EP #300] [ENG] - How to navigate Amazon TOS in 2025 - Leah Mchugh

EP #300] [ENG] - How to navigate Amazon TOS in 2025 - Leah Mchugh Unknown Speaker: Welcome to The Ecommerce Lab By Ecomcy. This is the place for everything related to Amazon private label and e-commerce. Learn exactly what you need to start or scale your business. Get insights from the top industry experts who will discuss the latest trends and best practices in the world of Amazon. From choosing products and sourcing from a supplier to setting up your Amazon account and marketing your business, you will hear it here. Let's get started. Here is your host, Vincenzo Toscano. Speaker 2: Hello, guys. Welcome to another episode of The Ecommerce Lab By Ecomcy, the place of air related to Amazon FBA Parallel Money Commerce. My name is Vincenzo Toscano, founder and CEO of Ecomcy. And today we bring you for a second time another special guest. Her name is Leah. And she's part of Ecomcrease, which is one of the top consultancies agencies out there when it comes to really figuring out how to, you know, appeal and effectively fight back Amazon, right? Speaker 1: Yeah, we're the people you call when you're in trouble, right? Speaker 2: Yes, exactly. So that's why I wanted to bring Leah today because she has a ton of experience when it comes to that. And lately, with, you know, the extensive usage from Amazon services of AI, we see more mistakes happening in terms of We're going to talk about the appeal process, how some of the listings are getting suspended, things that have to do with brown braces. So we're going to have a good conversation on all those issues. And hopefully we can, you know, prevent you from getting those emails from Amazon that give us so much stress, you know. So, Leah, welcome to the show. How are you doing? Speaker 1: Yeah, good. Thanks. How are you? Speaker 2: Good, good. Thank you for being here. Second time. So actually, last time was, wow, almost two years ago, one year and six months, something like that. Speaker 1: Yeah, it's been a while. I've seen you more recently, but haven't done that. Speaker 2: I know, I know, I know. Cool. So if you want, just give us a quick intro by yourself and then let's jump into the topic. Yeah. Speaker 1: Yeah, sure. So I've been working with ecommerce, Chris, since 2015. So going on 10 years now, which is a long time. Speaker 2: I can't imagine how many appeals you went through. Speaker 1: Yeah, I was thinking about this the other day. I do, you know, I do a few hundred reinstatements per year, just me. And then like my team does their own few hundred a year. So I've done a lot. Um, so I, I primarily work on, uh, listing compliance, product compliance, uh, and brand registry issues. So a little bit different from Chris. He's been on the show a few times. He works on the other areas, mostly to do with the seller performance team. I deal with the other non-seller performance teams. Speaker 2: Yeah, cool, cool, cool. So yeah, I mean, this, you know, this version of appeals and everything Such a minefield, you know, it's such a difficult thing to navigate for most Amazon sellers. And I think that's what I want to use as a starting point for this conversation. At the end of the day, you don't know what you don't know. And what I mean by that is I would like to start the podcast with, you know, what are some of the things you're seeing happening that most sellers are not aware of that are leading to suspension of listings, issues with brand rates? Like, I guess, let's start with what are some of the most common conversations you're having lately when it comes to your clients? Speaker 1: So I have a lot of conversations with clients around product compliance, usually because they don't know that their products have certain compliance requirements until their listing gets taken down by Amazon or the listing that they're selling is perfectly legal, but Amazon's own policies restrict the sale of those products. So usually I'm speaking to those people once the listings have already been taken down. Or more recently, we're seeing entire accounts getting taken down for restricted products. And the seller has no idea that they're listing restricted products, but Amazon isn't giving them an opportunity to submit a plan of action. They're only letting them dispute. The fact that they listed restricted products, which is hard to do if you were listing restricted products. Speaker 2: Yeah. So I guess for these, what is usually high level, of course, you know, the plan of action people should take in consideration to avoid these kind of issues, you know? Speaker 1: Well, so in terms of a plan of action, they actually shouldn't be submitting a plan of action if it gets to that point. But I mean, any listing that you are, any product that you're going to list, it's really on you to know the compliance requirements. And I think One thing that I see a lot of sellers get wrong is thinking that because a product is legal in one country, it's perfectly legal to sell in the exact same way in another country, which is usually not the case, depending on the product. Some products have more requirements than others, but certainly for anything that could be considered a drug or a supplement or even a medical device. And I mean, Something as simple as a walking stick can be considered a