Someone Is Selling My Products on Amazon USA or Amazon.ae Without Permission: What Indian Brands Can Do

Intro: You typed your brand name into Amazon USA, or a cousin in Dubai sent you a screenshot from Amazon.ae, and there it is: your product, your photos, sometimes even your Amazon.in reviews, sold by a seller you have never heard of, at a price you never set. You have never sold outside India. The first ten minutes usually involve three panicked questions at once. Is this a fake? Is it someone I work with? Is this even legal? This is the plain-English version of the answers for Indian brands, one question at a time. The short version: it is extremely common, it is usually not counterfeit, it is often legal, it is very often fixable, and it may be the clearest sign yet that you should be selling abroad yourself.

What is actually going on here?

Most of the time, this is Amazon arbitrage. Someone buys your genuine product cheaply in one place (your own website during a sale, Amazon.in, Flipkart, Nykaa, a distributor, a wholesale market) and resells it on another Amazon marketplace where the same product sells for a lot more. A face serum that sells for a few hundred rupees in India can sell for several times that on Amazon.com to a customer in New Jersey who simply cannot buy it locally. That price gap, plus the fact that you are not on that marketplace yourself, is the entire business model. We have written a full explainer on what Amazon arbitrage is and why Indian brands are such an easy target if you want the mechanics. This article is about what to do now.

Wait, is Amazon itself listing my products?

Possibly, and it is worth ruling out before you chase a reseller. In the US, Amazon runs a feature called Buy for Me that shows products from brands' own websites inside the Amazon shopping app, using the descriptions, images and prices from the brand's site. When a shopper buys, Amazon passes the order to the brand's website, and the brand fulfils it like any other website order. Brands were included without opting in, and many were unhappy to find their products there in early 2026. Amazon has not said publicly exactly which websites it draws from, so if you run your own D2C site, check.

• It is Buy for Me if the product is tagged as coming from another brand's site with a "Buy for Me" button, there is no third-party seller name, and the orders land on your own website or Shopify store.
• It is a reseller if a named seller appears on the listing, the product ships from Amazon or from that seller, and you never see the order.

If it is Buy for Me and you do not want to be part of it, Amazon told Modern Retail that brands can opt out by emailing branddirect@amazon.com. The rest of this article is about the second case: a reseller.

Is it a fake, or is it my real product?

Usually it is your real product. Arbitrage only works because buyers trust the genuine item, so most resellers have no reason to fake it. But you cannot know until you check, and the answer changes everything you do next. So do a test buy:

• Order one unit from that exact seller. Ship it to a friend or relative in the US or UAE, or use a parcel-forwarding address.
• Check the batch number and manufacturing date against your own production records. If the batch is one you made, it is genuine.
• Check the MRP sticker and labels. An Indian MRP printed in rupees, or Indian-market labelling, tells you the unit was bought in India and carried abroad.
• Check the seal, packaging, and the product itself for anything that looks off: wrong fonts, wrong colours, a missing batch code, a different smell or texture.
• Keep the order confirmation, the packaging and photos of everything. This is your evidence later.

If it turns out to be counterfeit, you are in a much stronger position. Amazon treats fakes very differently from genuine resale, and says it seized and destroyed more than 15 million counterfeit products in 2024 alone, according to its 2024 Brand Protection Report.

Is this illegal?

The honest answer: if the product is genuine and unaltered, reselling it is generally legal. That feels wrong, but it is how most countries treat physical goods. Once you (or anyone you sold to) sold a genuine unit, the buyer owns it and can usually resell it. The details depend on the country.

• In the US, this is called the first sale doctrine. The US Supreme Court confirmed in Quality King v. L'anza (1998) and again in Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons (2013) that a lawfully sold product can be resold, including copies made and sold abroad. There is an important exception under trademark law: goods that are materially different from what the brand sells in the US, such as a different formula, packaging, labelling or warranty, can infringe even when they are genuine. The leading case involved Perugina chocolates made for Venezuela being sold in Puerto Rico (Nestlé v. Casa Helvetia, 1st Cir. 1992), and courts set the bar for "material" fairly low.
• In India, the Delhi High Court held in Samsung v. Kapil Wadhwa (2012) that the Trade Marks Act follows international exhaustion, meaning genuine goods put on the market anywhere with the brand's consent can generally be resold.
• In the UAE, the picture is less settled. The UAE trademark law, Federal Decree-Law No. 36 of 2021, does not spell out a clear rule for genuine imports, and UAE courts have historically given real weight to registered commercial agency rights under Federal Law No. 3 of 2022, according to this 2026 analysis. Genuine goods that lack required Arabic labelling or a mandatory product registration can also be a problem for the seller in their own right, which matters a lot in regulated categories like cosmetics.

