An Amazon brand protection agency finds and removes counterfeits, unauthorized resellers, hijacked listings and price erosion on your ASINs. It works through Amazon's own programs (Brand Registry, Report a Violation, Transparency, Project Zero) plus the unglamorous parts: test buys, evidence files, reseller mapping and an authorized reseller policy with teeth. It is not a law firm. It cannot own your trademark, sue anyone, or decide which retailers you are willing to cut off. Knowing where that line sits is most of choosing one well.
We run our own Amazon accounts, so hijacked listings and undercut pricing are not abstract to us. This guide covers the six problems, the Amazon programs and what each requires, who does what between agency, law firm and brand, the enforcement workflow, how to measure it, and pricing. For the short version of how we run it, see our Amazon brand protection and marketing agency page.
What brand protection on Amazon covers.
Six problems show up again and again, and they need different tools. An agency that only talks about takedowns is solving one of them.
- Counterfeits. Fake units sold under your brand, usually on your own listing. This is an IP violation and Amazon's tools are built for exactly this case.
- Unauthorized resellers. Genuine product sold by sellers you never authorized. Reselling genuine goods is generally legal in the US, so Amazon will not remove a seller for being unauthorized. You fight this through distribution control, not IP complaints.
- Listing hijacks. A seller attaches to your ASIN with a different or inferior product, or edits your detail page content. Buy Box share and conversion both drop.
- MAP erosion. Resellers pricing under your minimum advertised price, which drags your own price down and angers your retail partners. Our guide to Amazon MAP pricing and unauthorized sellers covers the mechanics.
- Review abuse. Fake negative reviews on your listing, fake positives on a competitor, and review hijacking through variation abuse.
- IP complaints. Both directions: filing them against infringers, and defending against bogus complaints filed against you, which can suppress a listing in hours.
Ask any agency which of these six they handle in house and which they refer out. Write the answer into the scope.
The Amazon programs and what each requires.
Everything below was checked against Amazon's own pages on sell.amazon.com in October 2026. Programs change, so confirm the source before you rely on a detail.
| Program | What it does | What it requires |
|---|---|---|
| Brand Registry | Unlocks Report a Violation, automated protections, A+ Content, Brand Store, Brand Analytics and Vine | Active registered or pending trademark; text mark or image mark with words from an approved IP office; free to enroll |
| Report a Violation | One place to report suspected IP infringement, store policy violations and regulatory compliance concerns | Brand Registry enrollment |
| Transparency | Unique code on every unit, scanned through the supply chain and by customers in the Amazon Shopping app | Brand Registry rights owner role, active registered trademark, a GTIN per product; pay per code |
| Project Zero | Automated protections plus self-service counterfeit removal | Rights owner of a registered trademark; Report a Violation use in the prior six months with at least 90% acceptance; keep 99% accuracy |
| IP Accelerator | Amazon-vetted IP law firms at pre-negotiated rates; Brand Registry access while the trademark is pending | Professional selling account; you pay the law firm |
| Counterfeit Crimes Unit | Amazon's own investigators pursue civil suits and criminal referrals | Not an enrollment; you bring a documented case |
Brand Registry is the foundation. Amazon's requirements page says your brand "must have an active registered trademark or a pending trademark registration," and the mark must be text based or an image mark with words, letters or numbers from an approved IP office. Enrollment is free. Nothing else on this list works without it, which is why how to get Amazon Brand Registry is the first link we send a new client.
Report a Violation is the filing tool inside Brand Registry. Amazon describes it as the place to "report suspected IP infringement, store policy violations, and regulatory compliance concerns." Your acceptance rate on these reports is tracked, and it gates Project Zero, so every filing is also a credibility decision.
Transparency is serialization. Amazon assigns "a unique code to every unit of an enrolled product," scanned through the supply chain and by customers. Enrollment requires a Brand Registry account with the rights owner role, an active registered trademark and a GTIN for each product. Amazon states there are no enrollment or subscription costs and no minimums; you pay per code.
Project Zero adds automated protections and a self-service tool to remove counterfeit listings yourself. Per Amazon's program page, eligibility requires being the rights owner of a registered trademark, having used Report a Violation in the previous six months with at least a 90% acceptance rate, and a clean history with the tools. Amazon says brands must keep an accuracy rate of at least 99% to stay in. That bar is the whole reason sloppy filing is expensive.
IP Accelerator connects you with Amazon-vetted law firms at pre-negotiated rates and lets you enroll in Brand Registry while your trademark application is still pending. The program page lists a US trademark filing at $700 plus government fees. The Counterfeit Crimes Unit is Amazon's internal team of former prosecutors, investigators and analysts; according to aboutamazon.com it has initiated over 200 civil actions in its first five years. You do not enroll. You bring a documented case.
Agency, law firm, or you: who does what.
The agency runs the operation: daily monitoring of every ASIN, test buys, evidence packages, Report a Violation filings, Transparency and Project Zero setup, reseller identification, Buy Box and price tracking, and reporting. It does the volume work a law firm would bill hourly for and that your team will not do consistently.
