Amazon: No more third-party sales of “Nintendo products” without approval

guest · Nov 1, 2019

Amazon: No more third-party sales of “Nintendo products” without approval
Rule about "Nintendo products" goes into effect as soon as it's announced
November 1, 2019
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019...-sales-of-nintendo-products-without-approval/

The war over used video game sales has been cool for the past few years [...] But in a Thursday attempt to control the reputation of Nintendo products being sold at Amazon, the debate may rage anew.

Today, Amazon made a stark announcement to its family of third-party product resellers: effective immediately, those sellers can no longer list "Nintendo products" for sale without receiving express approval.
This affects everything from modern Switch games and consoles to out-of-print cartridges and hardware, but it also leaves third-party makers of Nintendo console games (i.e., Capcom, Ubisoft) unaffected.
Original ASIN
The Amazon notice to resellers reads:

As part of our ongoing efforts to provide the best possible customer experience, we are implementing approval requirements for Nintendo products... Effective on 2019-10-31, you will need approval to list the affected products. If you do not obtain approval to sell these products prior to 2019-10-31, your listings for these products will be removed.
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This follows efforts by Amazon to clamp down on other product categories' "used" sales. Included in this move are DVDs and Apple products, which now require similar approval processes to move forward.

This decision seems to imply that either Nintendo or Amazon would rather limit all used sales of Nintendo products than build a more focused list of scrutinized software and products.
Additionally, Amazon has yet to roll out a similar rule for anything produced by console producers Microsoft or Sony—perhaps, in part, because those companies have wider product catalogs than Nintendo.
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guest · Nov 2, 2019

mood said: ↑

Amazon: No more third-party sales of “Nintendo products” without approval
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Updated article (November 1, 2019):

Update, November 1, 5:40 p.m. ET: Nearly 24 hours after the below report went live, Amazon responded to our questions about its new, sudden restrictions on Nintendo products by saying it had reversed course. The company forwarded a statement:

"Yesterday’s email [to third-party Amazon sellers] was sent in error, and all impacted listings were reinstated within hours."

The response did not explain what "error" had occurred, nor what that span of "hours" entailed, since yesterday's complaints from Amazon sellers came as many as six hours after they'd received an email alert. It also didn't explain whether Nintendo was at all involved in the initial establishment of newer, more restrictive rules on Nintendo listings at the site. We have asked Amazon to clarify whether any such rules could return, since they still apply to other product categories at the site.
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Amazon blames ‘error’ for blocking Nintendo resellers from listing products
The apparent policy change was emailed out by mistake
November 1, 2019
https://www.theverge.com/2019/11/1/...do-deal-used-retro-games-consoles-counterfeit

At first blush, it looked like two companies had stuck a so-called brand gating deal, common in e-commerce and designed to restrict third-party sellers who may traffic in counterfeits.

After a day of silence, Amazon says the email notifying Nintendo resellers of the apparent policy change was a mistake. “Yesterday’s email was sent in error and all impacted listings were reinstated within hours,” a company spokesperson now tells The Verge.
Despite Amazon’s claim that all listings were reinstated, a forum thread filled with affected Amazon Marketplace sellers has been active for the last 24 hours. It’s unclear how many sellers were affected, and whether Amazon has communicated the error to them.

The effects of brand gating can be devastating for sellers of brands that have discontinued products and products that involve technical upkeep, like consumer electronics.
A majority of those sellers, very few of which can reasonably meet the Renewed requirements, were forced to start using their personal websites, eBay, Etsy, and other marketplaces. Some told The Verge Amazon was responsible for a bulk of their business.
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Update November 1st, 5:25PM ET: Clarified that Amazon now says the email notifying Nintendo resellers of the new approval policy was sent by mistake and all listings have been reinstated. The headline has been updated to reflect this fact.
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