Amazon takes product safety and compliance seriously. In practice, this means that Amazon takes action against non-compliant products by carrying out routine checks, implementing measures for new listings, and taking action when they receive reports.
However, Amazon is also assisted by professionals who identify non-compliant products sold on the marketplace. This can, for example, include products that are not correctly labelled.
One pioneer in this area is Florian Roth, the founder of AMZ Compliance, based in Ostfildern, Germany. In this article, Florian shares his experience in finding and reporting non-compliant products directly to Amazon – for the sake of levelling the playing field for sellers.
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How does the sale of non-compliant products harm sellers who take product safety and compliance seriously?
Being compliant requires effort in both time and money. By ignoring compliance requirements for their products, sellers gain an unfair advantage over compliant sellers by saving money and having a shorter time-to-market. Ultimately, they might even harm the consumers by offering potentially dangerous products.
How do you determine if a product on Amazon is compliant or not?
We at AMZ Compliance help to identify and remove non-compliant products from the Amazon marketplace. We do this mainly by reviewing the products regarding their markings, such as manufacturer information and other legally required information. We also cooperate with labs to identify the use of non-compliant materials, if necessary.
What actions do you take when you have identified a non-compliant product?
We have a direct contact into the Amazon legal department that is mainly used by lawyers and Authorities. We document the product violations and report this directly via our contact. This way, we bypass time-consuming and often effortless communication with the regular Amazon seller support.
Sellers often try to reach out to Amazon’s customer service regarding compliance violations of their competitors, but in many cases, this turns out ineffective. By acting directly, their reports can be traced back and they might face legal consequences if their reports are not valid.
Does this process differ depending on whether I am selling on Amazon in the US or Europe?
Yes. This currently works in the EU marketplaces only, using the “notice and takedown” procedure that the European Union established. Amazon does not have to check all listed products for compliance. However, if they are noticed about violations, they have to act if they do not want to become responsible for the violations that the seller commits.
We have not established a process that allows us to report products in the US yet, there is no similar procedure known to us. Also, our know-how lies in EU regulations.
What kind of action does Amazon take when they receive a report?
It depends on the product category and the type of violation found. Amazon either starts an investigation and requests compliance information from the seller. If this is not provided within a short time frame, Amazon takes the product offline. In more severe cases, Amazon suppresses a product immediately and forces the seller to start a reinstatement process.
What steps can I take if one of my products is removed by Amazon?
Keep an eye on your Amazon messages. Do not miss any information request by Amazon and keep all compliance information regarding your products stored. This way, you can prevent a takedown from happening.
Once your product is taken down, you need to take action as Amazon requires. Sometimes you only need to change listing information.
If the violation regards the product itself, you need to remove your complete FBA stock, fix the issue and start a reinstatement process by providing proof of compliance to Amazon.
Is there not a risk that compliance reporting can be abused to take down listings from legit sellers?
When a product is taken down while being compliant, the seller can reinstate it by providing proof of compliance without being forced to remove the FBA stock.
By using manipulated proof to enforce a compliance takedown, the issuer of the report risks legal consequences since he is fully responsible for non-legitimate takedowns. There are lawyers that assist in identifying the issuer and enforce compensation for the takedown.
Would you say that Amazon has become more strict in recent years regarding compliance checks?
Indeed. The regulation itself gets stricter and so is the enforcement by Amazon, since Amazon wants to avoid becoming responsible for non-compliant products on its platform.
This concerns product compliance, but also violations against Amazon’s Terms of Service are enforced stricter than before.
Do you think that Amazon sellers take product compliance more or less seriously now?
It depends on the category, but in general, I see an improvement in seller compliance over the years. It is not easy to keep track of all compliance updates if you are all on your own though, so even when sellers make an effort to reach compliance there is always a risk that they miss some detail or an update.
What kind of services does AMZ Compliance offer?
At AMZ Compliance we specialise in identifying and reporting non-compliant products on the EU marketplaces of Amazon. This way, we turn your investment in compliance into an advantage. If a product is removed, many sellers see an instant gain in visibility and revenue while reducing advertising costs due to less competition.
All information regarding our service and possibilities to reach out to us can be found at www.amz-compliance.com.
