Why did Amazon close my account?

Hello.

I just started with Amazon and they closed my account. I asked for the explanation and this is what they told me:

"Hello,

Videos, images and editorial reviews that are available in Associate Central may be displayed on any page that includes attribution and a link to Amazon.com.

Videos, product images, and reviews written/created by other sources, including professional reviewers, authors, publishers and customers, are copyrighted by others. We display them on our site by permission from the third parties. Amazon.com doesn't have the legal right to give you permission to access, use, or display them.

If you wish to use Amazon.com's product images on your website, you may obtain them by creating Product Links on Associates Central or through Product Advertising API. Customer product reviews are also available through Product Advertising API. Your use of product images and reviews obtained through Product Advertising API is limited by the terms of the Product Advertising API License Agreement, which is available here:

https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/gp/advertising/api/detail/main.html

Before deciding to access product images or reviews through Product Advertising API, we encourage you to familiarize yourself with the full terms of the Licensing Agreement and in particular with the terms relating to storage, display, and refreshing data."

I have original and well-written content. I did not use reviews from Amazon products and I don't use any images that have Amazon logo on them, but I did use product images from Amazon. Is that the problem with my site?

"Videos, images and editorial reviews that are available in Associate Central may be displayed on any page that includes attribution and a link to Amazon.com."

Did you have affiliate disclaimer etc in place on your site ?

Yes that seems to be exactly the problem as explained in this statement: "Amazon.com doesn't have the legal right to give you permission to access, use, or display them."

Basically Amazon can display those images and when you are taking them from Amazon you sort of do not have a right to display them even if you are promoting their products.

MisterF said:

"Videos, images and editorial reviews that are available in Associate Central may be displayed on any page that includes attribution and a link to Amazon.com."

Did you have affiliate disclaimer etc in place on your site ?

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Yes I do.

littlewebdragon said:

Yes that seems to be exactly the problem as explained in this statement: "Amazon.com doesn't have the legal right to give you permission to access, use, or display them."

Basically Amazon can display those images and when you are taking them from Amazon you sort of do not have a right to display them even if you are promoting their products.

Click to expand...

Thanks. How do I get around this then, how can I show the product if I can't show images? :/

Can you send your website URL?

In Amazon sales pages there are 2 types of images. Those images at top of the page and in middle of the page which were added by seller or Amazon. Those images you can use. Then there are images or videos in Review section at bottom. Those stuff you can't use. Did you use of images or Videos ? Normally Amazon wouldn't care unless of those image owners complained.

If you have only used product images from Amazon/Seller then better keep the conversation going with Amazon support and explain that to them.

So I can use the images of the products on the sales pages (on the top) but not the pictures that are posted by the user reviews (on the bottom) yes?

"but I did use product images from Amazon" clearly you know your own problem. Why not simply fix it by taking your own pictures or getting the pictures from another source?

Amazon bans accounts left and right, no sense to argue with them or bring any extra attention to your account.

Trust me once the Amazon account closed it is very very rare to get it back.. I have had tried for several months and had lost 200k INR commission in that battel.. Best thing to apply again with new site, new name and bank details all together..

Make sure no details of your old account and make a new start with positive thinking and no black hat tricks at all.

Rahulraj9674 said:

Trust me once the Amazon account closed it is very very rare to get it back.. I have had tried for several months and had lost 200k INR commission in that battel.. Best thing to apply again with new site, new name and bank details all together..

Make sure no details of your old account and make a new start with positive thinking and no black hat tricks at all.

Click to expand...

For me actually it was pretty amazing - Amazon blocked me because I was using it on adult site and I just pressed register and registered with the same old details and it was ok. Still working

Intersting... This is the first time I heard someone get banned when using amazon product images.

tehnikumapuika said:

For me actually it was pretty amazing - Amazon blocked me because I was using it on adult site and I just pressed register and registered with the same old details and it was ok. Still working

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Glad to know that your account is still working..

wpbacklinks said:

Intersting... This is the first time I heard someone get banned when using amazon product images.

