OK, first of all, can’t find a good category for this so Papy, please move this if needed.
So, this influencer popped a video on our listings comparing our product to another sort of similar one claiming the other product is the best. Is this really allowed on Amazon because if it is, man will we cook up some great ones against our competitors…
You can see this asshole is doing this to every major brand on Amazon and I mean the biggest brands in the business. The products aren’t even close to being the same thing. It’s obviously being done to try and use our velocity and others for free advertising.
Every single day it’s something else on Amazon to battle against!
This is the product BTW she’s promoting across the top 200 in sleep. ALL OF THEM…
Couple of things:
Obviously infringing on Noom Weight Loss’s intellectual property.
Lead image violation with that watermark text.
No doctor in their right mind would recommend or endorse this, not even Mike Huckaby.
This would make me sick if I found something like that on my offer. All the money you make them, and pay them and this is how they sh*t on you. Wow no one saw the massive potential for abuse opening this door?
Besides the obvious manipulation, how will they prevent bot suspected IP violations from other brands pictured on your page?
I was just writing someone about just this. I don’t care about this product. It’s a piece of junk, sells 300 a month, nobody cares. It’s also skating on thin ice when it comes to claiming weight loss while you sleep. Nature’s Bounty paid a $10M fine and got a consent decree from the FTC for this about 20 years ago. I remember, I was there. You can’t make that claim…
They had purchased a tiny brand for their mailing list. Once the Govt found out about the transaction, they took action against us because we had the ability to pay. It was fine before that though…
Could you imagine if this is OK to do and how many hundreds of videos are going to pop up on every listing comparing Apples to Dog ■■■■?
I’ve read the policy just now and it appears if the language is not defamatory, it’s got the golden ticket as far as Amazon is concerned.
I’ve never seen a video like this. The 150 or so videos she posted are brand new. I’m sure Natrol and Nature’s Bounty and Pure Encapsulations (some of Amazon’s biggest accounts), are really going to appreciate this.
ETA - Yup - this is good enough to get shut down by the FTC…
I’m quite sure that Kourtney Kardashian will appreciate this too. There has to be a limit of these comparisons. The products aren’t even CLOSE to being the same thing. Same thing with ours which is the other reason why I don’t really care. Just find it annoying.
If Chrystal is really the creator, I doubt she can afford a 2m fine any more than a 10m fine.
Does the FTC have a tip line? I can’t imagine how they could keep up with fraudulent claims online even with bots, if they have them yet.
You would have better luck climbing 5 mount Everest’s stacked on top of each other than getting heard by the FTC as an ordinary brand without a $50M retainer with a top firm.
It’s not a realistic option. If the FTC really cared about what was going on at Amazon, just in my category, ~95% of the listings would instantaneously evaporate into thin air.
Amazon doesn’t care either. Do you have any idea what the sales are in supplements on Amazon and how much the losers we compete with line Amazon’s pockets with PPC? The number (which I don’t know) is astronomical. Amazon stands behind their policies which a 10 year old could get around to list products in this category.
Not sure if you saw my post last week on the PPC spend we were able to get from Amazon as a “blind” competitor review. One of them (JUST ONE SELLER), is spending $17,000 per day on PPC.
Hmmm, isn’t this a violation of Amazon’s Buyer-side Customer Reviews and Community Guidelines around promotion, indirect financial interest, and compensated reviews?
You would think so but apparently not. See, there’s a way for Amazon to make money here so they don’t care which product gets ordered or which seller gets their feelings / reputation hurt. It’s literally the wild west with these. This is going to get bad now that this genie is out of the bottle.
And remember, this is a compensated influencer contributor.
Everyone burns calories when they sleep, it’s part of normal body functions – breathing, circulating blood, digestion, etc. . Is the influencer saying the product promotes or enhances something that occurs naturally?
Hmmm, isn’t this a violation of Amazon’s Buyer-side 
