|
In a blink of an eye, it has been a year and nearly half a year since the Amazon account ban in 2021, but its reputation is still echoing in the cross-border circle. Looking at the various portraits of sellers who were banned, some sellers never recovered and collapsed, some sellers turned around and grew against the trend, and some sellers are still playing a silent game with Amazon, hoping to recover the losses caused by banning their accounts. Recently, we learned that there has been new progress in this silent game. Chinese law firm launches Amazon class arbitration project It is learned that recently, a seller revealed that a Chinese law firm initiated an Amazon class arbitration project. According to documents issued by the law firm, in response to Amazon's frozen funds due to store closures last year, the law firm, in conjunction with a team of lawyers from major US law firms, had Wall Street funds make fixed investments to provide funding. Sellers do not have to pay any fees , and more than 50% of the frozen funds can be recovered within an arbitration period of about six months. ▲ The picture comes from the seller communication group The law firm said that the Amazon collective arbitration project launched this time intends to raise 10,000 sellers whose funds have been frozen in the first phase. In addition to sellers whose stores have been banned by Amazon, those whose PayPal accounts have had their funds frozen can also be collectively arbitrated (PayPal accounts are for platforms other than Amazon, such as eBay, AliExpress, Shopee, Lazada, Walmart, Rakuten and independent sites, etc.). Regarding the accounts applying for arbitration , the law firm stated that there are no restrictions on the site, amount of frozen funds in the account, business products, and reasons for store closure , but there are time requirements: Amazon accounts must have a three-month waiting period within five years (PayPal must have a six-month waiting period within five years) . According to public information statistics, there are at least 8 successful cases of industry arbitration, one in the United States and one in Germany, and 6 in China . The success rate is at least 90%, and the frozen funds in successful cases are all recovered in full or even with interest. The law firm in the United States participated in some of the successful cases in which all frozen funds were successfully recovered. The law firm pointed out that class arbitration is a process in which a large number of cases are submitted in batches to the U.S. Arbitration Court. Since the U.S. Arbitration Court has a limited number of arbitrators and Amazon and PayPal also have limited legal teams, they do not have enough staff to complete the procedural work of all cases within the specified time. The only way is settlement, so the success rate is expected to be higher than one-on-one arbitration. So far, the project has attracted 5,000 sellers to sign contracts, including Amazon and PayPal. Judging from the law firm’s response and the number of sellers’ stores participating in this project, this battle to reverse the ban is coming in full force, but whether the sellers can successfully defend their rights remains to be seen. However, it is learned that as early as September last year, Chinese sellers had filed a class action lawsuit against Amazon. Chinese sellers once filed a class action lawsuit against Amazon It is learned that as early as September 13, 2021, a number of Chinese companies filed a class action lawsuit against Amazon in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. According to the lawsuit, the Chinese companies seek to "recover funds illegally and improperly withheld by Amazon" and the class action lawsuit is intended to prevent any funds that legally and rightfully belong to thousands of Amazon sellers and merchants from being further "embezzled and misused." ▲ The picture comes from foreign media In October of that year, Amazon expressed its intention to settle the lawsuit filed by Chinese sellers , but in the end, the Chinese sellers' lawsuit was not responded to. As there were indeed violations, the Chinese sellers who filed the class action lawsuit still found it difficult to escape the passive situation of being "treated as fish by Amazon's policies." However, judging from the cases of Amazon sellers unfreezing funds that have won one after another this year, the arbitrators’ consecutive rulings that “Article 2 of the Amazon agreement freezing sellers’ funds is invalid” seem to indicate that this passive situation is showing signs of breaking the ice. In the previous article "The Battle Against Account Blockage Begins! Another Seller Successfully Recovers Frozen Funds!", it was pointed out that a series of successful appeals by sellers seemed to indicate that the reversal of the account blockage for Amazon sellers has just begun. However, as of now, it is still uncertain whether the sellers participating in this Amazon class arbitration program can successfully protect their rights . However, it is an indisputable fact that Amazon is increasingly stepping up its monitoring of violations. In light of past experience, the only sword of protection for sellers at present is to operate in compliance with regulations and firmly grasp the initiative. What do you think about this? Welcome to discuss in the comment area~
|