medical device. So it's really important to know the regulations and list in countries and also make sure that you're keeping track of what countries you're listing in with build international listings. I know a lot of people don't even realize that they have a product listed in another country and that actually can be what gets their account taken down. Speaker 2: Yeah, I think you mentioned that having the assumption of, you know, a product is good for, let's say, it happens a lot with clients that are in the US and they come to Europe or vice versa. And I think that, yeah, my process is very well in this country. Like I'm assuming all the paperwork and everything should be similar or they shouldn't have any compliance. And usually, I mean, I see the mistake a lot of them do is that sometimes they get to the, they put in the list on the market and everything, but then three months down the line is when the issue actually happens, you know, and then you have all this inventory tied, PPC is such a mess. Speaker 1: Right. And I know certain regulatory bodies in the EU and in the UK do actually do test buys from Amazon to check to make sure that the products meet all of the regulatory compliance in that country, which is something that we really don't do in the US. So, yeah, certainly, yeah, it's different in every country for pretty much all products. Speaker 2: Cool, cool. So now, besides these Is there any kind of, I guess, prevention strategy people could take into consideration? Like maybe they can have an extra check to a specific authority or somebody like yourself, like how we make sure we don't get to this phase that then it's going to be so difficult to navigate. Speaker 1: Yeah, so I mean on a higher level if you're looking at selling a product in another country, I mean a first step would probably be For most sellers, we'd probably be looking at Amazon policy because, again, Amazon policy does sometimes encompass more than the local regulations. Amazon has their own policies as well. So first step, I would be making sure that Amazon even allows that product for sale in that country. And that is listed on their policy pages. It's really as simple as doing a word search within Seller Central. And then from there, looking at what the local requirements are, even in the UK. I mean, just having a responsible person in the UK is something that's required for most products now that This is something that you would need to have organized before you even print your labels. So I would be looking at the Amazon first, then looking at the local regulations for the specific product to find it. Certainly it's easier if you use a compliance company. But it is available on the internet if you're good with Google. Speaker 2: Cool, cool. Now, in terms of other issues, what other things you are seeing right now happening when it comes to, you know, appeal, suspension, I think it's one of those lines, yeah. Happening more often than usual, maybe. Speaker 1: Yeah, so for listing compliance and product compliance, I think the biggest issue that a lot of sellers are getting is that Sellers are so used to submitting a plan of action that when they get suspended for this, their first instinct is to submit a plan of action and Amazon isn't asking for that. Or ChatGPT, which is worse. Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 1: And Amazon isn't asking for that. And so a lot of times sellers are actually digging a deeper hole for themselves by submitting a plan of action because a plan of action, you are, you're admitting guilt. You're saying that I have done this wrong and here are all the things I'm going to do to make sure this never happens again. But if Amazon's not asking for a plan of action, Amazon's asking for a dispute, you are actually making it less likely that you're going to be reinstated by telling them all of the things that you did wrong. And sometimes sellers didn't even do the things wrong. Sometimes they just think that they have to say that they did. And so that's the biggest mistake is submitting a plan of action when no one's asking you for a plan of action. Speaker 2: Yeah, I think this happens a lot because we as Amazon sellers, especially those that only rely on Amazon as a business, it's so stressful that you get a notification and then you get a motion and then you start rushing and you think you need to get this fixed as soon as possible, which most of the time when you act like that, it gives you more issues that The actual solution, usually the best thing when this happens to me is like I receive a notification, I take a few hours off, I try to think what happened, then I write and try to reply to the email within five minutes, you know, a notification, which is the biggest mistake. I guess on these systems where the plan of action is not required, what is usually From your perspective, the things that Amazon is asking is more to do with changing something on the listing or things like that. Like, what is your experience? Speaker 1: Yeah. So when it's at the listing level, if we're talking about listing policy, usually it's a matter of correcting the listing. If it's something to do with restricted products or regulatory compliance, Usually it's usually either one of two things with the compliance team. One, you're saying something on your listing