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Amazon Restricts Sellers from Listing Sony Video Games

Amazon
Amazon Restricts Sellers from Listing Sony Video Games

Amazon sellers are buzzing about a notification they received on Friday that said as of November 30, they would no longer be approved to list Sony in Computer & Video Games products.

A seller posted the letter they received that other sellers also reported having received:

Important information about your Amazon.com listings
Hello,
As part of our ongoing efforts to provide the best possible customer experience, we have implemented additional restrictions for Sony in Computer & Video Games products.

Effective 2021-11-30, you will not be able to list the affected products, and your listings will be removed. This action does not impact your account health.

How can I reinstate my listings?
You are not approved to list Sony in Computer & Video Games products and we are currently not accepting applications.

Were your listings removed as a result of an error?
If you believe your products have been misclassified within a certain category or sub-category that requires approval, please contact Selling Partner Support with evidence, such as product pictures, to support this claim. Amazon will review your claim and make a final determination that will ensure the best shopping experience for our customers.

What happens if I do not take action?
If no action is taken, the affected listings will not be available for sale in the Amazon store

Some sellers said Amazon had begged them years ago to sell video games on its marketplace, such as a seller who wrote in part, “We’ve been selling on Amazon as a venue since 2010. We’re a brick & mortar video game store, so all we do is video games and related merchandise. Back in 2010 we were actually cold-called by Amazon from somebody in the video game department to recruit us to sell on the platform LOL, my how times have changed!”

Others noted how ill-timed the notice was, giving them short notice as holiday shopping ramps up.

Some sellers debated what prompted the change and whether or not it was driven by game publishers, or if Sony even knew about the new restrictions. “Sony branded products have slowly been added to the restricted list over the last several years,” one seller said. “Video games are probably the most broad exception within the Sony brand. The fact this is a more broad exclusion of seemingly all PlayStation products tells me some publishers may have been involved.”

And some sellers said Amazon had backed down after a backlash when it had attempted to institute similar restrictions for third-party sellers listing Nintendo, though not many seemed to hold out hope when it came to Sony products.

There were many questions, and despite sellers tagging moderators to chime in with information, the thread only consisted of third-party sellers as of this writing (Monday morning).

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Ina Steiner
Ina Steiner
Ina Steiner is co-founder and Editor of EcommerceBytes and has been reporting on ecommerce since 1999. She's a widely cited authority on marketplace selling and is author of "Turn eBay Data Into Dollars" (McGraw-Hill 2006). Her blog was featured in the book, "Blogging Heroes" (Wiley 2008). She is a member of the Online News Association (Sep 2005 - present) and Investigative Reporters and Editors (Mar 2006 - present). Follow her on Twitter at @ecommercebytes and send news tips to ina@ecommercebytes.com. See disclosure at EcommerceBytes.com/disclosure/.

One thought on “Amazon Restricts Sellers from Listing Sony Video Games”

  1. One more FU to the Marketplace Sellers, there are thousands upon thousands of Video Game dealers who just lost their jobs.

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