Amazon bans over 600 China brands from the platform
After Amazon blocked over 600 Chinese companies and thus over 3,000 Chinese seller accounts for violations of terms of use some time ago, they are responding. Several Chinese companies such as Deyixun, Angelbliss, Tudi, Sopownic or Cstech are suing Amazon in a class action lawsuit. The accusation: The company is withholding outstanding payments to the companies! In some cases, the amounts involved are in the six-digit range.
It is interesting that Amazon can argue with its own terms of use, which allow them not to have to pay out these amounts because the Chinese companies have violated the terms of the marketplace. While the merchants in question do not deny violating them, they argue that Amazon tolerated these practices because they were responsible for shipping and packaging. In doing so, they must have seen the sellers include voucher cards for reviews in the box, for example.
How do you see this? Is Amazon clearly in the right here?
After some China brands like Aukey, POWERADD or TaoTronics have not been listed on Amazon for quite some time, it has now become known that this was just the beginning. According to the South China Morning Post, they have removed over 600 China brands from the platform! What happens next?
What happened?
Amazon surprisingly removed the Chinese brand Aukey from the platform as early as May 2021, followed by the ban of several manufacturers like POWERADD, Mpow or Choetech. Why was not communicated at first, the explanation on the part of Amazon was only given after the ban of RAVPower. The accusation: The Chinese manufacturers had violated the Amazon guidelines several times. The main issue was the handling of fake reviews, as the brands probably offered customers a voucher or a free product in return for a positive review. This received greater attention, especially through a report in the Wall Street Journal.
Now Amazon has announced that they have permanently blocked over 3,000 Chinese seller accounts from a total of over 600 different Chinese brands. This started in May 2021, Aukey was one of the first “victims” of this clean-up action on the part of Amazon. The market leader in online mail order continues to justify the decision with the fact that these companies are said to have deliberately and repeatedly violated the Amazon guidelines. According to the vice president of Amazon Asia, this is not supposed to be about deliberately acting against China or Chinese companies, after all, it did not negatively affect the growth of Chinese online sales on Amazon.
Where do we go from here?
In addition to the aforementioned examples, we were particularly struck by the disappearance of a few smaller manufacturers, such as JellyComb, but even we would not have expected a number of over 3,000 sellers. However, the vendors find a way to continue selling their products on Amazon and we have also posted some such deals on our website. For example, you can find RAVPower under “iSmart” or POWERADD under “EnergyCell”, Aukey even uses different seller names.
As a rule, a violation of the guidelines always belongs to be sanctioned, after all, you consciously accept these rules. However, it is annoying, after all, many of the manufacturers deliver good products that deserve good reviews even without fake reviews. The question is how to proceed with the manufacturers. A “permanent ban” doesn’t sound like the manufacturers will get another chance from Amazon. What do you think of Amazon’s approach?
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