Changing a foreign Amazon description can be anti-competitive

Changing a competitor’s description for an Amazon product can be anti-competitive. In the case to be decided by the Regional Court of Düsseldorf, someone changed the description so that it contained its own trademark instead of the foreign trademark.

The General Court agrees with the original seller’s concern that this act constitutes an unfair obstruction within the meaning of the UWG and that it is therefore anti-competitive.

The amendment of the third-party offer with regard to the product identifier or trademark “by xy” or in the offer heading is an impairment of the competitive development possibilities of the respective offer owner, which exceeds the competitive impairment.

The full text of the decision is available here.

In the meantime, there are numerous pitfalls that retailers at Amazon can threaten, ranging from attaching to a foreign ASIN and adhering to missing information in the product, to improper, duplicate creation of the same products, to numerous possible own violations in the sale and in subsequent communication. Especially smaller, more inexperienced dealers, who may also be working with dropshipping, should definitely seek professional advice.