PopSockets CEO calls out Amazon's tactics before House committee
Popsockets is one of the biggest bullies in the marketplace. They&#x27;ve sued many, many sellers that were selling legitimate products trying to bully them off the market with various loopholes in the first sale doctrine.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.courtlistener.com&#x2F;docket&#x2F;14939738&#x2F;popsockets-llc-v-wilcox&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.courtlistener.com&#x2F;docket&#x2F;14939738&#x2F;popsockets-llc...</a>
<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.courtlistener.com&#x2F;docket&#x2F;16007022&#x2F;popsockets-llc-v-sussman&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.courtlistener.com&#x2F;docket&#x2F;16007022&#x2F;popsockets-llc...</a>
<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.courtlistener.com&#x2F;docket&#x2F;15050057&#x2F;popsockets-llc-v-online-king-llc&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.courtlistener.com&#x2F;docket&#x2F;15050057&#x2F;popsockets-llc...</a>
<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.courtlistener.com&#x2F;docket&#x2F;15683859&#x2F;popsockets-llc-v-outlook-fba-corp&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.courtlistener.com&#x2F;docket&#x2F;15683859&#x2F;popsockets-llc...</a>
<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.courtlistener.com&#x2F;docket&#x2F;15639919&#x2F;popsockets-llc-v-handler&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.courtlistener.com&#x2F;docket&#x2F;15639919&#x2F;popsockets-llc...</a>
<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.courtlistener.com&#x2F;docket&#x2F;16620695&#x2F;popsockets-llc-v-gancfried&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.courtlistener.com&#x2F;docket&#x2F;16620695&#x2F;popsockets-llc...</a>
<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.courtlistener.com&#x2F;docket&#x2F;16620699&#x2F;popsockets-llc-v-yef-trading-inc&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.courtlistener.com&#x2F;docket&#x2F;16620699&#x2F;popsockets-llc...</a><p>The basic strategy is to include a bunch of FUD about how there&#x27;s counterfeiters in general on Amazon, then try to lump legitimate sellers in with that. See the 79 page complaint from my last link, filed just last month. They have a template lawsuit that&#x27;s dozens of pages long, and they just fill in the specific seller details. They have a bunch of screenshots of negative customer reviews, but those are from Amazon broadly and are not connected to the seller they&#x27;re suing - they use the same negative reviews for all their lawsuits. (It looks like they have two negative feedback for popsocket sales traced to that account out of the many pages of negative reviews that isn&#x27;t connected to an account.)<p>To be clear, they are not alleging counterfeits in the lawsuits. The claim is that the product doesn&#x27;t carry the manufacturer warranty, and that sellers don&#x27;t follow the right quality controls, both of which are very shaky claims legally (warranty restrictions are problematic under federal law, and there&#x27;s no serious quality control concern on sealed electronics accessory products - it&#x27;s the same product in the same warehouses, it doesn&#x27;t magically become lower quality just because a different seller is selling it. There&#x27;s a potential quality control concern with groceries or products requiring temperature controls, but it stretches credibility to argue that applies to sealed popsockets.) But a small seller can&#x27;t afford the hundreds of thousands of dollars it takes to get a court decision affirming that. I know multiple sellers that have settled rather than fighting it. It&#x27;s the path of least resistance.<p>Popsockets is not the only brand that&#x27;s been using these abusive tactics. There&#x27;s a string of lawsuits by Otterbox, Skullcandy, GNC, Murad, Standard Process, Noco, and others. Most of them are being pushed by a lawfirm called Vorys, which is associated with a large Amazon seller by the name of iServe&#x2F;Pattern (one of the top 10 third party Amazon sellers, see <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.sellerratings.com&#x2F;amazon&#x2F;usa" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.sellerratings.com&#x2F;amazon&#x2F;usa</a>, note Zappos and 6PM are Amazon-owned and Asurion, LLC is selling services, not products), that gets exclusive contracts with brands and then sues many of their competition that&#x27;s undercutting them.<p>It&#x27;s a scheme just begging for an anti-trust investigation.