Huge ABH Pharma recall snafu leads Amazon to take down wrong supplement ASINs

 

PL sellers who once used ABH Pharma to manufacture their items see whole catalog deactivated

A massive pharma recall in the supplements category has essentially put many Amazon third-party sellers out of business – even though their products should never have been subject to the recall.

ABH Pharma is a contract manufacturer that has worked with hundreds of private-label supplements brands in the past several years. Unfortunately, the company violated good manufacturing practices regulations, resulting in the recall of dietary supplements they created over the last six years.

The consent decree information released by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was sparse. Instead of the typical level of detail such as lot numbers, dates and specific products affected by the recall, only a list of brands was provided.

That’s where the trouble started. Last week, Amazon began suspending some or all ASINs belonging to the brands listed by the FDA. But in some cases, these products were completely unrelated to the recall. In fact, for our clients, the vast majority – or entirety – of ASINs suspended for the recall were never manufactured by ABH Pharma.

The situation is much more dire for these sellers than simply having suspended ASINs. Amazon has sent out emails to customers who ever purchased any of these sellers’ brands, telling them the products were recalled (even if they were not) and offering refunds. Some sellers have already seen automatic refunds topping a half-million dollars.

The problems go even deeper.

Inventory has been thrown into stranded status. And Amazon is sometimes insisting inventory be recalled for inspection – though it seems impossible to actually place the removal order in some cases.

The path to solving this issue is crooked and different for each seller. Multiple Amazon departments are involved, from Recalls and Legal to Seller Support and Credit Ops. There is no simple appeal letter to Seller Performance. There is no common sense being applied internally at Amazon.