Hello, Your Amazon.com Seller Account has been deactivated in accordance with section 3 of Amazon’s Business Solution Agreement(BSA). Whether your a veteran seller or new to the Amazon platform, since the release of Amazon’s updated BSA, this has been one of the more ambiguous notices a Amazon Seller will receive.
The Amazon BSA sets the terms and conditions each Seller must agree to in order to operate on the Amazon platform. In short if you are selling on Amazon you have already agreed to these conditions. If your not familiar with Amazon’s BSA we have provided a link below for the agreement in full.
For the first time we started seeing Amazon reference section 3 when suspending seller accounts. Leaving many sellers to wonder, what is going on, what does this mean and how does this affect the appeal process? Has section 3 changed the appeal process or is Amazon just reinforcing its ability to remove sellers from the platform at a moments notice? Let’s take a look at Section 3 of Amazon’s BSA to find out.
Section 3 of Amazon’s Business Solution Agreement
Section 3 of Amazon’s Business Solution Agreement reads as follows:
“The term of this Agreement will start on the date of your completed registration for use of a Service and continue until terminated by us or you as provided below. You may at any time terminate your use of any Service immediately on notice to us via Seller Central, email, the Contact Us form, or similar means. We may terminate your use of any Services or terminate this Agreement for convenience with 30 days’ advance notice. We may suspend or terminate your use of any Services immediately if we determine that (a) you have materially breached the Agreement and failed to cure within 7 days of a cure notice unless your breach exposes us to liability toward a third party, in which case we are entitled to reduce, or waive, the aforementioned cure period at our reasonable discretion; (b) your account has been, or our controls identify that it may be used for deceptive or fraudulent, or illegal activity; or (c) your use of the Services has harmed, or our controls identify that it might harm, other sellers, customers, or Amazon’s legitimate interests. We will promptly notify you of any such termination or suspension via email or similar means including Seller Central, indicating the reason and any options to appeal, except where we have reason to believe that providing this information will hinder the investigation or prevention of deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal activity, or will enable you to circumvent our safeguards. On termination of this Agreement, all related rights and obligations under this Agreement immediately terminate, except that (d) you will remain responsible for performing all of your obligations in connection with transactions entered into before termination and for any liabilities that accrued before or as a result of termination, and (e) Sections 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 14, 15, and 18 of these General Terms survive.”
We have provided a link to view Amazon’s Business Solution Agreement in its entirety.
Breaking Down Section 3
So right off in the introduction Amazon informs you they may terminate services with a 30 day notice. Initially one would think this is a vast improvement over how things have been done in the past. Then they follow that up with a “we may suspend or terminate your use of any services immediately if”. There’s the Amazon we all have come to know.
Subsection A. Here Amazon starts to layout the various scenarios that will allow them to terminate a sellers account prior to the previously stated 30 days. So if you fail to successfully appeal any violation they have made you aware of in 7 days they can suspend services. Or if they determine any violation exposes Amazon liable to a third party they can suspend your account immediately. Notice here they determine there is an issue with your account to terminate services immediately, no details have been offered to constitute how these violations are determined.
Subsection B. This could cover any allegations from Review Manipulation, Inauthentic Complaints, Counterfeit Complaints or operating multiple accounts to name a few. Deceptive, fraudulent or illegal activity, Amazon is throwing out blanket terms to justify account suspensions without the previous stated 30 day notice.
Subsection C. Your use of the platform has harmed others or Amazon/Interests. Again using very broad terms here. This could refer again towards any type of complaints Amazon customers may file such as safety complaints. This could also be used to refer to Intellectual Property disputes on the platform.
Simply stated Section 3 is a catchall that Amazon can use to justify virtually any type of account suspension at any given timeframe. In my opinion I think Amazon will utilize section 3 far more in Arbitration then the Appeal Process.
How Does This Affect The Appeal Process?
In two words, it hasn’t, not really. While we have seen Section 3 added to notifications Sellers receive on a regular basis the overall appeal process remains in place. For those drafting their own appeals I will offer this piece of advice, use section 3 to your advantage.
Parroting Amazon does seem to work in the appeal process. We have found it useful and we have had success in parroting Amazon’s BSA for various account suspensions. If Amazon accuses a seller of say review manipulation, we would provide an appeal that would not only address that issue but also show how the seller is not in violation of Section 3 subsection B. A simple yet effective addition to your next appeal.
As Always, It Never Hurts To Ask For Help
Have you received an Amazon Account Suspension or Notification? We here at Amazon Account Rescue are here to discuss these matters with you.
Should you have any additional questions or wish to discuss this or any other matter please feel free to contact us at 1-800-757-0282 or at info@amazonaccountrescue.com.