that you're not allowed to say for that product. So it's a matter of editing the detail page to remove. And today we're going to be talking about the restricted claims that you've been making on the listing or two, they want documentation. So rather than submitting a plan about how you're going to check that everything's right, that team doesn't even really want much text from you. Usually those appeals are like a couple of sentences. Most of it is submitting the documentation that they need to see that it meets all the requirements. They're not even looking at any of that information. They are literally just looking, does this meet the requirements? Yes. No. Speaker 2: That's it. Yeah. Talking about documentation, this is something I'm seeing people doing. I know this should be common sense by now, but people keep doing it. People, when they don't have a specific document or that doesn't meet a specific criteria, they start photoshopping, editing. Speaker 1: Don't do that. Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And they say, no, they're not going to find out because I save it as a screenshot. They cannot detect the change. Yeah. What is your take on that? Speaker 1: Yeah, don't do that. That is asking to have your account permanently deactivated. It's also fraud. Um, Amazon is not just looking at the documentation. In most of these cases, they are also verifying that documentation. So if you're having to submit a lab test, they are calling or contacting the lab to confirm the tests. And I actually did work on a number of suspensions a few months ago because people had received fake lab tests from their suppliers and Amazon found that they were fake and suspended the seller. The seller in that instance had no idea. But I do also know that people fake them themselves and Amazon I'm not going to say that they catch everyone because they never do, but they do. They do catch it. Speaker 2: Yeah, of course. That example you gave is actually interesting. Just to make a parenthesis, what happens if actually your manufacturer gives you documentation that is fake and you don't know? Is that something that still falls on your lap or you can appeal it? How does it work in that situation? Speaker 1: So the one I worked on was sort of interesting because we essentially had to provide All of the information that showed chain of custody for those lab tests. So we basically had to prove like this came from this manufacturer on this date, and we took it in good faith that it was authentic. But I will say, and I tell this to all of our clients, if you're getting any sort of testing done, If you aren't the one ordering the testing, make sure that you verify it with the lab, because it is surprisingly common to fake lab tests, which as a consumer is also a little bit terrifying. Speaker 2: Especially if they know the test is going to be a couple of dozens of dollars, they're going to say, yeah, let me fake it. Speaker 1: And some of them you need to do every year or anytime you make any slight change to a product. And so, yeah, and lab tests do have a lab number. They'll tell you what laboratory it came from. Make sure that you contact the lab directly. Don't just, because some of them look very real and some of them actually are real and move things around. So the only way to really be sure is to verify it with the lab. Speaker 2: Yeah, cool. Now, so good. So we mentioned this situation when it comes to listings. What are things you're seeing besides this kind of suspension happening lately? Like, are you seeing something out of curiosity that is being triggered because people are using AI more than often, like maybe certain keywords, certain repetitions, certain vocab? Is that something already happening or you don't see that happening? Speaker 1: I mean, and I haven't fully confirmed this, but I'm seeing more of the AI errors on the Amazon side of things. And, you know, some of this isn't, has been around for a while. We just weren't calling it AI then. We were calling it algorithmic. But certainly a lot of listing takedowns are based on their algorithm and their algorithm is not always correct. So then you have to explain to a team that doesn't necessarily know the rules themselves that this was wrong and show them that your listing is correct. Speaker 2: Okay, cool. Yeah, tough, tough. Now, another thing I wanted to ask you when it comes to the listing themselves before we jump on things such as brand registry. I know that they're putting a lot of effort as well on image processes. So what I mean by this is not only about what you mentioned sometimes on the text, but I know for a fact they're also checking, you know, the bulk and things you're putting images and everything. Is there some kind of a SOP or procedure you recommend people to run their images through to make sure they're not triggering certain things when it comes to images or specific, you know, infographic that shouldn't be put in like kids or things like that. Is that something you recommend as a plan of action as well to avoid these issues? Speaker 1: So it's difficult to give general tools because requirements are different for different products. That being said, there are certain things that you just shouldn't be putting anywhere on your listing across the board. Other people's trademarks being one of