Ex-Amazon Seller Falls ‘Woefully Short’ of Establishing Vacatur Basis, Says Amazon

U.S. District Judge Ronnie Abrams for Southern New York in Manhattan should deny the petition of former Amazon third-party seller Jiakeshu Technology to vacate an arbitration award in Amazon’s favor and grant Amazon’s cross-motion to confirm that award, said Amazon’s memorandum of law Tuesday (docket 1:22-cv-10119) in support of ts cross-motion. An arbitrator ruled last summer that Amazon could keep $50,000 in Jiakeshu sales proceeds that Amazon seized after it deactivated the third-party store for paying customers to submit fake positive reviews. Abrams on June 21 denied Jiakeshu’s motion to remand to New York Supreme Court its petition to vacate that award (see 2306220019). Jiakeshu “abused” Amazon’s trust when it engaged in “deceptive conduct and breached its contractual promises,” said the memorandum. The arbitrator properly said Amazon had a contractual right to suspend Jiakeshu’s account and to withhold about two weeks’ worth of sales proceeds, “as expressly authorized by parties’ governing contract,” it said. Jiakeshu now “improperly seeks to relitigate the merits of its failed claims,” it said. It asks the court to “toss aside” the arbitrator’s “reasoned” award and summarily order Amazon to pay Jiakeshu funds to which the arbitrator correctly ruled the seller “had no contractual right,” it said. Jiakeshu falls “woefully short of establishing any basis for vacatur under the Federal Arbitration Act,” it said.