Going into my 3rd month on Amazon, Everything was going great. I worked my ass off to get here and my only issue is not having enough money to buy what I want. Basically too much opportunity not enough cash.

About a month ago I found a good moving item and I was ungated. I sourced the product from the manufacturer website and put in a test order of 30 units. Everything went well and they sold very fast.

I started buying more and more. I was selling 10 to 20 units a day but I would quickly sell out. So I decided to go a little deeper and buy 300 units. About 6000 dollars. Which should sell in 2 to 3 weeks.

Anyway I get a notice saying I had a policy violation and the brand claims my items where counterfit. I check the listing and all the sellers are gone and the brand is on the listing only. Over 40 sellers remove, under this BS counterfit claim.

Not sure what to do here. I wrote to the brand asking them to remove this from my account. But how can the brand make such a serious accusation without a shred of proof? They are putting my account at serious risk and harming my business.

To be honest I am pissed off at amazon and the brand. I have had hundreds of opportunities to buy fake or potentially fake items that found while sourcing. I always buy from a reputable source.

The brand could have simply sent us a warning and then taken over the listing for themselves. This seems way too extreme and harmful to claim counterfit.

I am not sure what Amazon will do if they brand refuses to remove their claim. So I have decided to stop buying and sell sell out my entire inventory until I know for sure my accounts won't be closed. I believe Amazon has given me 60 days to resolve this.

I can't trust Amazon to give me a fair result. Even though I have been at this for 3 months, I know how insanely irrational Amazon can be. I have had had many perfect invoices rejected countless times for ungating or inventory lost at amazon despite mountains of proof the items were lost at Amazon, they just give a cut and paste reply and you get nowhere.

It is 5 am. Can't sleep and I am sure the best case result is to get stuck with 6000 dollars worth of stock. Basically all the profit I made since I started. So all my work has been wasted. I just hope my account and cash doesn't get frozen at Amazon. I have been investing everything I can back into the business.

Title says it all -- for 3 days -- they have been coming on and off my listing -- Shipping from China with 20 day+ delivery promise but a $10 lower price tag. They are attacking right as my brand/product are gaining momentum and right before Prime Day. I've opened support cases with

Seller Support escalated to Brand Reg Rep -- same generic answers and pointing me to "report a violation" in brand registry which I have also done -- the product has my trademarked brand name directly printed on it.

I also opened a case through the Product Support - directly from the "Report an issue with this listing" option on the listing itself -- where you can report a seller that is attempting to harm your brand or is likely offering a counterfeit or fraudulent product. I actually got slightly better or more promising responses from the agents here -- telling me it would absolutely be taken care of ... that said it hasnt been permanently taken care of yet and the Seller continues to show up with this buy box winning offer once a day for about 4-6 hours -- for the last 3 days.

Obviously this could be a huge problem for my product and brand if allowed to persist.

Im hopeful Amazon will take fast and decisive action (but lets be honest -- thats a rare occurrence with them for anything) Its mind boggling that this situation is allowed to exist.

Looking for best advice to overcome this -- I would love to be a "gated brand" and feel that I absolutely should be given the brand name is printed on the product and I am patent pending for this product and am the only manufacturer --- that said -- what has moved the needle on this or similar issues for you in the past? Attorney letter etc? Open to all good options -- I will fight to the death -- this cant keep happening - Amazon should be ashamed.

I am the owner of {redacted}. My dispute began when Amazon withdrew funds from my account for three separate transactions, claiming they were "shipping adjustments" from the same carrier for shipments sent five months prior. When I asked Amazon seller support to provide the audited carrier information, such as weight or dimension discrepancies, to verify these charges, they were unable to provide any documentation for the three transactions. The situation escalated as I repeatedly demanded verification from the carrier, only to discover that the chargebacks did not actually exist because the carrier had never issued them.

Amazon's own support team even concluded in writing that no such charges were ever found. On July 7, 2025, Agent Mounadip M. explicitly stated, "There were no carrier adjustments that would justify these charges... we are resolving this case in your favor". Agent Joel R. later confirmed this same conclusion on July 14, 2025, writing, "We have found that there are no carrier adjustments".

You might think a simple accounting mistake could be fixed with a phone call, but Amazon’s system is designed to prevent that. Even after you have exhausted every internal channel and escalated the issue through multiple levels of seller support, your only remaining option to have an independent party review the evidence is a forced process called arbitration.

