Schedule a quick discovery call with one of brand protection consultants. We then provide a free Brand Protection Audit to review all current product listings, company reseller lists, and current distribution policies to understand the full scope of issues your brand is facing on eCommerce marketplace.
From the audit, you will receive a detailed infringer analysis of resellers across all your ASINs, feedback on updates needed for stronger legal reseller policies, and strategies for tackling the reseller problem. Lastly, we can provide a detailed proposal based on the audit recommendations.
By utilizing your brand’s intellectual property rights we can help to remove unauthorized sellers from Amazon & Walmart. We work with manufacturers and brand owners to craft a holistic strategy of marketplace reseller enforcement.
The first step is to work with specialized outside counsel to create Reseller Agreements and Policies that establish a material difference between what you offer as the manufacturer and what resellers are offering. Courts have upheld that in the case of material difference, resellers are not protected by the first sale doctrine.
Armed with this information, we investigate each 3rd party seller on your listings to uncover their identity and then use our effective 3 stage enforcement strategy to get the seller removed. Because of our thorough and custom strategy, we often see 75-80% of resellers removed within the first 3-4 months.
One difficulty with Amazon and Walmart’s platforms is the freedom given to 3rd Party sellers to create listings and sell products that they have not purchased directly from the manufacturer. The result is usually low-quality listings with poor content and photos which can become the first impression when searching for your brand on the internet.
Unfortunately, Amazon has expressly said it will not step in to mediate in cases where Sellers are breaking MAP policies. This must be handled between the manufacturer and its distributors.
Most MAP enforcement programs are flawed because they don’t address the real problem of unauthorized resellers.
Our proven process has helped dozens of companies improve their pricing across multiple channels. This often includes:
Working with outside legal counsel to update policies to better govern MAP and E-commerce sellers
Utilizing Seller Insight to monitor prices and target the biggest offenders
Directly enforcing against and removing offenders on the basis of trademark infringement, not pricing
It will be necessary to have a discovery session to discuss your unique needs and develop a custom solution to get better results for your brand.
The answer is “no” for 99% of brands. Amazon has implemented initiatives such as Brand Registry, Transparency, and Project Zero to combat issues of counterfeiting and is no longer accepting brand gating requests. (There are neither gatekeeping nor counterfeiting programs currently offered for Walmart).
If you are dealing with issues related to unauthorized sellers with legitimate goods, we have developed proven processes to get results. Reach out to us now to set up a free discovery consultation.
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