Since October last year, Amazon has been updating its "AHR Repeat Violation" policy. If multiple violations are not rectified, the account will face the risk of suspension or even closure. It is recommended to first review the 'Important! The severity of Amazon's' repeated violations' policy has been upgraded! Please pay attention to it!'. Today, the editor will focus on explaining the key points of appeals for repeated violations such as "intellectual property complaints" and "suspected infringement of intellectual property rights", and teach you how to effectively save yourself.

  Trademark text abuse

Analysis: Unauthorized or improper use of registered trademark text, and the products listed are not related to the abused brand.

Example: Ms. Huang sells a power bank that is compatible with Apple phones, but in order to increase sales, the seller has added Apple's trademark text on the product details page. However, in reality, the product itself does not belong to the Apple brand.

 Trademark logo abuse

Analysis: Unauthorized or improper use of registered brand trademarks or patterns, and the products listed are not related to the abused brand.

Example: Mr. Chen sells a regular thermos bottle, and the product details page includes Amazon's trademark, but the product is not actually a product under Amazon.

 Abuse of copyrighted images

Analysis: Unauthorized use of copyrighted images, and the products listed are unrelated to the brand.

Example: Ms. Li sells a product in a card folder, and the product details page contains images of Pok é mon Pet Elves (protected by copyright), but the product is not under the Pok é mon brand and has not been authorized by the copyright holder.

Important Reminder

Do not attempt to list infringing product information or infringing products by bypassing the review process when it is known that there is infringement or violation. Common examples of this include but are not limited to adding punctuation marks in the middle of the letters of a trademark. These behaviors are all intentional infringements that attempt to evade scrutiny, and Amazon considers such violations as serious violations.

Next, the editor will introduce in detail the differences and precautions of the corresponding appeal process according to the following two situations:

When the number of first-time violations or infringement violations does not reach the limit for repeated violations;

2. In the event of account suspension due to repeated violations reaching the upper limit.

ASIN level appeal: The number of first-time violations or infringement violations has not reached the limit for repeated violations

When a seller receives an ASIN level infringement notification for the first time, it not only affects individual product links, but also indicates that the seller has started accumulating repeated violations. Some sellers may feel that it's their first violation and it's okay not to appeal. But in fact, this is the best time to understand why the violation occurred, in order to avoid repeated violations of the same policy that could result in the account being suspended.

  Understand the reasons for the violation

After receiving the violation notification, the seller can confirm the reason for the product violation and the impact of the violation on the account status rating on the "Account Status" page.

After clicking on the violation, enter the "Policy Compliance" page, which will list all the specific ASINs, titles, reasons for the violation, the impact of the violation, and the appeal button for the violated products. On this page, sellers can view in detail whether the violation is repeated and the severity of the violation.

Appeals Process

After receiving a notice of infringement related violations, the seller needs to first determine whether their product actually has infringement.

As mentioned earlier, infringement issues mainly include three types: trademark text abuse, trademark logo abuse, and copyright image abuse. In this article, the editor will provide a more detailed explanation of the appeal process for copyright image abuse issues.

If it is found through investigation that there is indeed a problem of copyright image abuse in the product, the seller must delete the violating product and click "Resolve" on the policy compliance page, check the two options on the following page, and click "Submit" to complete the appeal. If the seller admits to the violation but fails to complete the appeal process, your violation will remain on the account status page for up to 180 days and continue to affect your account status rating score.

If no violations are found in the product after investigation, the seller needs to provide a detailed non infringement explanation and substantial evidence (such as an authorization letter issued by the rights owner), and submit it by clicking one of the options on the following interface. If the appeal is successful, this violation issue will not be counted as a repeat violation, which can help the seller effectively avoid the risk of account suspension.

Here, it is necessary to remind sellers that if they are found to have violated copyright image abuse regulations, Amazon will not accept sellers' appeals by replacing product images.

  If the reason for violation column shows trademark abuse violation, the appeal option may be displayed as "edit". Sellers can choose to edit the product details page and remove all trademark infringement and violation parts from the product. After the review team completes the review, the violations will be removed. Sellers can also choose to remove such violations by directly deleting the product.

Kind reminder: If the appeal process accepts the appeal method of editing product information, but the seller is unable to edit the details page. In this situation, the seller can use a template to list and download the form for modification. If the infringing information has been removed but the violation has not been removed from the account within 24 hours, please contact the account status support team for appeal support. You can refer to the "Amazon Official Compliance Help" below for more details.

  Subsequent steps

By successfully appealing, sellers can solve current violations, but in order to maintain long-term account health and avoid the risk of account suspension due to future repeated violations, Amazon recommends that sellers conduct a detailed investigation of their stores during the violation investigation stage to ensure that there are no similar violations in their accounts, in order to avoid the risk of account suspension caused by subsequent repeated violations.

  Account level appeal: Infringement and violation exceeding the limit of repeated violations

When a red banner appears on your account, it indicates that your account may face the risk of account suspension due to reaching the limit of repeated violations in the past 180 days, resulting in the account score being directly reset to zero. Sellers must resolve duplicate violation warnings in their accounts before the indicated date to avoid account suspension.

  Understand the reasons for the violation

On the account status page, the seller can see a banner labeled 'Your sales account is at risk of being suspended due to repeated violations of the same policy'. The compliance column of the policy will display 'serious violation of policy'. Please note that some sellers' banners will indicate the appeal deadline for repeated violations of their accounts, which sellers must strictly comply with.

Sellers can click on 'Serious Violation of Policy' to view the reasons for repeated violations and the dates of repeated violations.

View relevant performance notifications based on the date of violation to gain a detailed understanding of all violation records within the past 180 days, including relevant ASINs, violation types, and violation dates. The notification will also remind the seller of the appeal deadline for their account, so sellers must carefully review it.

Appeals Process

Sellers can submit appeals for repeated violations through the "Appeal" button on the "Policy Compliance" page:

1. Admit the violation

When the seller discovers a violation in the product after investigation and decides to admit the violation. Sellers can choose the options on the appeal page based on the investigation results of infringement, including the type of violation, remedial measures, reasons for the violation, and corresponding detailed measures. If the selected option requires additional proof documents to be added, they can be uploaded through the attachment area at the bottom of the page, which will more effectively help the review team understand the details of the seller's measures. The first appeal is extremely important, and it is recommended that the seller provide detailed appeal content and supporting documents. If the initial appeal is not approved, the seller needs to write a detailed written appeal and resubmit it in the form of a document.

2. Do not admit violations

If the seller finds no violations of the product after investigation, they need to click "here" on the same appeal page as shown in the figure below.

After clicking, the page will display the option for proof documents. Please select the proof documents held by the seller in the following picture and follow the prompts for further operations.

  Account status support team

If you have any questions related to the repeated violation policy, you can contact your account health specialist in real-time by clicking the "Contact Me Now" button in the upper right corner of the account status page for assistance.

Chinese service hours:

Monday to Friday: 7am to 7pm China Standard Time

Weekend: 9am to 5pm China Standard Time

Please update the emergency contact phone number in a timely manner:

When the seller's account is at risk, the Amazon account status support team will prioritize calling the seller through an emergency contact number to resolve the account issue together. To ensure that the account health specialist can contact you in a timely manner, please ensure that your seller friends have added a valid emergency contact number and completed verification.