Your Amazon seller account is locked? - What you can do about it
Again and again Amazon blocks seller accounts. The consequences of this for Amazon sellers: direct loss of sales. Not only are sellers removed from the Marketplace, but access to the entire balance of the affected account is also denied.
Is your Amazon seller account blocked? Learn about possible reasons and solutions here.
Amazon seller account locked: Why does Amazon block accounts?
If your account is suspended, this can have several reasons. Mostly there are policy violations, so you can no longer use your Amazon account and can not continue to sell on Amazon during that time.
Policy violations
Amazon acts quickly and strictly in case of policy violations. However, Amazon often provides only sparse explanations as to exactly which policy is supposed to have been violated. How to proceed in such a case and how to contact the Amazon Performance Team via Seller Central, you will learn on this page.
Formal problems
Formal problems with Amazon can usually be resolved quickly. Possible reasons for a blocking of your Amazon seller account due to formal problems are, for example, missing information in the imprint or in the privacy policy. In addition, missing or outdated documents that Amazon requires as part of the KYC process ("Know your Customer") to verify a business can also be to blame.
Patent or plagiarism allegations
Amazon is jointly liable for bidding on a platform on which patent or plagiarism infringements occur. Therefore, Amazon takes particularly strong action against this type of accusation.
More reasons for blocking the seller account
- Sale of defective goods
- Response times too long
- Poor translations
- Too many negative reviews
- Duplicate accounts
- Insufficient seller performance
- Non-compliance with Prime rules ("Prime by Seller")
- Problems with returns
- And many more ...
This is how you proceed now to reactivate your Amazon seller account
The first thing you should do is establish contact with Amazon. But even when contacting the Amazon Performance team in Seller Central, there are certain procedures that will increase your chance of success.
How do I contact the Amazon Performance team through Seller Central?
- From Germany, you can contact Amazon via the given contact form that is displayed in Seller Central when you are notified of the block. Alternatively, there are several email addresses you can contact:
impressum@amazon.de in general - verkaeufer-performance-transfer@amazon.de for policy violations
- verkaeufer-verifikation-anfrage@amazon.de for formal problems
Can Amazon Germany be reached by phone?
In Germany, Amazon can only be reached by telephone by customers. Sellers can use a contact form or request a callback from the seller service.
What can I do if I can't log in to Seller Central?
Sometimes you may not have access to the seller account at all, for example, because the password was changed during a hacker attack. In this case, there is a form that can be used to contact Seller Service without a Seller Central login: https://sellercentral-europe.amazon.com/gp/help/contact.html?language=de_DE. Here you can choose between the topics "Reset password" and "Close my seller account".
Important: Include your seller account login email address so Amazon can match the message to the correct account.
Understand Amazon's "legal system" and take a goal-oriented approach
Amazon's policy is that everyone is considered guilty until proven innocent. However, this is not about justice, but about ensuring that Amazon can continue to offer a flawless customer experience.
However, if you contact Amazon Support haphazardly, you can expect a standard pre-written response to come back. As a merchant, you should first identify the problem yourself. After that, log into the help section of Seller Central. There you can "open a case" and "file an appeal". To successfully file an appeal, you need a so-called action plan. This includes the identified problem, the cause and both a short-term solution for currently affected orders or customers, as well as a long-term solution so that these problems will not occur again.
Again: For Amazon, the customer experience is most important. As a result, you need to convince Amazon that there will be no repeat violations with this seller account. Assigning blame will not get you far. In the same way, emotional explanations are not purposeful, as they are certainly humanly understandable, but do not offer a solution in the Amazon action plan.
Admit the blame yourself in your letter and write your action plan in an easy-to-understand, concise and factual manner and explain to Amazon how you will prevent misconduct in the future. The less time your case takes for the Amazon workers in charge, the faster you will get to your goal: unblocking your seller account.
Your Amazon seller account is still blocked
Before you take legal action or threaten to do so, we recommend that you keep a calm head and follow the procedure described above. This does not remove the possibility of exerting more pressure later. If your appeals are rejected or Amazon does not respond at all, you can take legal action.
Take legal action against Amazon
If the only option left to you is to take legal action against Amazon, then a lawyer can help you enormously. Especially if haste is required, a letter from a lawyer can force Amazon to react - or in the next step even take it to court, which is, however, rarely necessary.
In principle, a conflict arises. According to the autonomy of contract, Amazon, just like any other company, is free to choose its own contractual partners. However, this is opposed by the right of use of the seller account owner. This grants sellers the right to use Amazon as a platform. If Amazon simply blocks accounts, Amazon does not fulfill its contractual obligation to offer this platform. If there is a serious reason or if the affected account violates the guidelines and/or applicable law, Amazon cannot be held responsible. Otherwise, Amazon must comply with the notice period.
Other options if your Seller account is blocked
In previous proceedings, account holders were granted a legal position similar to ownership in court, so that they have a right to their account. Without reasons or adherence to a notice period, Amazon is bound to the compliance of the contract just like Amazon Sellers. While we do not advise legal action until the very end, you may even be entitled to damages in the worst case. Should you as a seller find yourself in such a situation, we recommend that you first keep a cool head and proceed with caution.
