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How to tell a counterfeiter from an unauthorized reseller, what Amazon will and won’t remove, the documentation and test buys that make a report stick, and the Brand Registry tools that keep hijackers from coming back.

How you get a hijacker off your Amazon listing depends on what they’re selling. If it’s counterfeit, or it misuses your trademark, document the offer, make a test buy, and report it through Report a Violation in Brand Registry. Amazon removes infringing offers when the evidence holds up.

If they’re selling your genuine product without your permission, Amazon usually won’t remove them. Amazon’s own guidance says violations of distribution agreements “do not constitute intellectual property rights infringement.” The fix for that kind of hijacker is upstream: find where the inventory is leaking and enforce your agreements, with an attorney if needed.

Brands lose weeks when they treat every unwanted seller as a counterfeiter. They file report after report, get rejected, and in the process damage the reporting accuracy Amazon uses to decide who gets its strongest tools. Sorting out which problem you have comes first.

First, Figure Out Which Kind of Hijacker You Have

Type	What it looks like	What Amazon will act on
Counterfeiter	A new offer on your listing, often priced well below yours, shipping fake or knockoff product	Trademark or counterfeit reports with evidence, usually a test buy
Unauthorized reseller	A seller offering your genuine product, often from a distributor, liquidation lot, or retail arbitrage	Generally nothing for the resale itself. Amazon treats it as a business dispute unless the product is materially different or the seller breaks a store policy
Detail page hijack	Someone changes your title, images, or brand name, or turns the page into a different product	Detail page abuse reports; Brand Registry gives brand owners more control over listing content

Amazon blocks most of this before you ever see it. Its 2025 Trustworthy Shopping Experience Report (April 2026) says proactive controls “blocked more than 99.9% of suspected infringing listings” before a brand had to report them. The offers that get through are the ones you have to deal with yourself, and they tend to be the more careful operators.

Step 1: Document Everything Before You Report

Start a record the day you spot the offer. Capture:

• Screenshots of the offer, the seller’s name and storefront, price, and fulfillment method, with the date
• Any changes to your detail page: title, images, bullets, brand name
• How long the offer has been there and whether it has taken the Featured Offer (the Buy Box)
• Customer reviews or returns that mention fake, damaged, or different product

This is the same paper trail Amazon looks for in any case. Our guide to fixing a stuck Seller Support ticket covers how to put evidence in front of Amazon so the case moves.

Step 2: Do a Test Buy

A test buy is “a purchase made by a brand or seller to investigate whether or not an item is counterfeit,” in Amazon’s own glossary. It’s the strongest evidence you can bring. Amazon’s guidance to brands recommends one, and the reporting flow has a field for the order ID.

When the unit arrives, photograph the unboxing and compare it with your genuine product: packaging, labels, printing quality, lot or batch codes, serial numbers, and any Transparency code. Differences are your evidence. A genuine unit tells you something too: you’re dealing with an unauthorized reseller, and the lot code may show which distributor it came from.

Step 3: Report Through the Right Channel

For counterfeits and trademark misuse: use Report a Violation in Brand Registry. Amazon rebuilt it in July 2026 into one guided flow covering intellectual property, store policy, and regulatory reports. Report only what your evidence supports, and name the specific violation. Amazon screens out invalid notices, and its staff have said reporting access can be revoked for “invalid notice submissions.” Your acceptance rate also decides whether you qualify for Project Zero later, so precision pays twice.

For detail page hijacks: report the change as listing abuse. Amazon staff point brands to the “Report Abuse” route, with the reason “Product detail page was changed to represent a different product.” Brand Registry is how brand owners get more weight on what a detail page says. Amazon’s own forum guidance on detail page content puts it plainly: “The main factor is Brand Ownership.”

For genuine product you didn’t authorize: don’t file it as counterfeit. Amazon says it “respects a manufacturer’s right to enter into exclusive distribution agreements,” but it won’t enforce them for you. Your options sit outside Amazon:

• Trace the source. Test-buy lot codes, serial numbers, and order patterns usually point to a specific distributor or a liquidation channel.
• Enforce your agreements with the distributor or retailer that leaked the stock.
• Talk to an IP attorney about material differences. Courts have treated products that don’t carry the brand’s warranty or quality controls as materially different from genuine goods, which can turn a “genuine” resale into infringement. Whether that applies depends on your warranty terms and where you’d file, so this is a question for counsel. Nothing here is legal advice.

Step 4: Know When to Escalate

Escalate when a seller keeps coming back, sells at volume, or the counterfeits pose a safety risk.

• Amazon’s Counterfeit Crimes Unit pursues counterfeiters through litigation and law-enforcement referrals. Since 2020 it has pursued more than 32,000 bad actors, per Amazon’s 2025 report. Brands need Brand Registry and a registered trademark to work with it, and they cover their own test-buy and legal costs.
• An attorney for cease-and-desist letters or litigation, especially against repeat unauthorized resellers.
• Stop and reassess if your reports keep getting rejected. Resubmitting the same evidence lowers your acceptance rate without moving the case.

Where the Featured Offer Fits

A hijacker hurts most when they take the Featured Offer. Amazon says Featured Offer prices “are commonly at or below the lowest priced alternatives,” so an offer priced under yours has a real chance of winning it. The other half of Amazon’s rule matters more: “Your offer can’t become featured if your item is out of stock.” Every stockout hands the Featured Offer to whoever else is on the listing.

That makes inventory the first line of prevention, ahead of any Brand Registry tool. Racing a hijacker to the bottom on price costs you margin on every sale and doesn’t remove them. Our guide to winning the Featured Offer covers the factors Amazon weighs.

How to Keep Hijackers Off

Enroll in Brand Registry. It’s free, and a registered trademark or a pending application both qualify. The brand name you enroll has to match the trademark text exactly. If you don’t have a trademark yet, Amazon’s IP Accelerator connects you with vetted law firms at pre-negotiated rates, and a pending application filed through it can get you into Brand Registry while it’s under review.

Qualify for Project Zero. Project Zero lets brands remove counterfeit listings themselves, without waiting for Amazon’s review. To qualify, you need a registered trademark (a pending one doesn’t count), use of Report a Violation in the last six months with at least a 90% acceptance rate, and a history of policy-compliant reporting. You have to keep at least 99% accuracy to stay in. Amazon invites brands once they meet the criteria, and the tool itself is free.

Use Transparency on high-risk products. Transparency puts a unique code on every unit so Amazon can stop units without a valid code. It’s the strongest block on counterfeits for the products that need it, but it doesn’t stop resellers of genuine product. Our guide to Amazon Transparency covers cost, eligibility, and where to start.

Control your distribution. Keep an authorized reseller list, put Amazon terms in your distribution agreements, and assign lot codes by distributor so a test buy can tell you where a unit came from. Most unauthorized-reseller problems start here.

Stay in stock. A healthy buffer on your best sellers protects the Featured Offer and takes away the opening hijackers wait for.

Check offers and listing content weekly. New offers, price drops, and content changes are easiest to fix in the first few days. This check belongs in the same weekly review as account health, which our guide to preventing Amazon account suspensions covers, along with the signs that a competitor is targeting you.

How Canopy Handles Hijackers

Hijacker response is part of how our brand managers run each account. They monitor offers and listing changes weekly, document new sellers, coordinate test buys, file reports through Brand Registry with the evidence to back them, and work the upstream fix with partners when the problem is distribution. Because the same team manages inventory and advertising, a hijacker also triggers the checks most brands skip: whether a stockout let them in, and whether ad spend is now sending shoppers to someone else’s offer. Our guide to Amazon account management shows how that fits into the full account.

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