It stops being legal, or at least becomes something you can act on, when the product is counterfeit, when it is materially different from your official product in that country, when it is expired, damaged or used but sold as new, or when the seller is using your trademark or your own photos and copy in a way that misleads buyers into thinking they are you.

Wait, is it my manufacturer?

It might be, but it is usually not the first place to look. Stock reaches an arbitrage seller in a handful of ways, roughly in this order of likelihood:

• Your own retail channels. Someone simply buys from your website, Amazon.in, Flipkart, Nykaa or a quick-commerce app, often in bulk during a sale. This is usually the first place to look, and the most annoying, because they paid you full price to do it.
• Your distributors or wholesalers. A distributor sitting on excess stock offloads it to a reseller, or a distributor in one market quietly sells into another.
• Retailers clearing stock. Offline shops or modern-trade buyers liquidating slow-moving inventory at a discount.
• Your manufacturer or packer. Overruns, rejected batches, or an unofficial extra shift. Less common, but real. If the units carry a batch code you do not recognise, or no batch code at all, look here.
• Returns and liquidation. Damaged, returned or near-expiry stock sold off in lots.

To narrow it down, start with the seller's own profile. Click the seller name on the listing. In the US, the INFORM Consumers Act requires marketplaces to show a high-volume seller's name, address and contact details once they cross $20,000 a year in sales on that platform. Then match that business name, any address, and the batch numbers from your test buy against your own order records. Repeat bulk orders shipping to a freight forwarder's address are a classic giveaway.

They are using my ASIN, my photos and even my reviews from Amazon.in. How is that possible?

This is the part that makes most brand owners assume they have been hacked. Usually they have not. It is Amazon's own catalogue doing exactly what it was built to do.

• Amazon matches products by barcode. When the reseller lists your product on Amazon.com or Amazon.ae, they enter the barcode printed on your pack (the EAN or GTIN). Amazon checks its catalogue for a product with that barcode and, if it finds one, attaches the new offer to the existing product instead of creating a new one. The same physical product very often carries the same ASIN across Amazon's stores, so the ASIN you created on Amazon.in can turn up on Amazon.com with the reseller as the only seller. It does not always happen, and some products end up with different ASINs in different countries, but it is common.
• Your content comes with it. An Amazon product page belongs to the product, not to any one seller, and any seller can add an offer to a page that already exists. So the title, photos and description you built on Amazon.in can fill the page in the other store. The reseller did not need to copy anything.
• Your reviews can follow too. Amazon shares reviews written by verified buyers of the same product in other countries, and shows them under "Top reviews from other countries", labelled with the country they came from. According to Amazon's own guidance on its seller forum, this needs the brand to be enrolled in Brand Registry and the product to carry the same brand across stores. That is exactly what happens when your brand-registered Indian product is matched in another store: your Indian customers' five-star reviews end up selling the reseller's stock.
• It works both ways. If the reseller ships a crushed, leaking or expired unit to a customer in the US, that review can travel back and show up under your listing on Amazon.in.

So, is it a hack? Almost certainly not. The reseller does not have access to your Seller Central account; they are simply selling on a product page that Amazon's catalogue already ties to your brand. It is still worth a two-minute check of your account's user permissions and two-step verification, just to rule it out.

The good news is that this is also your strongest lever. Because it is your ASIN, under your brand, once you have Brand Registry in that marketplace (a US trademark for Amazon.com, a UAE trademark for Amazon.ae) you can control the content on that page, report violations directly from it, and list your own official offer on the same page, with every one of those reviews working for you instead of the reseller. If the reseller has instead created a separate, duplicate page for your product, that breaks Amazon's catalogue rules and can be reported once you are brand-registered.

Can I just ask Amazon to remove them?

Not just because you did not authorise them, no. This is the part that surprises most brand owners. Amazon's long-standing position is that distribution agreements are a matter between a brand and its resellers, not an intellectual property issue, so it will not remove a seller of genuine, identical product simply because they are outside your approved network. Amazon will act when there is an IP problem (counterfeit, trademark misuse, copyright) or a breach of its own selling policies (selling used or expired items as new, inauthentic goods, abusing a listing). To file most of those complaints properly, you need Brand Registry.

What is Brand Registry, and do I need it?

