Amazon has closed 50,000 stores?! It also blocked the sellers’ channels for litigation

Amazon's large-scale store closures since May have also caused a stir overseas recently. Foreign media statistics show that more than 50,000 Chinese sellers' stores have been closed in this incident !

This is an unprecedented large-scale closure of fake reviews. According to a reliability report, the store closures since May have caused losses of more than 100 billion US dollars to China's cross-border e-commerce industry .

Moreover, although many sellers have tried to contact and communicate with Amazon to resolve the store ban problem, Amazon's handling of sellers' demands is very abnormal. It almost never responds to any store restoration application. Even if the seller is a first-time offender and submits a complete action report or even a fine, Amazon will still ignore it. This is completely different from Amazon's usual handling method.

Not only did Amazon not accept the sellers’ appeals and unblocking, it also froze the goods and store balances of more than 50,000 stores, which is a very serious situation. A blocked seller said that since the store was blocked for suspected false reviews, Amazon has withheld the company’s $4 million store balance and tens of millions of dollars worth of FBA inventory for more than dozens of days.

Regarding the seizure of funds and goods, Amazon told the seller that it would freeze the funds for 90 days, and then unfreeze the inventory and funds depending on the investigation results of Amazon. This freeze has a serious impact on the operations of sellers. The inability to use a large amount of cash and goods has directly paralyzed the business of the seller's company.

The worst thing is that these sellers cannot even unite to protect their own rights. Amazon has locked out this important form of litigation through policy .

When sellers enter Amazon, they will agree to some of Amazon's terms and policies. Only if they agree can they continue to register a store. I think small and medium-sized sellers generally do not read this clause in full. In this clause, Amazon has included some clauses that prohibit sellers from taking unfavorable actions against themselves, and blocking the class action lawsuit of sellers is one of them.

As long as the seller clicks on the "Agree to the above terms" button, it means that he or she has voluntarily waived the right to initiate a class action lawsuit against Amazon . Even if a dispute arises later and needs to be brought to court, the seller can only file a lawsuit in a judicial institution in the name of a single legal person/individual.

It is extremely difficult to sue a giant like Amazon, and the chances of a single company winning are very small. Faced with this situation, it is a normal confrontational decision for sellers to file a joint lawsuit. Unexpectedly, Amazon had already anticipated this and blocked the path to joint lawsuits by changing the terms that sellers must agree to when entering the platform, forcing sellers to appeal alone. This method is too overbearing. Starting with the terms of entry, a small or medium-sized seller may not read it carefully, and another seller will have no choice but to agree even if they find the unfair terms. As long as they want to open a store, they have to accept these terms.

The Ministry of Commerce has also made some follow-up to the last incident of supporting sellers. Although the Ministry of Commerce supported the reasonable and legal rights of sellers at the press conference, it is obvious that the sellers violated the rules first this time. We can only try to negotiate to reduce losses. At least in this year's ban, it is difficult for the national level to give us any special help. If there are sellers who need to sue Amazon individually and ask for the unfreezing of funds and goods, there is still some room for operation. Here, they can seek the help of law firms with experience in handling international business disputes.

In fact, the Ministry of Commerce’s last statement was also very clear. If such a big thing happens on the platform, the upper level can only help if we sellers are in the right. If we are punished by the platform for violating regulations, it is not easy for the upper level to help openly. In the past two days, China and the United States have also held a new round of trade and bilateral relations negotiations in Tianjin.