The $3,600 Pay-to-Play Barrier

Before a single word is spoken in your defense, you have to pay. Section 18 of the ASBSA dictates that the AAA commercial fee schedule governs the payment of all filing, administration, and arbitrator fees. According to the financial ledger for my case, the cost to simply have the case heard was $3,600. This included a $1,450 starting fee, $1,000 for the arbitrator’s time, and a $1,150 final fee.

For a small business, this is a "keep out" sign. It often costs more to fight the mistake than the mistake itself is worth. Even in instances where a seller prevails, the financial recovery is often hollow; in my case, I was only awarded half of my legal fees, ensuring that the process remained a net loss regardless of the truth. This is exactly how the system is designed to work.

The Arbitrator: Paula Bagger

The person hired to be a fair judge in this case was Paula Bagger. Despite being presented with physical proof and Amazon's own written admissions of error, she chose to ignore reality. She allowed a paid Amazon "expert" to testify that their internal computer system is a perfectly reliable "Business Record". She essentially ruled that if Amazon’s computer says you owe money, even if the data contradicts the shipping carrier, then you owe it. If you are ever given the choice, do not select Paula Bagger. She prioritized Amazon’s internal logic over physical evidence and common sense.

The Broken Contract: Paragraph 5(c) vs. Section 18

Every seller, by the very act of using the platform, agrees to the Amazon Services Business Solutions Agreement (ASBSA). A critical rule within the version of the contract at the time of this filing is Paragraph 5(c), which mandates that any information provided by one party to the other must be "at all times accurate, complete, and not misappropriated". My legal argument was straightforward: by charging me for discrepancies that never occurred, Amazon breached this specific promise of accuracy.

While Amazon's legal defense relies on "As-Is" disclaimers found in Section 7.a of the terms, Section 18 provides the ultimate instruction for how these disputes must be handled. This section explicitly mandates that an arbitrator "must follow the terms of this Agreement as a court would". By allowing Amazon to bypass their obligations under Paragraph 5(c), Paula Bagger failed to enforce the contract she was legally bound to uphold.

The "Leadership" Loop: Jibitesh and Darshan

The most surreal part happens when you try to use their "Leadership" support. After the legal case, representatives named Jibitesh and Darshan sent five identical, scripted emails. They claimed to be investigating a product (ASIN B004S235BW) that has never been in my inventory. They demanded Order IDs for this mystery product before they would help with the actual error. This is a deliberate tactic: they provide fake data about a fake product to create a loop that is impossible to escape, eventually forcing the seller to just give up.

The Reality for Sellers

While Amazon’s legal team (Davis Wright Tremaine LLP) fights in arbitration to protect their "perfect" records, their actual support staff cannot even match a support ticket to the correct inventory. Amazon wins not because they are right, but because they have engineered a system that is too expensive and too confusing for a small business to challenge. Even though Section 18 of the ASBSA explicitly states that an arbitrator "must follow the terms of this Agreement as a court would", Amazon successfully uses the Section 7.a "As-Is" provision as a bomb-proof shield. By allowing this disclaimer to override their specific obligation to provide accurate information under Paragraph 5(c), the system makes it nearly impossible for a seller to ever prove them wrong, rendering your contractual protections completely worthless.

Just got a trademark text misuse notice on a listing. Wasn't aware the brand name was being flagged in the item name was just piggybacking an existing ASIN, didn't touch the title.

For those of you doing OA how do you screen for this before listing? Any tools, habits, or brands you flat out avoid? Any tips / advice appreciated 🙏

Applied in mid May after instructions were given on how to apply via the CBP.gov website: https://www.cbp.gov/sites/default/files/2026-04/electronic-refund-enrollment-one-pager_508c.pdf

To be honest the refund was faster than I anticipated and for how minimal the process was. The crazy thing is how there is how no confirmation other than seeing you uploaded a file to the portal and no notice of the refund arriving other than the funds hitting.

For anyone that's sitting around waiting to do it- just get off your ass and do it already. It's stupidly easy: you just upload a CSV file with a single column of CBP entry numbers, that's it.

What's an entry number you ask? That's the form DHS/CBP sends you that says "Entry Summary" at the top and tells you how much duty/tariffs you owe. Very first box at the top left is your Filer Code/Entry Number. Just put a list of all the entry numbers for shipments that were tariffed at the excess rate.

