Will Amazon remove unauthorized resellers of my brand?

Not just for being unauthorized. If the product is genuine, reselling is generally allowed. Amazon acts on counterfeits and intellectual property violations reported by the brand owner through Brand Registry.

Does Amazon enforce my minimum advertised price (MAP) policy?

No. A pricing policy is an agreement between you and your distributors. Amazon does not enforce that agreement on sellers.

Why does a reseller win the Buy Box on my own brand?

Because the Buy Box (Featured Offer) goes to the best offer — total price, delivery promise and seller performance — not to the brand owner.

What does Brand Registry give me against resellers?

Control over product page content, access to A+ Content, a Brand Store and Sponsored Brands ads, and tools to report counterfeits and violations. It does not give you the power to remove resellers of genuine products.

Do I need to sell directly on Amazon to control the channel?

It's not required, but it's the most direct way: with your own offer that competes on price and delivery, the brand can compete for the Buy Box and set a price reference on Amazon.

Your Brand Sold by Third Parties on Amazon: Channel Control

If you're a manufacturer and don't sell on Amazon yet, your brand is probably already selling there — through other people. Distributors, retailers and resellers list your products at prices they choose, with content they wrote and packaging they shipped. You get neither the Buy Box nor the margin. This page shows how to see the problem clearly and what you can — and can't — do about it.

How to find out who sells your brand today, and at what price

Start with search: look up the brand on Amazon and open each product. On each page, the offer listing shows how many sellers offer that ASIN, at what price and who holds the Buy Box. Also note what's wrong in the content: title, photos, dimensions, voltage.

Done by hand, that works for a dozen products. For an entire catalog, with prices changing every day, it's a job for a tool: EcomVision tracks the Buy Box, offers and competitors by ASIN in the Competitive & Buy Box module.

The real cost of not controlling the channel

Price erosion. One reseller drops the price to win the Buy Box, the others follow, and your brand's reference price falls — on Amazon and, by comparison, at other retailers.
Broken MAP policy. Amazon does not enforce the minimum advertised price you agreed on with your distributors. Enforcing that agreement is on you, outside Amazon.
Wrong content. Without Brand Registry, the product page shows whatever sellers submitted: poor photos, wrong specs, promises the product doesn't deliver.
Reviews that aren't yours to control. Reviews belong to the product, not the seller. A unit that a third party stored or packed badly becomes one star less for your brand.

Brand Registry as the first step toward control

Brand Registry is what makes Amazon treat you as the brand owner: priority to correct catalog content, access to A+ Content, a Brand Store and Sponsored Brands ads, and tools to report violations. To enroll, a pending trademark application is enough; reporting infringement requires a registered trademark. Step-by-step guide in How to create and register your brand on Amazon.

Buy Box: why the brand loses to its own reseller

The Buy Box doesn't belong to the brand; it belongs to the best offer — Amazon weighs total price (item plus shipping), delivery promise and seller performance — product reviews and the fulfillment method itself don't factor in, according to Amazon's help page on the Featured Offer. When a brand joins Amazon, resellers often already have sales history, faster delivery and a lower price than the manufacturer itself. Owning the brand doesn't win the Buy Box; having the best offer does.

What you can and can't do

Credibility is what's at stake here, so it's worth drawing a clear line.

You can:

correct product page content with Brand Registry;
report counterfeits and trademark violations through Brand Registry tools (with a registered trademark);
sell yourself, with an offer that competes on price and delivery time, and compete for the Buy Box;
organize distribution: agree with your distributors on who sells on Amazon, and under what terms.

You can't:

ask Amazon to remove a reseller just because they're unauthorized, if the product they sell is genuine;
enforce a minimum selling price through Amazon: a pricing policy is your agreement with the channel, not an Amazon rule;
win the Buy Box just by being the brand.

A channel assessment as the first step

Before any decision, the assessment shows: how many of the brand's ASINs exist, who sells each one, at what price, who holds the Buy Box, what shape the content is in and where Brand Registry stands. With that in hand, the conversation with your distributors and the decision to sell direct become objective. For day-to-day tracking, see Competitive & Buy Box. If you currently sell wholesale to Amazon itself, also read when to move from 1P to 3P.

Your brand is already on Amazon. Who's selling it?