Yes, you need it. Brand Registry is Amazon's programme that verifies you as the owner of a brand. Once you are in, you get far more control over your product pages, a Report a Violation tool to flag infringing sellers, and access to protection programmes like Project Zero and Transparency. To enrol, Amazon requires an active registered trademark in each country where you want to enrol, or a pending application filed through its IP Accelerator programme.

The catch most Indian brands miss: Brand Registry is country-specific. An Indian trademark gets you protection on Amazon.in. It does nothing for you on Amazon.com, where you need a US trademark, or on Amazon.ae, where you need a UAE trademark. If someone is already selling your product in the US and you do not own your mark there, it is worth moving fast. You can extend an Indian application to the US, UAE, UK and other countries through the Madrid System rather than filing from scratch in each one.

How do I get a US or UAE trademark from India?

There are two routes, and you can start both from India.

• File directly in each country. In the US, the base filing fee has been $350 per class of goods since January 2025, according to this summary of the USPTO fee changes, and because your business is based outside the US you must file through a US-licensed attorney. In the UAE, the Ministry of Economy also charges per class. A new fee schedule took effect in November 2025, and this summary of the new UAE fees puts the standard total at around AED 6,500 per class, with registration usually taking a few months if nobody opposes the mark.
• File once through the Madrid System. If you already have an Indian trademark application or registration, you can file one international application through the Indian Trade Marks Registry and choose the US, the UAE, the UK and other countries in the same filing. You pay WIPO's basic fee (653 Swiss francs for a black-and-white mark) plus a separate fee for each country you add. It is usually simpler to manage, but each country still examines your mark under its own rules.

Two practical tips. If speed matters, file through Amazon IP Accelerator: Amazon says brands that do can get Brand Registry access while the application is still pending, instead of waiting months for registration. And make sure the mark you file is your brand name in text, or a logo that contains it, because that is what Brand Registry accepts. Fees and timelines change, so confirm the numbers with a trademark attorney before you budget.

How do I actually get them off my listing?

1. Screenshot everything today. The listing, the seller name, the price, the seller profile, the date. Listings change.
2. Do a test buy from that exact seller, as above.
3. Secure your trademark and Brand Registry in the marketplace where the problem is. Without it, most of the steps below are much harder.
4. If it is counterfeit, report it through Report a Violation with your test-buy evidence. Be accurate: Amazon tracks how often your reports turn out to be valid, and sloppy reports cost you credibility and, in programmes like Project Zero, access.
5. If it is genuine but different (expired, damaged, repackaged, an Indian-market version that differs from your official US or UAE product), report that specific difference, with photos.
6. If it is genuine and identical, Amazon is unlikely to act. Your levers are outside Amazon: contact the seller, have a lawyer send a cease-and-desist only where you have a real legal claim, and fix the leak in your supply chain.
7. Then close the door so it does not happen again (next section).

Here is how the common situations usually play out:

Amazon will remove a fake. It will not remove a genuine reseller just because you did not authorise them. That part is your supply chain's job.

Can I stop this from happening again?

Mostly, yes. No single fix closes every gap, but together these make arbitrage expensive and unattractive:

• Amazon Transparency. You put a unique code on every unit, and Amazon scans it before shipping. Units without a valid code are blocked, which shuts out sellers who cannot get codes from you. Amazon describes Transparency as unit-level serialisation, and reports that more than 2.5 billion units had been verified through it by 2024.
• Project Zero. Once eligible, you can remove counterfeit listings yourself without waiting on Amazon, as long as your reports stay accurate.
• Tighter distribution agreements. Add territorial restrictions, a no-marketplace or no-export clause, audit rights, and penalties for diverting stock. In the UAE, a registered commercial agency and a customs recordal of your trademark give you far more teeth than an unregistered contract.
• Purchase limits on your own channels. Cap quantities per order on your website, and flag repeat bulk orders, especially ones shipping to forwarders.
• Batch codes you can trace. If each distributor gets identifiable batches, the next test buy tells you exactly who leaked.
• Region-specific packs. A distinct pack for each market makes the "materially different" argument easier where it applies, and makes diversion obvious.
• Sell there yourself. This is the one that actually works long term. Arbitrage exists because there is a gap: demand on Amazon.com or Amazon.ae, and no official seller. When you are the official seller, with Brand Registry, Prime delivery and a sensible price, the reseller's margin collapses.

Is it hurting my brand?