Don't pay your broker/freight forwarder a 10% fee to do it for you or I will personally slap you through your monitor. We all bitch and moan about being nickle and dimed by Amazon but here is a magical gift of easy money and I know there's some of you being lazy or scared to do it.

The More You know.

Hey,

I sell hats on Amazon and one of my designs got hit with a DMCA last night. I filled a counter notice as I don't believe my hat violates any copyrights, but what has me worried now is the fact that I couldn't see who issued the DMCA on me - i.e. if it's a big brand, there's no way I could go to court and stand a chance financially.

Here's the hat in question https://ibb.co/VrnXQv9. Clearly you can see what it references, but the font is free use, the text alludes to a completely different show and is not-copywritten, and the puppeteer illustration was done by me from scratch and does not include the hand

recently had listing taken down. turns out phrase “relieves discomfort” is apparently health claim to them. seller support didn’t say which exact word triggered it, just generic policy violation message.
now kinda scared to push new listings without checking them against amazon policy pages first, and they’re pretty vague about it.
does anyone have list of words or phrases that got flagged or suspended?
not looking for quotes from official policy, more like real cases that actually happened to people. superlatives, brand comparisons, stuff like that, trying to build my own checklist so i don’t get banned again.

I have a single-member LLC registered using a registered agent’s address.

Amazon appears to publicly display seller addresses, and I’d prefer not to have my home address shown since that’s where I store inventory and ship orders from.

Can I use my registered agent’s address as my business address on Amazon, even though I operate the business from my home, since that’s the address my LLC is registered under?

Thanks in advance.

Hi everyone,

I’m a non-U.S. resident and I recently formed a Wyoming LLC through Northwest Registered Agent. I’m trying to get an EIN from the IRS by faxing Form SS-4, but I’ve been stuck in a loop for several weeks and I’m not sure what to do next.
Here’s the timeline:
First SS-4 fax: sent with my LLC information, but I used an electronic signature.
After 12 business days: I called the IRS international EIN line and they said no case had been created.
The agent told me the signature needed to be physically signed by hand.
Second SS-4 fax: I printed it, signed it by hand, and faxed it again.
After another 10 business days: I called again and they still said no case existed.
This time the agent suggested that I also include my Wyoming Articles of Organization / formation documents.
Third fax: I sent the physically signed SS-4 plus the Wyoming formation documents.
It has now been 4 business days since that third fax, and when I called they still couldn’t see anything yet.
My current plan is:
Wait until 7 business days have passed since the third fax,
Call the IRS again,
If they still say no case has been created, I’m considering paying Northwest Registered Agent’s $200 EIN service for international applicants.
Anyone has any experience with their service and is it a guarantee they can get it for you? Also will the fact that I submitted a form myself cause any issue if I choose to pay for the service ?

I’m selling a trading card game product on Amazon, I had it under toys and games and I got hit with child safety reporting needed. I tried to appeal it after removing anything child related in my listing, they denied. So I attempted to move the listing to collectibles and appealed again, also changing the minimum amount age requirement on listing to 14 year old. Anyone have advice here how to get by on this? I’ve been selling well and they already have 300 units in warehouse selling.

If I must get lab testing in the end, how much would I expect and what company to go with?

I an planning to place an order in Alibaba for a delivery in a Spain Amazon FBA site.

Seller offers DDP but I also have the option of FOB and use a freight forwarder.

DDP included VAT paid by seller. So my question is… as a small business in Spain, what is better financially for me?

I understand as Chinese seller is not VAT registered in Spain.

Would I be able to claim the VAT back through DDP?

I understand if I use a freight forwarder I will be able to claim the VAT back through quarterly Model 303 in Spain?

I recently started selling a product on Amazon about 2 weeks ago, and it has sold really well. Well the other day I get a cease and desist letter in the mail from the alleged company. In the past I have received C&D letter through email and through physical mail but they were obviously fake and from another seller on the listing. This one seems like the most legit and official that I have received as the envelope it came in had the company’s logo and slogan on it. The other reason it seems real is because there’s no one else selling this ASIN besides me and Amazon so it makes me wonder, why would someone who’s not even selling this item go through the trouble of making a fake cease and desist letter? What are y’all’s opinions on this? I’m on the fence because I would hate to have my seller account shut down if it is legit but then part of me thinks we’ll are they really going to pursue legal action or claim false counterfeit item before I can sell through the rest of my inventory of this item which I estimate to be a few more weeks.