them. And that's something I often see people get in trouble. They have a lifestyle photo and the lifestyle photo contains another product. That other product's trademark is visible and that will actually get the entire listing taken down. Even though they're not saying that their product has anything to do with that trademark, but just by having that trademark in the image, that can cause an issue. In terms of other content, it's really just any restricted claims related to your This is a product. If it shouldn't be in the text, it shouldn't be in the image. And a lot of people try to get around the restrictions by putting it in the image, thinking that it won't get caught. But Amazon's checking that too. And they're also checking the alt text in A plus content. So any of the alt text that you're putting behind images in A plus content can also get caught. Your product flagged and sometimes it's just a word like anti-inflammatory. Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 1: Gets flagged pretty regularly. I've seen they're getting a little bit better with contacts, but I have seen things that are say that they don't contain pesticides getting flagged as a pesticide because they use the word pesticide. So with those ones you have to decide is it Is the value of the word in your listing worth the risk of the listing being erroneously taken down? Speaker 2: Yeah, okay. Interesting, interesting. This is something I just wanted to highlight on this podcast because I know a lot of people sometimes not aware. The images are also being checked by Amazon and they try to be sneaky with putting things on the images that they shouldn't put on the text and everything. But, you know, it's good that, you know, we've been forced out on this conversation because especially we see that sometimes mentioned on masterminds and everything. Oh, you're not ranking for a keyword. Everything put on your images and you get away and then they get suspended. Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely. And also another thing that I've been seeing a lot of lately is people photoshopping labels Like their product labels on the images on Amazon to include information that the label should have, but the labels don't actually have. And that can also get your entire account getting taken down for fraudulent behavior. And that one's very hard to come back from. And usually Amazon will keep all of your inventory and all of your money in those suspension types. Speaker 2: Cool, cool. Speaker 1: Don't commit fraud. Speaker 2: Yeah, very important. Good. So now you also mentioned before going live something to do with brand residue. We're having, we're experiencing a lot of issues when it comes to that. So tell me more about that. Speaker 1: Yeah, this is something we've seen a few years ago and then it kind of The Ecommerce Lab seems to have been resolved on Amazon side, and then we've started seeing it again recently. So new sellers oftentimes or even sellers that have other brands registered without issue on Brand Registry, when they go to register a new brand, they're being immediately denied Brand Registry. And I mean, like, within 30 seconds of submitting the application, they are denied. And their account has been flagged as abusive. And we're going to talk a little bit more about that within Amazon's tools. And that we've been seeing kind of across, you know, for years at this point, but we're seeing a lot more false flags. We're an entirely new account with no relation to any sort of abusive account who has a legitimate trademark without any issues with the attorney that filed with the trademark office are just immediately getting flagged as abusive. And unfortunately, brand registry doesn't really give an appeal path. They give you an appeal button that doesn't do anything. Speaker 2: It's tough. It's like a black box. So once you put your application on, it's like you don't know what is going on. It's another universe. Speaker 1: And so a lot of times they'll hit the appeal button and then that will also within 30 seconds get rejected. Speaker 2: Exactly. Speaker 1: And so a lot of the times it is because of something on the account that the seller isn't aware of. And most common, I see they'll have an international account. Like they'll have accidentally or at some point opened up like Brazil, for example, everybody had Brazil added to their account at one point or an EU account added to their account. And because they aren't selling in that marketplace, they haven't completed verification. And so then that account is in abusive status because they haven't passed verification. And just that is enough to Get your account flagged as abusive with the brand registry team, which means they won't accept any brand applications. So you need to make sure, first of all, that all of your accounts are in healthy status. To make sure that the attorney you've used is in good standing with whichever trademark office it is. I know in the US there is a database of attorneys that have been sanctioned by the USPTO. And if you check that and everything is fine, then chances are the account's been incorrectly flagged unless you've got somebody accessing your account that's associated with a bad account. And then the only way to really get that resolved is to escalate it up the chain because the