Amazon Deactivated Seller Accounts 'Without Good Cause,' Says Complaint

Amazon deactivated seller accounts and their associated advertising campaigns “without any adequate warning and without good cause,” hasn't resolved technical and account access issues necessary for basic business functions and denied access to funds owed to plaintiffs, said a Tuesday complaint (docket 3:23-cv-00603) in U.S. District Court for Connecticut in New Haven. Plaintiff Benjamin Ligeri, a Connecticut resident who owns co-plaintiff companies Central Concepts, Trademark Holdings, Global Specialty Products and Medcare, said he can’t access his My Medical Warehouse account, renamed to Twin Horses upon acquisition, which he has “rights of access to,” said the complaint. Amazon’s “defective system" denied access to funds owed to plaintiff Medcare for up to nine months, and it continued to “fraudulently take funds” owed to plaintiffs under the “pretense of bogus fees such as ancient removal orders,” the complaint said. Medcare “never got its pay cycle where it had accrued thousands of dollars,” it said. In its terms of service (TOS), Amazon told plaintiffs they would receive protection for their intellectual property from counterfeits; timely disbursements of their profits by Amazon; reliable and useful technology to operate on the platform; a fair market; fixed and knowable fees in advance; and “protection against the placement of dangerous products” on Amazon’s platform that could be confused with plaintiffs’, the complaint said, but "none of these representations were true.” Plaintiffs claims include trademark infringement; negligence; a declaratory judgment that TOS are a voidable adhesion contract; violation of Connecticut’s Unfair Trade Practices Act; negligent misrepresentation; fraud and civil theft; tortious interference with business; conversion; anti-trust violation; breach of fiduciary duty; unjust enrichment; and theft of trade secrets. Plaintiffs seek damages, an injunction commanding either reactivation of their accounts or permanent destruction of their data, plus an accounting of the data’s usage, unauthorized sharing and profits derived.