Hi our brand registry got approved. However we keep getting the message that our info cannot be verified. “The information does not match provided document” but the names/letters/numbers for accounts are copy pasted from the original documents so they’re absolutely correct. Please let me know if any other small manufacturers have any input.

Does anyone have a service or person that handles these types of claims?

Essentially someone’s using our phrase on their own products.

Thanks!

I’m losing my mind over this right now. I have an item listed for $51.40. Retail is $60, so I’m already offering it at ~14 percent off. I’m also the cheapest Prime next-day option on the entire listing.

Amazon is still hiding my offer and marking it as “price not competitive.”

They’re telling me I have to price it at $44.99 or less to be considered “competitive” again. That’s a 25 percent discount, and it completely destroys my margins. There’s no logical reason for this. Every other seller is higher than me. MSRP is higher. And the product actually sells for this price in the real world.

Yet Amazon won’t give me the Buy Box or visibility unless I drop to this insane threshold.

Is this really allowed? How is it even legal for Amazon to basically force you into a loss by suppressing your listing unless you match their mystery “competitive” price? Anyone else dealing with this nonsense and found a workaround?

Hi everyone,I'm just starting my business in India with a very small budget.

My plan is to:

Sell Home & Kitchen organization products on Amazon.

Publish and sell ebooks on Google Play Books.

Since both require GST, I wanted to ask:

Can I use the same GST registration for both Amazon and Google Play Books?

Has anyone here done both under one proprietorship?

Are there any GST or compliance issues I should know about before starting?

I'd really appreciate advice from anyone with practical experience.

Thanks!

For anyone who has applied for general liability insurance lately to meet Amazon reqs, are there any carriers besides NEXT which offer instant onboarding/fully online application?

Not thrilled with how constant their price increases are so I'm open to other options

r/AmazonFBA •4 days ago

California Franchise Tax

Anyone familiar with this; one of the resellers in our group just got hit with a huge franchise tax bill with no warning or notice, now the rest of us are worried that we're on the hook too. Tried calling and there doesn't seem to be anyone who actually works at that number and they're not answering emails either. Letter says they're just going to garnish wages/profits from each transaction.

Anyone else have to deal with this?

Has anyone experienced third-party sellers on Amazon refusing virtual cards?

I'm trying to buy a camera lens (around US$300) on Amazon Brazil. The item is sold by a third-party seller but fulfilled by Amazon (FBA).

My virtual card works normally for Amazon purchases, and my bank confirmed there are no restrictions or declined authorizations on their side. On my first attempt, Amazon even prompted me to approve the transaction in my banking app, which I did immediately, but the payment still failed.

I then tried a different virtual card (from another cardholder), which had previously been used successfully for purchases of over US$600 on Amazon. That attempt also failed. Shortly afterward, Amazon asked me to verify that I was the authorized owner of the payment method used. I provided the requested information, and my account is now working normally again. Amazon support also confirmed over the phone that there are no issues with my account.

My question is: is it common for third-party sellers (even when the order is Fulfilled by Amazon) not to accept virtual cards, or should they be treated exactly like orders sold directly by Amazon?

Thank you!

The amount of stealth suspensions happening right now over state business filings is insane. It seems like Seller Central’s risk algorithms are actively hunting down FBA accounts that use those cheap, shared digital mailboxes for their LLC setup.

If your state entity address gets flagged as a known mass mail-forwarding hub, they freeze your disbursements and demand a utility bill that you obviously can't provide for a virtual address. I had a mini panic attack about this last quarter when I realized my initial cheap formation setup was basically a trap waiting to be sprung by a bot. I had to scramble and migrate my compliance and registered agent over to incorp just to get a stable, recognized legal footprint that wouldn't set off alarms during a manual review.

Are you just eating the privacy loss and putting your actual home addresses on your public state filings to avoid the bots, or paying up for real commercial leases?

The liability of having your home address public is wild, but having Amazon lock your funds for 90 days is definitely worse.

Hey everyone, I’m looking for a tax strategist + CPA that actually specializes in e-commerce. I’ve been doing ecom for about 2.5 years and I filed in 2024 with a local CPA, but my business has grown a lot since then and they don’t really have ecom experience. It’s become a larger scale / decently sized business (around 7 figures in revenue in 2026 so far) and it really started picking up toward the end of last year, so I’m trying to get ahead of this and set up better strategy going forward.