It can, quietly. You have no control over how the product is stored or shipped, so heat-damaged, crushed or near-expiry stock can reach customers with your name on the box. Bad reviews land on the listing that you will eventually want to own. Pricing is set by someone else, often high enough to make your brand look overpriced. Customers have no warranty or support route to you. And you see none of the customer data. If the product needs a local registration, like cosmetics or supplements in the UAE, an unregistered product with your brand on it is a regulatory headache you did not create but may still have to answer for.

Is there any good news here?

Yes, and it is a big one. Someone is buying your product at retail price in India, shipping it across the world, paying Amazon's fees, and still making a profit. That is proof of demand you did not have to pay for. Most brands spend money and months validating UAE demand or testing the UK before committing stock. A reseller has just done some of that work for you, at their risk.

Should I just start selling on Amazon USA or Amazon.ae myself?

If you were already thinking about cross-border selling, a reseller has just made the case for you. You have three realistic options:

For most Indian brands, taking over the listing is the natural first step, because you can sell on Amazon.com or Amazon.ae from India through Amazon Global Selling without forming a company abroad. Before you commit, check three things:

• Product compliance. Labelling and registration rules differ by country: food, supplements and cosmetics face their own labelling rules in the US, and cosmetics need registration in the UAE. A reseller ignoring these rules does not mean you can.
• The real costs. Fees, freight, duty and VAT decide whether the margin survives. Start with what it costs to sell in the UAE from India and the Amazon.ae FBA fee stack.
• How much demand there really is. The reseller's sales rank, review count and price tell you a lot, but validating demand properly before you ship stock is still worth the effort.

When you are ready, here is how to sell on Amazon.ae from India, how to sell on Amazon UK from India, and whether Amazon.ae or Noon should come first.

Someone selling your products on Amazon: quick answers

Is it illegal to sell another brand's products on Amazon without permission?

Not if the products are genuine and unaltered, in most cases. The US first sale doctrine and India's international exhaustion rule both generally allow resale of genuine goods. It becomes actionable when the goods are counterfeit, materially different from the brand's official product in that country, expired or damaged, or sold in a way that misleads buyers.

How do I find out who is selling my product on Amazon?

Click the seller name on the listing to open their profile. In the US, high-volume sellers must show a business name and address. Then do a test buy and match the batch code against your own records to work out which channel the stock came from.

Can Amazon remove unauthorised sellers from my listing?

Not just for being unauthorised. Amazon treats distribution disputes as a private matter. It will remove sellers for counterfeits, valid trademark or copyright claims, and breaches of its own policies, which is why Brand Registry and a test buy matter so much.

Why is an unauthorised seller using my ASIN and my Amazon.in reviews?

Because Amazon matches products by barcode across its stores, a reseller listing your product abroad is often attached to the same ASIN, product page content and, for brand-registered products, the same shared reviews you built on Amazon.in. It is not a hack, and with Brand Registry in that marketplace you can take control of that page and sell on it yourself.

Is Amazon listing my products itself?

It can be. Amazon's Buy for Me feature in the US shows products from brands' own websites and sends the orders back to those websites. If there is no third-party seller on the listing and the orders arrive on your own site, that is probably what you are seeing, and brands can opt out by emailing branddirect@amazon.com.

How do I trademark my Indian brand in the US or UAE?

Either file directly in each country (in the US, through a US-licensed attorney) or file one international application through India's Trade Marks Registry under the Madrid System and choose the US, the UAE and other countries. Filing through Amazon IP Accelerator can get you into Brand Registry while the application is pending.

Do I need a US trademark to stop sellers on Amazon.com?

To use Brand Registry on Amazon.com, yes: you need a US registered trademark or a pending application through Amazon IP Accelerator. An Indian trademark only covers Amazon.in. The same applies to Amazon.ae, which needs a UAE trademark.

Is my manufacturer selling my products on Amazon?

Possibly, but check your own retail and distribution channels first, because that is where most arbitrage stock comes from. If your test buy shows a batch code you do not recognise, or none at all, look at your manufacturer or packer next.

What is Amazon arbitrage?

It is buying a product cheaply in one place and reselling it on Amazon for more, often across countries. Read the full explainer on Amazon arbitrage.

This article is general information, not legal advice. Trademark and resale rules differ by country and by product, so speak to a trademark lawyer in the relevant market before you send a legal notice or file a formal claim.

Finding your products on Amazon.ae or Amazon.com without you is frustrating, but it is also a signal. We help Indian brands take back that demand properly: the right trademark and Brand Registry in the right market, an official listing that outcompetes the resellers, and the shipping, customs and fulfilment set-up behind it. If you have just found your brand being sold abroad without you, talk to us about protecting it on Amazon.ae, and we will help you work out which of these steps to take first.