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Yes it's true.. They are becoming like Adsense.. Banning accounts every now and then.. You will find many users with banned Amazon accounts though they have made good sales and have lost comissions

JabbaTheHutt said:

In Amazon sales pages there are 2 types of images. Those images at top of the page and in middle of the page which were added by seller or Amazon. Those images you can use. Then there are images or videos in Review section at bottom. Those stuff you can't use. Did you use of images or Videos ? Normally Amazon wouldn't care unless of those image owners complained.

If you have only used product images from Amazon/Seller then better keep the conversation going with Amazon support and explain that to them.

Click to expand...

Images used are only the product ones, those on the top, with the white background. I did not use images that users posted as a review.

hippo123 said:

So I can use the images of the products on the sales pages (on the top) but not the pictures that are posted by the user reviews (on the bottom) yes?

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I want to know as well haha

speeder33 said:

"but I did use product images from Amazon" clearly you know your own problem. Why not simply fix it by taking your own pictures or getting the pictures from another source?

Amazon bans accounts left and right, no sense to argue with them or bring any extra attention to your account.

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I don't wanna argue with them. I want to know what I did wrong so I can fix it and apply again so they won't close my account. I can't make my own pictures since I'm promoting the product from Amazon. Only thing I could do is find pictures of that product and download them not from Amazon. Or buy them if someone is selling, but I doubt that.

Rahulraj9674 said:

Trust me once the Amazon account closed it is very very rare to get it back.. I have had tried for several months and had lost 200k INR commission in that battel.. Best thing to apply again with new site, new name and bank details all together..

Make sure no details of your old account and make a new start with positive thinking and no black hat tricks at all.

Click to expand...

Ah, I doubt I will do that, but thanks for the info!

tehnikumapuika said:

For me actually it was pretty amazing - Amazon blocked me because I was using it on adult site and I just pressed register and registered with the same old details and it was ok. Still working

Click to expand...

I'll probably try that as soon as I figure out exactly what is wrong.

wpbacklinks said:

Intersting... This is the first time I heard someone get banned when using amazon product images.

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I still don't know is that the reason, but it seems to be. I used images from the products, normal images with white background. I didn't mention words Amazon nor used images with their logo. Affiliate disclamier is there, only thing that I could do wrong is those images, but it's strange to get banned for that, right?

Pretty much the same thing happened with the account of a friend.

I was helping him to get approved as an associate. We've put a disclaimer, text only buttons without their logo, took product images from the Amazon site and bunch of other stuff recommended by a lot of affiliates. The site looks like the numerous Amazon aff sites around the web. Even I have a site participating in the program with nearly the same setup.

After the first few sales, they reviewed it and rejected it because of the use of copyrighted materials. None of the Amazon brands were mentioned anywhere, none of their logos either. There were no copied reviews also.

In the rejection letter, they allowed him to reapply after the inaccuracies are alternated.

Since he is a newbie, I should find a solution to this problem, and at the moment I am not sure where are the roots of the problem, so I know in what position you are in OP.

Maybe they rejected it because all of the images are hosted on his server, but a lot of sites are doing it the same way, and they are doing just fine.

I like the Amazon aff program, but it is clear as a day that they maintain double standards.

KanishkaSEO said:

Can you send your website URL?

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Why is this always a noobs response to a thread like this?

Like we're going to send you a link to our sites, get your own ideas!!

did you change file name when you copied pictures from amazon?

Well now Amazon has Live Chat Support so I think better get hold someone from support and ask for more precise answer . Maybe they can check the details and tell you why they did it. It's lot faster than exchanging emails. Also they give robot like answers in emails.

Solution To this IMAGE Problem
I contacted amazon regarding this issue a while ago after reading their TOS. They told me to hotlink the images. Don't save the image and host it or you MAY get banned. Amazon reviewers are uneducated retards. Some of them follow the TOS while others don't. There are sites out there that do just fine by even listing the prices or putting something like under $100 which is technically against the TOS.

Just hotlink the images, so in the source put www.amazon.com/image and you will be fine. You can resize it or anything else you want. It just won't be hosted on your server.

Do this and reapply and you will get accepted.

sturose said:

Why is this always a noobs response to a thread like this?

Like we're going to send you a link to our sites, get your own ideas!!

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I just tried to help you man. If you can't I don't care.

I am worried now as i am doing kind of same!

But i also saw sites like mine which are doing fine from years!