Amazon bans Chinese merchants for alleged attempts to bribe customers to write good reviews
- Offering gifts to customers to write positive reviews is a common practice in the Chinese e-commerce world but considered an abuse of the review system by Amazon
- Sunvalley, which operates six brands from electronics to home appliances, generated US$697 million in sales from Amazon last year
Three more Chinese consumer brands have been banned from selling on Amazon.com amid the US platform’s ongoing crackdown on attempts by sellers to solicit positive customer reviews, dealing a fresh blow to the “made in China, sold on Amazon” community.
Amazon banned the sale of RAVPower power banks, Taotronics earphones and VAVA cameras, three brands under Shenzhen-based electronics company Sunvalley, effective June 16, according to a weekend announcement by Sunvalley’s parent company Guangdong SACA Precision Manufacturing.
The suspension came after the merchants were found to be offering gift cards to customers willing to write positive reviews about their purchases – a common practise in the Chinese e-commerce world but considered an abuse of the review system by Amazon.
“According to our investigation, the reason [for the ban] may be that some products offered gift cards to customers, which is allegedly in violation of the rules of the Amazon platform,” SACA said in the statement. The company has hired lawyers to “communicate, actively coordinate and [launch an] appeal” with Amazon in a bid to restore its sales on the US giant’s online stores.
Amazon recently took similar action against other Chinese merchants for violating its rules on fake customer reviews, including an online store backed by TikTok owner ByteDance.
The three brands hit by the latest decision sell a range of consumer electronics products, including baby monitoring cameras, with the affected products accounting for around one-third of Sunvalley’s total sales revenue on Amazon since the start of 2020, according to the statement.