THIS.
All day, EVERY day, this.
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So what I am seeing is that more items are being enrolled in the Transparency program. However, they are not labeled with T-Codes from the manufacturer which from what I have read is against Amazon’s Transparency rules.
A manufacturer must label the item globally, if item is enrolled, to mark as authentic. It can’t be “just for amazon” and to prevent legitimate business from competing in the listing.
I may be wrong so I made a case to get some clarification from the black hole, I mean seller support.
If anyone has more info it would be appreciated as I see this becoming a bigger issue for resellers in the future.
Also it’s random, for example
Natrapel Insect repellent (single listing) no codes required
(pack of 3) Required
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I don’t use the stuff but have suppliers that do.
The ‘randomness’ appears to be by design so the BRAND can determine which products to enroll. This is from the enrollment page.
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I’m not sure if the response is a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’ but it shows that Amazon allows companies to pick and choose which items they want to label…
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Correct. They don’t have to label all their items but for the sku’s they choose to label they must label them all.
So it would really only stop counterfeits not stop RA or OA or distributor acquired goods. Al least that’s how I read it.
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In my case I have a supplier that knows some of their items are slow movers and they notified Amazon that I was an authorized seller and that not all of my items would have the ‘proper’ labels for my sales.
It’s going to be a LONG time before all my stuff is good to go. Since I only do FBM it doesn’t matter a whole lot since I can’t see a buyer looking for a ‘code’ on the package.
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So the case response so far is:
You state you have purchased from manufacturer and ASIN has not transparency codes
Allow me inform you that the specialized team is taking care for this issue, they are investigating and reviewing this issue, therefore the case will remain in Pending Amazon Action.
Lets see where this goes.
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I highly doubt they do anything about it. Transparency is primarily abused to gatekeep people out of an ASIN. The number of products I’ve seen with a transparency code as part of the trade dress are few and far between. Most of them apply a separate sticker to it, often with an FNSKU printed on the same sticker, and there’s no way they’re putting that on every unit because it looks terrible.
If they actually wanted to do something about it they would require that the manufacturer integrate the code into the trade dress, which shows they’re serious about putting the code onto every unit made. If they’re putting a separate sticker on it’s pretty clear they’re only doing so to lock other sellers out of an ASIN.
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Yes but…so what? It’s their own brand, it’s their GTIN. It’s their product. Why not use all available means to control what they can?
As a small manufacturer/rights owner/brand, I completely understand being cautious with how my brand is presented/offered to consumers. And as an Amazon Seller, I know how easy it is for some other unscrupulous Seller to try to make a little bit of money off of my hard work.
I don’t begrudge any brand protecting their reputation–even the big ones.
And I respect the Sellers willing to jump the hoops to offer legitimate products, in the way that’s defined according to each sales channel.
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It’s still an abuse of the program, and yet another case of Amazon allowing abuse and looking the other way and letting whoever cheats get ahead.
It doesn’t matter when you’re a foreign bad actor, a reseller, or a brand owner, it seems like whoever abuses what they can get the easy way out.
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How?
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It literally says to be eligible the codes must be applied to ALL units, not just ones sold on Amazon. How is not following the rules of the program not abusing it?
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You only mentioned brands including it as a sticker on packaging and that you would personally prefer it printed.
But Amazon doesn’t require that it’s printed on packaging.
So how are they violating policies?
And how do you know that they don’t sticker all units–even with the Amazon-specific FNSKU–or that they simply don’t use a different transparency sticker without the FNSKU for items not intended for sale on Amazon?
I’m asking what I’m missing, because I don’t see any violation with what you’ve stated.
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I’m talking about the numerous brands that use it for the purposes of gatekeeping. They do not put transparency codes on all units. If you order from their website, or order wholesale, the codes won’t be there.
I mentioned the fact that they affix a separate sticker instead of having it on the trade dress because the brands that do that typically do not follow the rules and have those stickers on all units, just the ones they sell on Amazon. There are some brands that incorporated the code into their trade dress and do follow the rules, and I have seen that too, but that’s the minority. I have never seen a brand that follows the rules by putting a big ugly sticker on units sold off Amazon.
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I don’t know that it’s fair to make that assumption, beyond our own personal experiences. And I don’t personally police packaging for consistency across sales channels (except my own).
But I do completely agree with you that if a brand is not including transparency codes on all items of that GTIN as required, then they are indeed violating Amazon’s transparency policy.
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While my personal sample size is not huge, I have personally seen and verified multiple cases of Amazon exclusive transparency codes, and have seen many complaints online regarding the same.
I expect that Amazon will not enforce this policy whatsoever though, as there’s very little potential liability coming from this type of abuse.
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It’s written in many places when you go to Transparency FAQ:
Brands can enroll some or all of their products in Transparency. For every product enrolled, brands are required to apply unique Transparency codes, or submit their serial numbers, for every unit manufactured for that product.
So lets hope they follow their own policies.
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Years ago, I enrolled some of my items in Amazon’s transparency program. Once the ASINs were identified, I had to order stickers that had serial numbers on them.
YES, the same table runner sold at Walmart was supposed to have a serial number on it as well.
Then when I got an order from Amazon, I had to enter the serial number into Amazon’s system BEFORE I could ship it out.
When I got an order on Walmart, I was supposed to put a sticker on it and send it out.
The stickers came on rolls and they were about the size of a postage stamp. Seeing the serial number to manually add to every Amazon order…was like adding a tracking number manually (in length) and I had to use a magnifying glass to even see the friggin’ numbers.
Beyond the issue of the competitor that I had (in 2017-19) or so, I had one person list against my listing and I was like WHOA! I am trademarked! And Amazon said well, they can sell as used. Nothing Amazon would do. Hmmmm…
If the item sold at say Walmart, then they didn’t want to keep it, they could come to Amazon and sell as USED. If it was enrolled in transparency, I could say “Not authentic”…didn’t put a sticker on the Walmart item in order to prevent this – but it WAS clearly against the agreement.
So within 4 months or so, I started UN-ENROLLING everything from Transparency. Too much work added for this one person
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