Due to its high market share and easy shipping and logistics, the online giant Amazon is very popular among many online retailers. This dependence on Amazon in particular poses some legal risks that you should definitely be aware of. Therefore, we will show you 7 points to consider when selling legally on Amazon.

Check Amazon for daily specials

It has been repeatedly determined in Germany that even Amazon retailers are liable for product descriptions. This applies to all products you offer here. As a retailer, you often do not have the right to write the listing, but rather Amazon itself or a competitor. Amazon, unlike eBay, for example, follows the principle of “1 item – 1 listing.” This way, you share a product page with several other merchants, as well as Amazon itself. You may be liable for pages you did not create yourself. The courts have established a daily review obligation in this regard. Therefore, you should review your offers daily to minimize the risk of liability. This is very time-consuming, especially with a large assortment. However, this is the only way to be on the safe side and protect yourself from warnings on Amazon.

The appropriate legal texts for Amazon listings

As with their own online shop, the retailer is also the contract partner of the customer on Amazon. Therefore, you must also provide the prescribed legal texts here. These include:
> GTC
> copyright page
> data [privacy] protection
> Revocation Policy and Sample Revocation Form
> and possibly battery warnings

The legal texts on Amazon are inserted into the designated fields. However, these must first be individually adapted for the Amazon store. Some law firms and associations provide legal texts specifically created for trading on Amazon.

However, the withdrawal notice is tricky. If you use the FBA program, Amazon provides its own return policy under “Detailed Seller Information”. However, this cancellation policy created by Amazon is not legally secure and poses a risk of a warning letter! Unfortunately, as a merchant, you cannot add your own cancellation policy.

VAT information on the Amazon product page & listing view

In the past, there were often warnings for missing VAT information. These are ultimately prescribed in the German Act on the Indication of Prices (PAngV). This information is now available on the product page. However, the VAT notice is still missing in the list view of the search results.

To also display the VAT note in the list view, you can enter this information in the “Condition notes” mask under “Edit individual product”. However, it is even safer to include this information in the seller’s name.

Selling with legal certainty: Specifying base prices in the offer

The PAngV also requires the indication of basic prices. Accordingly, you must indicate the price per unit of quantity for all items sold by weight, length, area, or volume. Amazon now offers a corresponding function. Nevertheless, you should make sure that the correct reference value is used. If the basic price refers to the weight including packaging, for example, it is too low. This would be misleading as a dealer and could result in a warning. However, it is not always clear which products require basic prices. For example, a basic price must be indicated for coffee capsules. This could be used to deduce that the indication of the basic price is also required for other products in capsule form, such as supplements. However, the courts have disagreed. Their reasoning: Coffee is sold by weight as standard. Accordingly, the basic price must also be indicated for coffee in capsule form.

Warnings on Amazon for sales

If you have received a warning, you should consult with a lawyer. You are often asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement. Never sign a non-disclosure agreement prematurely! The contractual penalty contained therein may be due in some cases for minor infringements without any wrongdoing on your part. That is exactly what many of your competitors are aiming for.

Use Amazon legally: Gain a monopoly on a product

Amazon generally follows the principle of “one product, one listing.” This is intended to make it as easy as possible for the customer to keep track. To be the only retailer allowed to sell a product, you must appear as the manufacturer, importer, or distributor. In diesem Fall sollten Sie keine falschen Tatsachen vortäuschen. Because Amazon reacts very sharply to false appearances, and you can be warned by competitors. However, you also cannot simply open a second product page for the same item. One solution is to label the product. You can even act as the manufacturer yourself. However, the associated trademark application should be taken into account.

The second and often more cost-effective solution is to create a bundle. For example, a provider offers Varta batteries in a plastic shell, thus creating their own product. You can create such a bundle with an e-book for the product even more easily. They can send this to the customer via email at no additional cost.

Amazon warnings for paid reviews

Many retailers still falsify the reviews on Amazon for their products. By doing so, you not only put yourself at risk of a warning. Because Amazon is now sensitive to purchased reviews. In some cases, ratings are bought very obviously and brazenly. For example, there were already matching protective cases with corresponding poorly translated reviews of their protective performance before the release of the new iPhone. As a retailer, you are already committing a crime if you generate reviews from product testers with targeted campaigns.

Find a sales strategy for online retail

It is clear that anyone who wants to sell a product today can no longer do without the possibility of online sales. However, without a strategy, this can backfire. When building an online business strategy, the question arises: own web shop, online sales platform, or both at the same time? For online retailers, the choice of distribution channels sets the course for the entire marketing strategy and the associated time and technical effort. Many retailers combine sales platforms with their own shop. The central question often posed at the beginning: how can the respective products be made accessible to a target group in the most cost-efficient and affordable way?

Amazon as a sales platform

For merchants on Amazon, there are several warning traps and competition violations to be aware of. Nonetheless, Amazon offers enormous benefits and opportunities for merchants. This includes, for example, simple processing and a large number of customers. You can read more about the advantages of AmAazon in our article Online Sales Platforms: 5 Online Marketplaces for Selling on the Internet.

Note: This text is not legal advice, but rather an informational resource based on a lecture by Dr. Thomas Engels. In this presentation, Dr. Thomas Engels reports on his experiences as a specialist lawyer for IT law and provides valuable tips for legally secure trading on Amazon.