Deactivated Seller Accuses Amazon of ‘Reprehensible Misconduct,’ Seeks Seized Profits

Amazon removed to U.S. District Court for Central California in Los Angeles a Sept. 1 complaint in Los Angeles Superior Court in which a deactivated third-party seller, Yoshiki Dreamer, seeks damages for breach of contract, fraud, conversion and violations of California’s unfair competition law, said Amazon’s notice of removal Friday (docket 2:23-cv-08656). The complaint alleges Amazon perpetuated a “scheme” in which it “abruptly terminated” the seller’s account “without cause,” and seized, “without explanation,” nearly $56,000 in sales proceeds and nearly $5,500 in inventory. “Despite demand,” Amazon hasn’t relinquished the inventory or profits to Yoshiki Dreamer, “or otherwise justified its bad faith deactivation” of the seller’s account, it said. Yoshiki Dreamer’s dispute with Amazon is one of the few in which a deactivated third-party seller asked the court directly to order Amazon to release the contested funds, rather than petition the court to vacate an arbitration award in Amazon’s favor. Amazon doesn’t waive “its respective rights to assert any defense,” including its right to compel arbitration or move to dismiss the action for failure to state a claim, said its notice of removal. Yoshiki Dreamer “fully performed all the terms and conditions on its part to be performed” under its June 14 contract with Amazon, said the seller’s complaint. Amazon “failed, neglected and refused to pay any of the amounts owed,” in breach of the contract, it said. Amazon’s conduct was “perpetrated in bad faith in a knowing, willful, and fraudulent manner and with malice and oppression,” said the seller. Its complaint seeks punitive damages “in a sum sufficient to punish and deter” Amazon from “ever again engaging in such reprehensible misconduct,” it said.