July 12 news, recently, Amazon UK released updated guidelines on software sales. Amazon said software that is duplicated or copied, available as digital downloads, academic versions or that the manufacturer does not intend for retail sale will be prohibited from sale.
In the specific details of the announcement, Amazon mentioned that platform sellers are not allowed to sell software that has been reproduced or copied by anyone other than the original software manufacturer. At the same time, to protect customers, sellers and copyright owners from digital piracy, sellers may not sell downloadable software in any way, including activation codes, registration links, license keys, serial numbers or any other credentials related to the software product.
This prohibition includes, but is not limited to, providing access/activation information through email, Amazon's messaging system, third-party websites, any electronic channel, or in printed or physical form.
Additionally, Amazon prohibits the sale of any software on the platform that is not designed or intended for retail sale by the manufacturer. Including OEM software; free distribution or promotional software; beta or pre-release software; freeware and shareware; expired subscription software, etc.
In addition to the above software, academic software specifically sold to students, teachers and educational institutions for use by these individuals and institutions is also prohibited. Amazon prohibits the sale of most academic software on its platform because it is impossible to verify whether the seller or buyer has academic connections. To determine whether the academic software the user wants to list can be used on Amazon, two steps are required: pre-purchase verification and post-purchase verification.
According to media analysis, Amazon's move is intended to crack down on merchants who provide pirated software and protect sellers of genuine software. Previously, the platform had sent instructions to customers about where to download products via email or messages. Although the announcement of the sale of this software was only published on Amazon's UK site, this may be a pilot project for Amazon. It is not difficult to see that the protection of intellectual property rights will be Amazon's next direction.
It is worth mentioning that Tianze Information once issued an announcement to inform its cross-border e-commerce subsidiary Youkeshu Technology Co., Ltd. According to the announcement, the company was suspected of violating Amazon platform rules and has had approximately 340 new sites blocked or frozen that year.
As of the date of the announcement, due to the account blocking, Youkeshu is known to have approximately RMB 130 million of funds suspected of being frozen on the Amazon platform. According to Amazon’s public statement, the reason for this large-scale account ban was that sellers were suspected of forging product reviews.
