It was reported recently that Amazon had clamped down on thousands of online stores on its platform for infractions against the company’s policy on paid customer reviews. The move was seen as the largest shutdown so far, with the bulk of the brands affected coming from China. About 600 brands were affected by the clampdown, totaling up to 3,000 stores.

It seems some of these companies are not taking the Amazon decision lightly, as it has resulted in serious financial dislocations and a downward review of their overall outlook. Several of these companies have now filed a class action complaint against Amazon for its action in shutting them out of the Amazon marketplace. The complaint is dated September 13 and has several popular Chinese brands listed including Recoo Direct, Angelbliss, Tudi, Sopownic, and Cstech, among others. The companies are jointly seeking a recovery of their funds that are being illegally and improperly withheld by the respondent, Amazon.

They also desire a decision of the court to stop any further misappropriation and misuse of funds that are rightfully and legally due to the thousands of Amazon online sellers and merchants. The companies claim they have been unfavorably targeted by the policy against incentivized reviews and therefore want to be restored back to the platform.

The 28-page document was filed by Edward Chen, on behalf of the plaintiffs against Amazon and some of its subsidiaries. The court papers were filed at the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. It remains however to be seen what the outcome of the suit will be.

RELATED:

• Meet Amazon’s Astro: a multifunctional home assistant robot
• Amazon announces the Halo View fitness band along with the Halo fitness services
• The new Echo Show 15 is Amazon’s largest smart display & can be hung on the wall
• Amazon enters the TV market with the Fire TV Omni Series and Fire TV 4-series
• Facebook and Ray-Ban’s smart glasses dubbed Ray-Ban Stories launched

(source)

The post Chinese companies banned by Amazon for soliciting paid reviews jointly sues the US retail giant appeared first on Gizmochina.