Attention: Amazon Seller Support and Commissioners of the Federal Trade Commission:

It has come to our attention that an Amazon Seller, DEALS PLUS is in violation of Amazon’s Prohibited Seller Activities and Actions by fabricating favorable reviews for their own products under many different aliases, and damaging reviews for a competitor product under different aliases as well. Seller DEALS PLUS, the exclusive seller of the brand VIPERTEK, previously conducted business on Amazon.com under the Seller name of VIP DEALS. The rate at which Seller VIP DEALS produced positive reviews for their products was egregious, and was also addressed in The New York Times in January of 2012. At that point, Amazon removed Seller VIP DEALS’ selling capabilities on Amazon.com and their platform, and this was published in several news articles.

Since Seller VIP DEALS was removed from Amazon, they dissolved their company, relocated, and are currently operating on Amazon.com under seller name DEALS PLUS. They are selling the same products, with the same registered trademark, VIPERTEK. Again, in a matter of a short few months, they have fabricated hundreds of fictitious reviews to gain an advantage on Amazon. As this is advantageous to Seller DEALS PLUS (formerly VIP DEALS), it serves as a severe disadvantage to those who strive to earn the positive reviews of their consumers, in hope to propel their sales as a result.

Under Amazon’s Prohibited Seller Activities:

“Prohibited Seller Activities and Actions are established to maintain a selling platform that is safe for buyers and fair for sellers of both products and services. Failure to comply with the terms of this policy can result in cancellation of listings, suspension from use of Amazon.com tools and reports, and/or the removal of selling privileges.”

· Misuse of ratings and feedback or reviews:Any attempt to manipulate ratings, feedback, or reviews is prohibited.

o Ratings and feedback: The rating and feedback features allow buyers to evaluate the overall performance of a seller, helping sellers to develop a reputation within the Amazon Marketplace. You may not post abusive or inappropriate feedback or include personal information about a transaction partner. This also includes posting ratings or feedback to your own account. You may request feedback from a buyer, however you may not pay or offer any incentive to a buyer for either providing or removing feedback.

o Reviews: Reviews are important to the Amazon Marketplace, providing a forum for feedback about product and service details and reviewers' experiences with products and services — positive or negative. You may not write reviews for products or services that you have a financial interest in, including reviews for products or services that you or your competitors sell. Additionally, you may not provide compensation for a review other than a free copy of the product. If you offer a free product, it must be clear that you are soliciting an unbiased review. The free product must be provided in advance; no refunds are permitted after the review is written. Review solicitations that ask for only positive reviews or that offer compensation are prohibited. You may not ask buyers to remove negative reviews.

Here, Seller DEALS PLUS sells exclusively Vipertek products and has generated a disproportionately large amount of reviews on their products in a short amount of time. Seller DEALS PLUS has received more than 6,542 seller feedback since January 2014, and has produced a questionably large amount of product reviews (many from unverified purchases) since January 2014. During this time, Vipertek’s competitor products have suffered from hostile attacks and experienced an unusually higher number of negative reviews on their products. Again, many of these reviews are from unverified purchases.

Inclusive of their deceptive practices, Seller, DEALS PLUS continues to sell stun guns to jurisdictions that have made the possession, use or sale of stun guns illegal. Seller DEALS PLUS was made aware that the stun guns sold in these jurisdictions were to be sold to local consumers. Further, Amazon has been put on notice via U.S. Mail that Seller DEALS PLUS is engaging in illegal activity.

Under Amazon’s Participation Agreement:

13. Illegal Activity

a. Compliance with Laws; Fraud.The Site and Services may be used only for lawful purposes and in a lawful manner. You agree to comply with all applicable laws, statutes, and regulations. You may not register under a false name or use an invalid or unauthorized credit card. You may not impersonate any participant or use another participant's password(s). Such fraudulent conduct is a violation of federal and state laws. Fraudulent conduct may be reported to law enforcement, and Amazon will cooperate to ensure that violators are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Under Amazon’s Participation Agreement, a seller agrees to comply with federal and state laws. Further, when a seller’s illegal activity has been brought to Amazon’s attention, Amazon must be proactive in enforcing its policies on those who have violated Amazon’s Participation Agreement. As Amazon sellers who abide by Amazon terms, conditions, guidelines and requirements, we demand affirmative action be taken by Amazon to:

1. Remove the violating seller, DEALS PLUS, from the Amazon platform for engaging in the same deceptive practices they engaged in before being removed from the Amazon platform previously; and

2. Enforce Amazon’s regulations to forbid Sellers from representing misguiding information to buyers- fabricating self-promoting reviews and posting fabricated negative reviews for competitor products.

Once again, it is unrealistic to ask sellers to declare their correct name when creating self-promoting reviews for their own products in order to make the proper link. Further action must be taken by Amazon, otherwise there will be no credibility in reviews, which “are important to the Amazon Marketplace, providing a forum for feedback about product details and reviewers' experiences with products—positive or negative.”

We strive to abide by the rules set forth by the platform for which we sell on. However, when a seller exploits the rules of Amazon, it should be Amazon’s responsibility to research beyond a matching reviewer name to an Amazon seller. Seller DEALS PLUS has created an atmosphere, which has reflected negatively on the credibility of Amazon.

As sellers of the same product line, self-defense stun guns, we stand united in the demand for the removal of Seller DEALS PLUS from the Amazon platform. This seller has engaged in deceptive practices to increase the ratings of their products and decrease the ratings of competitor products, which is not only misguiding to buyers, but also unfairly damaging to the business of those sellers who follow the rules.

We look forward to immediate affirmative action by Amazon.