The law firm handles what requires a license: trademark and patent filings, infringement opinions, demand letters that threaten litigation, lawsuits, and the higher-stakes referrals to the Counterfeit Crimes Unit. If an agency drafts a letter that cites statutes and threatens to sue, ask who the lawyer is.
The brand owns what nobody can delegate: the trademark itself, the authorized reseller policy, the distribution agreements that leak product in the first place, pricing decisions, and the call on which retailers to cut off. The most common failure in this category is a brand paying for takedowns while its own distributor sells pallets to whoever asks. Before you hire anyone, write down which of these three columns is empty at your company. That is what you are buying.
The enforcement workflow, step by step.
How to measure whether it is working.
Three numbers, tracked weekly, tell you if the spend is worth it.
- Buy Box share at list price. Not Buy Box share alone. The question is how often your authorized offer wins at the price you set. If you win 95% of the time at 12% under list, you are losing. Our guide to winning the Amazon Buy Box covers the mechanics.
- Number of unauthorized offers. Count them per ASIN per week. A good program trends this toward zero on your top sellers within a quarter and keeps it there.
- Price floor held. The lowest price on each ASIN versus your MAP or list. Days at or above floor is the cleanest single metric.
Add a fourth if you sell 1P. When Amazon Retail itself is the one breaking your price, no agency fixes that through Brand Registry; that is a vendor negotiation, covered in Amazon 1P vs 3P. Ask any agency to show these metrics for an existing client, anonymized, before you sign.
“Takedowns are a cost center. Closing the distributor who ships to the hijacker is the only thing that ever paid for itself.”
Pricing models.
Brand protection agencies price four general ways. We are not quoting figures because they vary with catalog size and severity. Monthly retainer scaled by ASIN count or marketplaces is the most common; predictable, and it rewards steady monitoring. Per takedown or per action rewards filing volume, which is exactly the behavior that wrecks your acceptance rate; avoid it or cap it. Percentage of recovered revenue sounds aligned but depends on an attribution model you will argue about every month. Hybrid pairs a modest retainer with a bonus tied to the metrics above, such as days at price floor.
Legal fees are always separate, billed hourly or flat per matter. Ask for the agency fee as a percentage of the margin you are losing to the problem. If the fee is bigger than the leak, the math does not work.
What usually goes wrong.
- The brand files IP complaints against genuine resellers, acceptance rate collapses, and Project Zero access is lost.
- Takedowns succeed but the distributor keeps leaking, so new sellers appear every week.
- The authorized reseller policy exists in a PDF nobody signed, so the business notices carry no weight.
- No test buy and no evidence, so Amazon rejects the report.
- Monitoring stops when the retainer ends, and the field refills within two months.
- A competitor files a bogus complaint against you and nobody has a counter-notice process ready.
Every one of these is a process gap. Ask the agency how they prevent each one, specifically, and put the answer in the scope.
Where the agency stops and the work begins.
An agency can watch every ASIN, build the evidence, file the reports, run Transparency and keep the metrics honest. It cannot sign your distribution agreements, fire the distributor who leaks, set your MAP, or decide that a big retail partner's grey market dumping is worth the fight. Those decisions sit with the brand owner, and no enforcement program survives without them.
If your field map already looks ugly and you want someone to run the operation, Hire Theory Road.
What does an Amazon brand protection agency do?
It monitors your ASINs for counterfeits, unauthorized sellers, listing hijacks and price erosion, runs test buys, builds evidence files, files reports through Brand Registry's Report a Violation tool, sends reseller policy notices, and reports on Buy Box share, unauthorized offer counts and price floor. It does not file trademarks or sue anyone; that work goes to a law firm.
Can Amazon remove unauthorized sellers of my genuine product?
Generally no. Reselling genuine goods is legal in the US, and Amazon's tools target IP infringement and policy violations, not unauthorized distribution. Filing IP complaints against genuine resellers damages your acceptance rate and can cost you Project Zero. The fix is an authorized reseller policy, material difference arguments such as voided warranties, tracing lot codes to the leaking distributor, and closing that leak.
Do I need a trademark for Amazon brand protection?
Yes. Amazon Brand Registry requires an active registered trademark or a pending application, as a text mark or an image mark with words, letters or numbers, from an approved IP office. Transparency and Project Zero both require a registered trademark with you as rights owner. IP Accelerator lets you enroll in Brand Registry while the application is pending, through Amazon-vetted law firms.
What is the difference between Transparency and Project Zero?
Transparency is serialization: a unique code on every unit that Amazon and customers scan to confirm authenticity, paid per code. Project Zero is enforcement: automated protections plus a self-service tool to remove counterfeit listings yourself, free but gated by a 90% acceptance rate on prior reports and 99% ongoing accuracy. Transparency stops fakes from listing; Project Zero removes the ones that got through.
How long does it take to see results from brand protection?
Counterfeit and hijack removals through Report a Violation often resolve within days once evidence is solid. Clearing unauthorized resellers takes longer because it depends on tracing and closing distribution leaks, usually a quarter or more for the top ASINs. Judge the program on weekly trends in unauthorized offer counts, Buy Box share at list price and days at price floor, not on individual takedowns.