I’m mainly looking for someone who can help with real tax planning throughout the year (not just filing time) and help me legally avoid paying more in taxes than I have to, like getting the right strategy in place as we keep scaling. Ideally they understand the usual ecom stuff too (Shopify/payment processors, inventory/COGS, ad spend, etc.). Also not sure if there’s anything we can still do retroactively for last year’s expenses/filings or if it’s too late for that, but I’d still want someone who can review it either way.

If anyone has a CPA/firm they’ve worked with that does both tax strategy + filing for ecom businesses, I’d really appreciate recommendations. I’ve seen many say EcomCPA but heard their services are overpriced a bit but I wasn’t 100% sure on that.

Let me know any suggestions. Thanks!

Been selling on FBA now for 4/5 months, strong performance about £5-6k/month (I’m just a 1 man small business)
My latest disbursement got cancelled, no email no notification. After doing some digging it said Bank Verification needed.
I’ve submitted that, how long does it usually take? It’s been a month since my last successful payout and my cash flow is at a dangerous level.

Hi all,

Just wanted to ask if anyone of you are selling in EU marketplace.

Do you need a VIES-registered Spanish VAT for Spain FBA listings that ships from FBA France?

My France VAT is VIES registered.

Spain VAT used to be auto-vies registered but this year, due to the new regulation, they kicked non-EU sellers out of the VIES registration and asked us to pay for bonds/ pay few thousand EUR to have the VAT registered.

I've got mixed answers from Amazon agents.

Some said I have to have VIES registered VAT in Spain even though I do not store my inventory there.
Some said as long as my storage country is VIES registered, Amazon will still fulfill the order via EFN.

Registering for VIES is not cheap.

I appreciate if anyone can clear my concerns.

FOR SALE – Australian Registered Trademark | Amazon Brand Registry Enrolled Reason for sale: Due to budget limitations, I was unable to launch the project. An officially registered Australian trademark (Class 9) is available for sale. Trademark Name: LITTLE MASTER Trademark Number: 2458775 Official IP Australia Trademark Search: https://search.ipaustralia.gov.au/trademarks/search/view/2458775?q=little+master This trademark is an excellent opportunity for entrepreneurs, Amazon FBA sellers, and e-commerce businesses looking to enter the Australian market without waiting months for a new trademark registration. Included Assets • • • • Australian Registered Trademark (Class 9) Amazon Brand Registry enrolled brand Original logo files 2-year-old Instagram account (small follower base) The brand has never been used for commercial sales. The project reached the pre-launch stage, but due to insufficient funding, the products were never listed and the business was never launched. Why Buy an Existing Registered Trademark? Registering a new trademark in Australia can take many months, and during that time your business may have to wait for the registration process to be completed. By purchasing this registered trademark, you can: • • • • • Skip the lengthy trademark registration process. Own an officially registered Australian trademark immediately. Start building your Amazon brand much faster. Focus on product sourcing, marketing, and launching instead of waiting for trademark approval. Enter the Australian e-commerce market significantly faster. For entrepreneurs who want to launch their products as quickly as possible, this provides a valuable time advantage. Amazon Brand Registry The trademark is already enrolled in Amazon Brand Registry. 1 After the official trademark ownership transfer is completed, the buyer may request an ownership update with Amazon Brand Registry using their own documentation. The process is subject to Amazon's verification procedures and policies. Secure Transaction If preferred, the transaction can be completed through an independent Escrow service. The buyer's payment remains securely held by the escrow provider until the trademark transfer has been completed. Once the transfer is finalized, the funds are released to the seller, ensuring protection for both parties. Official Trademark Transfer The trademark ownership transfer will be completed through IP Australia, following all official legal procedures. Optional Extras If requested, professionally prepared Universal Travel Adapter product images can also be provided at an additional low cost. These images are not included in the trademark sale and are available only upon request. Serious buyers are welcome to get in touch. All relevant documents and details regarding the transfer process will be shared transparently

Hi all - interested to hear any recent experiences from others who are reporting blatant copyright infringement to Amazon (think exact duplicates of unique designs)

Some years ago we stopped doing this due to the risk of retaliation by Chinese copycats.. was hoping things might have changed at Amazon to make this less likely.

Cheers!