brand registry team Isn't very good at this. Speaker 2: Yeah, I know, I know, which is something I wanted to mention, like this thing of sanctioned companies and everything is something that is definitely being mentioned a couple of times already and now it's becoming more prominent. But what is not mentioned quite often is like how you get out of that effective situation, because if your trademark was already registered under this company and the trademark is valid, but still is void on Amazon Eyes, like why is your way around that? Like you need to do another application or you need to ask for another attorney to take ownership of that application? Speaker 1: So it depends which country. In the U.S. you can change the attorney contact and then resubmit once that's been updated in the database. If sometimes in the U.S. though, and so we've had a few cases where This is complex. I'm going to step back. So in the U.S., to file a trademark, you have to have a U.S.-based attorney. Speaker 2: Yes. Speaker 1: And what Some overseas companies have been doing is either paying a U.S. attorney to use their name or just doing it without their knowledge. And so it will have a U.S. attorney listed in the USPTO database, but that attorney had nothing to do with anything. And so it's not meeting the legal requirements. And so the thing is, if you leave your trademark application as it is, The USPTO could at some point revoke your trademark. So in those cases where it is actually sanctioned, you are better off to refile a new trademark application so it doesn't get revoked at some point in the future because of that. that was associated with it at some point. Speaker 2: Wow, that's a very interesting situation. Unknown Speaker: Complex. Speaker 2: Yeah, that's why you need people like Leah and Chris to figure these things for you. To start to conclude this topic and we can jump to the next one. If you need to reapply them because a lot of sellers are going through this. That's why I want to go very quickly. If you had to reapply that means you need to do again brand registry and that means for people the brand registry had all the listings attached to that all brand registry and had to do another brand registry. I just can't stop thinking about the mess that that involves in terms of migrating all the listings to the new brand and it's a big issue. Speaker 1: Well, so it would need to be the same brand name or it would need to be very similar because it is actually against Amazon policy to rebrand. You can do... It is a mess. What they will do is that they, well, it depends. If it was never approved by brand registry, then it will actually be fairly simple. Then you're just adding it to the brand once you add the correct brand trademark to brand registry. If it was brand registered and then the trademark was revoked, what they do on the internal side is they tombstone the old brand registry and then create a new brand registry for that brand. The issue is that some of the old ASINs We'll still be associated with the Tombstone brand registry. And then you're going to start getting an 8541 error saying that you have the wrong brand attribute, even though it's the correct brand attribute, because they're associating it with the wrong brand registry instead of the new brand registry, which again, usually requires a lot of back and forth between you and the brand registry team for them to understand what it is you're saying. I find it works best if you don't contact them directly. If you, I speak to the catalog team and have the catalog team transfer the case to brand registry. They include internal notes, which seem to get read a little bit better by the brand registry team than when you tell them. And then they will move it from the incorrect brand registry to the correct one. But it usually takes multiple points of contact to get that to actually happen. Speaker 2: Cool, cool. Awesome. Yeah, very, very, very insightful. And I'm sure a lot of people now hearing and watching this, okay, I need to definitely do an extra bit of homework and make sure all these things are... Speaker 1: Yes, better to do it right in the first time than try to fix it later. Speaker 2: Yes, very important. Cool. So now let's dive a little bit deeper into What are things that you're seeing? So we already talked about brand ratio, we talked everything that has to do with the listening acceleration. We also went through, you know, how to deal with when you encounter issues with your testings and the fact that your product could be fitted for one market and not for another. What are things you feel you want to bring to a conversation that could be interesting to cover today? Speaker 1: I think so. Chris and I actually talked about this the other day, and you and I briefly mentioned AI here. I think a lot of sellers are trying to use AI in their communication with Amazon. And I think that's a very bad idea for a number of reasons. One is because most AI Systems are pulling information that's openly available on the Internet. And when it comes to communicating with Amazon, there's a lot of very bad information on the Internet on how to do that. Also, AI very much relies on the prompts that you give it. And most of the clients that I work with, They don't know what the problem is. So how can they put that information