Amazon Loses Arbitration over Gift Card Balance

Amazon Sellers Attorney, a lawyer-supervised suspension appeal service, announced today that a Washington arbitrator has denied Amazon.com (AMZN) the right to retain a customer’s gift card balance after cancellation of his account.

In an arbitration against Amazon Services, LLC brought by Wesley Nahm, the arbitrator awarded over $100,000 in gift card proceeds after Amazon cancelled the buyer’s account. Amazon claimed that it reasonably suspected that Nahm either obtained or applied gift card balances fraudulently, unlawfully, or in violation of the Gift Card Terms. However, Amazon presented no evidence to support its suspicions other than an unusually large balance and the large number of refunded transactions. Claimant Nahm presented evidence that the gift card balances resulted from credit card purchases, that Nahm paid his credit card balances, that the gift card account was not used for any fraudulent, illegal or other use contrary to the terms of the Gift Card Terms. Amazon did not present any contrary evidence and there was no evidence of Nahm’s bank or any other third party claiming that the Nahm gift card balance belongs to someone else or that a third party’s funds were used to create the gift card balance.

The arbitrator ruled that Amazon had broad discretion to terminate the account, but not to convert the account holder’s asset into an Amazon asset, and that the right to terminate the gift card and the account did not amount to a right to convert the funds to Amazon’s own use.

In Amazon’s gift card agreement it reserves the right, without notice to you, to void Gift Cards (including as a component of your Amazon.com Balance) without a refund, suspend or terminate customer accounts, suspend or terminate the ability to use our services, cancel or limit orders, and bill alternative forms of payment if we suspect that a Gift Card is obtained, used, or applied to an Amazon.com account (or your Amazon.com Balance is applied to a purchase) fraudulently, unlawfully, or otherwise in violation of these terms and conditions. Nahm’s attorney argued that, since the gift card balance was accumulated from refunds and returns and never used, it could have never violated this clause.

“Amazon encourages buyers to credit their refunds to gift cards instead of their own credit cards and retains the benefit of the proceeds. However, in this case, they took that accumulation for themselves,” said Kenneth Eade, the Claimant’s attorney.

About Amazon Sellers Attorney

Amazon Sellers Attorney is an Amazon appeal service, supervised by lawyers, which serves third-party sellers worldwide with issues of suspension of their Amazon seller accounts and deactivation of listings through its website at www.amazonsellers.attorney. The firm provides 24-hour service to its customers by live chat, telephone, and email, and free appeal consultations. Its current supervising attorney, Kenneth Eade, accepted representation of Mobile Galaxy after the company had lost its appeal for the reinstatement of its Amazon seller account and restoration of sales proceeds.
 

Contact Information

Kenneth Eade

Attorney and Consultant

Amazon Sellers Attorney

(1) 888 806 2440

info@amazonsellers.attorney