patent. It puts buyer complaints in a separate group, under authenticity: product authenticity customer complaints, product condition customer complaints, and food and safety issues.

How much they weigh

Our account health guide covers the scoring in full. Two points matter most here. Amazon's Account Health Rating policy rates a rights owner's valid notice of infringement, and a customer's report of a counterfeit product, as high severity, and a counterfeit finding from Amazon's own test buy as critical: the score drops to zero and you have three days to respond. And Amazon's Account Health Rating FAQ caps repeats: five infringement-related violations within 180 days is the limit, and reaching it creates a critical violation of its own. A complaint you let sit is never just one complaint.

Why genuine goods still draw them

A reseller can do everything right and still get a complaint. A brand may report sellers it hasn't authorized, a buyer may mistake a packaging change for a fake, or an old listing may carry a photo the brand owns. The moderator's guide is blunt about what Amazon wants back: to answer an IP complaint you need to show you were authorized to sell the product, and to answer an authenticity complaint, that the item is authentic and matches its detail page. That's why the rest of this guide is about documents.

What to do first

The first hour sets up everything after it. Go in this order.

1. Read the whole notice and save a copy

   Open the complaint in Account Health and its Performance Notification. Write down the complaint ID, every ASIN, the type of claim (trademark, copyright, patent, counterfeit or a customer complaint), whether it's about the product or the listing, and the rights owner's name and contact details, if the notice gives them. Save the notice as a PDF. Every later step depends on reading it correctly.

2. Don't delete the listing or relist the product

   Amazon's Account Health Rating FAQ says closing or deleting a listing does not remove a violation. Don't put the product up on a new detail page either: Amazon's seller code of conduct counts a second detail page for a product that already has one as misleading. Hold off on buying more of that brand, and on sending more units of that ASIN, until you know where you stand.

3. Pull every document for that ASIN

   Find every purchase order and supplier invoice for the ASIN dated within the 365 days before the notice, the proof of payment for each, and your units sold and in stock over the same period. If the claim is about the listing, take screenshots of the title, bullets and images as they are now.

4. Choose your path

   Amazon's staff posts describe three routes. Ask the rights owner for a retraction, when you're authorized or believe the complaint was a mistake. Dispute it with documents: a letter of authorization or licensing agreement from the rights owner, or invoices from the last 365 days. Or acknowledge it, when the listing really did infringe. Topher_Amazon's post says to acknowledge with a plan of action: the root cause, what you've corrected and how you'll prevent it. Kris_Amazon's post says acknowledging won't reinstate the listing, but it resolves the complaint without further Account Health impact, and the violation stays on the account for 180 days. For a claim about the listing's content, fix the content first.

5. Answer in Account Health, not by email

   Submit from the complaint itself: find the ASIN under Received Intellectual Property Complaints and click Submit Appeal. Amazon's invoice rules say invoices go through Seller Central, never by email. If you're unsure which route fits, Kris_Amazon's post suggests requesting a call from an Account Health specialist from the same page.

If your whole account has been deactivated rather than one listing, the work becomes a plan of action for the whole account, and our Section 3 guide explains the notice behind it. Our suspension guide walks through writing the plan.

Inauthentic complaints on genuine goods: the documents that trace to the manufacturer

An authenticity complaint is answered with a paper trail, not an argument. Amazon's anti-counterfeiting policy makes those papers your job.

For most complaints, your supplier's invoice is the core of the answer. A sourcing request can go further. Amazon's Responsible Sourcing documentation page says your documents should trace the products back to the original manufacturer even when you didn't buy from the manufacturer, with contact details for your suppliers and the manufacturer, whom Amazon may contact. For a wholesale buyer, that means your distributor may need to show where its stock came from. Amazon's own guide to finding wholesalers says branded products should come directly from the brand or from its direct distributors or wholesalers, and suggests checking a supplier's relationship with the brand through its business license and brand authorization letter.

Think of it as a chain with a document at every link:

If you bought the units on Amazon itself, Amazon's IP policy accepts an Amazon order ID in place of an invoice for a claim about the product. A receipt from a retail store is a weaker document: it usually doesn't show your business name and address, which Amazon's staff say an appeal invoice should (more on that below).

Keep the trail where you can find it

The documents only help if you can produce them inside a deadline. In Apex University's walkthrough of the software, filmed on an earlier version of the app, Stef, who teaches the course, attaches each supplier's invoice to its purchase order in Apex Blue once the order is paid and submitted. From Stef's lesson (walkthrough, at 19:30):

"So if at any point Amazon reaches out to you with a product authenticity claim, all we have to do is search the ASIN."

The search brings up which supplier the units came from, with the invoice. In the same breath he adds the part software can't do for you: buy from suppliers whose goods are authentic in the first place. Apex can hold the paperwork, as the lesson shows, but it doesn't tell you whether a brand files complaints against resellers. That check is yours (see the checklist below). For the full list of what to file from every order, use the records checklist in our account health guide.

Why the invoice must match the product and quantity

An appeal can fail with genuine stock and a real invoice, when the invoice doesn't answer the question Amazon asked. Amazon's page on invoice requirements for appealing a policy violation asks for an invoice that:

• is issued by your supplier for a completed and fulfilled transaction, with the supplier's name, phone number, address and website;
• is dated within the 365 days before you received the notification;
• covers enough units to account for your sales and in-stock inventory of each ASIN in the notification over the past 365 days;
• identifies the products clearly, with product names, model numbers or UPC, EAN or ISBN codes, the variation details (version, color or style) that match your listing, and every component of a bundle.