in AI to get it to spit out the right information? Yeah, that's usually and that's the first step is figuring out what the problem is. I think there's also a misunderstanding that these sorts of appeals with Amazon are just a writing exercise. Like Amazon's not looking for, you know, oh, they said that they checked this off and they did this. Like they're looking for very specific information. And I've had this conversation with Chris before where people have asked me if I use AI to write appeals. And honestly, the things that I am dealing with on the product compliance side are so specific That by the time I put in all of the information as a prompt, it takes me a lot of time. Speaker 2: You're right. You're right. Exactly. Speaker 1: So we're seeing that a lot where, you know, Amazon's using AI and then Seller's using AI. And there's just sort of this loop of back and forth where nobody's actually saying the right thing. And it just doesn't really go anywhere. And if Amazon thinks that you're phoning it in, they also are kind of less likely to take you seriously with future submissions. So you really only have a few chances to get it right here. And I think submitting subpar information with maybe the help of AI is just sort of. A bad plan. Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. No, that's, it's very good that you mentioned this because, um, I see that even happening with people in, you know, like our clients, they come to us and say, okay, like you're having this issue, like work with our partners, such as Chris and Leah, and then they always come with them. Sometimes the point of view, yeah, I can do this with ChatGPT and then they get suspended. It gets a big mess. Then they get into legal issues. It's like, um, Yes. The reason why that's happening is because what you just described, everybody's using the same prompt. Everybody's getting the same plan of action. Amazon is getting 1500 plan of action that looks exactly the same with the same kind of language and tonality and everything. So all of that gets flagged and gets suspended. Speaker 1: Well, and I can see when somebody shows me something that they've submitted, I can usually tell if they used AI. And if I can tell, Amazon's investigators definitely can. And I believe they are also using software, which I know is easy. It's easy to get around those that pick up whether it was AI generated or not, but they are still using them. And it's just a little bit obvious when it just doesn't really make sense or things are just not where they should be and sound like filler words. Speaker 2: Yeah, especially because I know for a fact when these people go through appeals and everything, And they have only a few seconds to look at your case. And as soon as they detect a fishiness kind of feeling, this is AI next. Speaker 1: Right. Any excuse to not read your appeal, they will say. Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Cool. And I guess to finalize, like what other words? Maybe advice or maybe prevention strategy you would give for people especially in 2025 to navigate this or any issues maybe you want to conclude with that we haven't covered. Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I already sort of said it's easier to do things right the first time than try to fix them afterwards. And that is definitely true with Amazon across the board, particularly now because we are seeing more and more of these suspension types where the only way to get reinstated is to prove that you didn't break the rules. The best thing that you can do is know the rules yourself. And I know some people will still be like, I know the rules, but I'm going to break them and it's a strategy. At least know the risks, you know, like know, know what it is you're doing and know that it could cost your entire account. And if you decide that that's worth it, then that's on you. Speaker 2: Yeah. The other day is your business. Speaker 1: It's like, it's up to you, you know, but at least know, at least know it, get familiarize yourself with these policies and just know what it is that you're getting into. Speaker 2: Okay, awesome, Leah. So it's been a pleasure as usual. I appreciate your time and I'm sure some people you know might be experiencing some of the issues that you went through or they want to go deeper into the conversation. So tell me how people can get a hold of you and Chris to have a deeper conversation. Speaker 1: Yeah, so it's just ecommercechris.com. We have a contact form there or you can reach me directly at leah, L-E-A-H at ecommercechris.com and we're on All the social media channels are easy to find. Speaker 2: Awesome. Thank you, Leah. It's been a pleasure. Thank you so much. Appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you. Have a good day. You too. Speaker 1: Bye. Unknown Speaker: Thanks for listening to The Ecommerce Lab By Ecomcy. Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss an episode. While you are at it, we would appreciate it if you could leave an honest rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. That will make it easier for others to find out about the show and benefit from it. Want more? Visit our website at www.ecomcy.com where you can get your first consultation for free or find us on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn at Ecomcy.