Watch out for unprofessional “brand protectors”

Congratulations. You’ve built a successful brand. You have distribution in brick and mortar stores, maybe some international presence, and of course you sell online on the usual suspects: certainly Amazon, but potentially Walmart and eBay as well. Perhaps you’re a large router company, like TP-Link; maybe you’ve been around for the better part of a century and are as strong as ever, like Stansport. You might be gearing up your company for an acquisition, like The Mane Choice, or you could be using a dead celebrity’s name to sell supplements (Rich Piana 5% Nutrition), or just compete in the cosmetics market, like Youngblood and Pure Brazilian.

There’s just one problem: you’re not the only one trying to sell your products online. In fact, there’s a whole array of “unauthorized resellers” that have the audacity to compete with you online; and worse, they often undercut you and “steal” your sales, or force you to drop your own prices in return. You do some investigation and find out that most of these sellers are selling authentic products, either purchased directly from you through your wholesale reps, or through a “grey market” distributor, or something in between. Discouraged, you attend a trade show and notice an interesting booth: they’re offering “problem seller removal” and promising to “hit the target”. They even have a visual demonstration of the process, complete with guns. They promise to get rid of 90% of unauthorized resellers in 90 days. This is just what you needed. They’ll get rid of all those sellers and let you sell in peace at MSRP. How will they do it? You don’t know, and don’t ask too many questions.

Well, if it’s too good to be true, it often is. What do all the brands above have in common? You guessed it: they all hired a brand protection company and subsequently got sued by a seller targeted by their guns. It turns out, all the company really does is tell the marketplace platform that those sellers are selling counterfeit products. Inevitably, some of the sellers sue, and the company will simply refuse to cooperate. See https://www.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nyed.417526/gov.uscourts.nyed.417526.35.1.pdf, filed by TP-Link in a related lawsuit:

TP-Link requested from Amazzia any specific complaints to Amazon about Careful Shopper, but Amazzia has refused to provide any of the requested correspondence

Pretty crappy customer service, but no refunds.