Kris_Amazon's staff post adds the details that catch resellers: the address and business name must match your Seller Central account, the supplier must be verifiable by phone and website, and the ASIN must be clearly identifiable. The post says you can mark the ASIN on the invoice by hand if needed. Better still, get invoices that identify the product without any marking (more on that below), and never change anything the supplier printed: the anti-counterfeiting policy above allows removing prices and no other edits.

Here is a made-up example of the quantity rule. Say you've sold 220 units of a hand soap in the past year and have 60 more at Amazon, 280 in all. Your invoices from inside the window show two orders of 96 units, 192 in total, because your first order was 14 months ago. The invoices are real and the soap is genuine, but they don't cover 88 of the units Amazon is asking about. This is why the invoice from every reorder matters, not only the first one.

The match has to hold on the product too. If your listing is the 12-ounce bottle and the invoice says 8 ounces, or your listing is a 3-pack and the invoice shows single units with no note of how you bundled them, the invoice doesn't prove what you sold. If a distributor's invoices show only its own item codes, ask whether it can print UPCs or model numbers, or keep its price list that maps its codes to UPCs.

The same rules decide whether an invoice gets you approved in the first place, which our guide to ungating invoice requirements covers. An invoice that's right for approval is a good start, but an authenticity answer also has to cover the quantity you've sold since.

Retractions: only the rights owner can retract

A retraction is the cleanest ending. Kris_Amazon's staff post calls it the best outcome. The rights owner submits it through Amazon's Notice Retraction Form or through Brand Registry, and once Amazon receives it, the listing may be reinstated. Topher_Amazon's post adds that the violation is removed, and Amazon's Account Health Rating FAQ lists a retraction among the ways a violation comes off the page.

Only the rights owner can retract. A retraction you write yourself, or one you forward from someone else, does nothing. Your job is to ask.

How to ask. Topher_Amazon's post says the rights owner's contact details are in the Performance Notification. Keep the message short and in writing:

• the complaint ID and the ASINs;
• your business name and your storefront name;
• where you bought the units, and that you can share the invoices;
• a plain request to retract the complaint if they agree it was made in error.

Leave out threats and accusations. Don't promise anything in writing, such as to stop selling the brand, until you've decided you mean it.

So don't let a request to the brand be your only move. If the brand goes quiet, your documents still have to do the work.

When to bring in a lawyer

Plenty of sellers answer a single complaint themselves, especially a customer authenticity complaint with clean invoices. Bring in a lawyer who handles intellectual property or marketplace matters when:

• The claim is copyright and you believe it's wrong. The formal route is a counter-notice under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The law requires it to include a statement made under penalty of perjury and your consent to a federal court's jurisdiction. That's not a form to fill in on a hunch.
• The claim is a patent. Patent questions are technical, so a patent claim deserves a professional read, all the more so against a genuine branded product.
• The brand's lawyers contact you directly, with a cease-and-desist letter, a demand for money or a threat to sue. That's outside Amazon's process.
• A brand offers an agreement in exchange for a retraction. Read what you'd be signing, especially anything about future sales or your remaining stock.
• The complainant doesn't seem to own the mark. You can look up who owns a US trademark in the USPTO's trademark search. A trademark owner can authorize a third party to report suspected IP violations on its behalf, through Brand Registry's Registered Agent role, so a different name isn't proof of a problem. What to do about a complaint you think is an abuse of Amazon's process is a question for a lawyer.
• Complaints are piling up, your account has been deactivated, or Amazon is holding funds.

Be wary of anyone who promises a result. Amazon makes the decision. Our suspension appeal guide covers what to watch for when you hire help.

Before you buy a new brand

Every complaint above is easier to prevent than to answer. Most of the prevention is a few questions asked before the first purchase order, while walking away still costs nothing.

Some of it comes down to how Amazon's catalog works. If the brand is enrolled in Brand Registry, Amazon's own guide to creating a new ASIN says you need to be a Brand Representative or Reseller authorized by the brand to list it through Amazon's standard process for a new product. The same guide notes that a reseller's product is often already in the catalog, and then you match your offer to the existing ASIN, after any brand or category approval it needs.

Photos and text copied from the brand's website onto a listing invite the copyright complaint in the table above.

And an enrolled brand doesn't have to wait for a buyer to complain: Amazon's guide to Brand Registry roles describes its Report a Violation tool, which brands use to report IP infringement and other policy concerns.

Some products are also enrolled in Transparency. Amazon's Transparency page says every unit of an enrolled product needs a valid Transparency code, units without one fail the check, and fully protected products can't be listed without valid codes. If the product carries Transparency codes, every unit you buy has to come with them.

The rest you check with your supplier and the brand. This is our checklist, not a list Amazon publishes.

The question about Amazon resale fits naturally into your first emails with a distributor, and our distributor email templates include a way to ask it and a reply for when they ask you. If a supplier can't answer the questions about where its stock comes from, that's your answer. If you buy a brand through an authorized reseller arrangement, our guide to the letter of authorization explains what proof of that looks like and what it doesn't do. For the wider list of listings that tend to cause trouble for wholesale buyers, from hazmat to brands that file complaints, see our guide to products to avoid in Amazon wholesale.

A note on the first sale doctrine

In US law, the first sale doctrine generally lets you resell a genuine product you bought without the brand's permission, but it stops at altered or materially different goods, and it doesn't cancel a no-resale agreement you signed. It's a defense rather than a shield, so it doesn't stop a brand from complaining to Amazon, and our guide to whether reselling on Amazon is legal explains where it stops in plain words.