How to Sue Amazon UK as a Seller – Part 1

So you want to know how to sue Amazon? If you’re a seller on Amazon UK and need guidance on taking legal action in the County Court against Amazon, you’re in the right place. We’ve been through the process ourselves – and won.

If you are reasonably literate and your case is relatively straightforward, such as withheld stock or funds, you can likely handle it yourself without a solicitor. More complex cases may require legal assistance later, or even a barrister for a hearing. However, many disputes with Amazon UK can be resolved before reaching a hearing or arbitration.

Amazon’s so-called “seller support” system is fundamentally broken. Sellers who attempt to resolve disputes through official channels often find themselves trapped in an endless loop of automated responses, pre-written scripts, and dismissive replies from “outsourced” representatives in the developing world with no real authority. If you’re an Amazon UK seller who has faced wrongful account suspensions, cash grabs, withheld funds, or lost, stolen or withheld FBA inventory, you are not alone, and the County Court system may be your only route to justice.

There is already a class action against Amazon over frozen funds, but you may choose to go it alone. Have they lost or even stolen your stock? Hijacked your listing with a product sourced from your own supplier – after forcing you to hand over the invoice? Maybe your account is frozen because they demand documents that don’t exist in the UK? Or because your VAT certificate “doesn’t match”? If you are an Amazon seller, you will know by now they are not a business partner, more of a malevolent force hovering over your business like a vulture, draining your profits and locking up your cash. Freezing sellers’ funds isn’t just something they do; it seems to be part of their business model.

This is the first in a series of blog posts explaining how to take legal action against Amazon UK as a seller and what to expect. It’s less daunting than you might think and often leads to a positive outcome. But it won’t be fast. If you’re considering suing Amazon, you need to approach it methodically, starting with exhausting their internal processes to gather evidence. This first post will guide you through that initial stage.

Advice on the Amazon “seller support” forums will tell you to email managingdirector@ or similar email addresses in the hope of reaching a real person who can grasp your issue and solve it. While that can occasionally work, it’s very hit-and-miss. If you’ve tried that already and got nowhere, that correspondence will form one of your exhibits. It costs you nothing to try.

Why Sellers Sue Amazon UK

Many sellers reach a breaking point after months of fruitless back-and-forth with Amazon’s laughable seller support system. Common reasons for legal action include:

• Withheld Funds – Amazon may freeze your payments indefinitely due to vague “policy violations” without a clear explanation.
• Account Suspensions and Terminations – Sudden, unexplained suspensions that block you from selling and accessing your money.
• Withheld FBA Inventory – Amazon may refuse to return your FBA stock after delisting your products or suspending your account.
• Unjustified Policy Enforcement – Arbitrary removals of listings, compliance issues, or accusations of selling counterfeit goods with no evidence.
• Intellectual Property Complaints – Fraudulent or mistaken claims that result in listing removals, often initiated by competitors.
• Amazon Hijacking Listings – Cases where Amazon removes you from a product listing only to replace the seller with themselves.

If you have experienced any of the above, the County Court can be a viable way to recover losses and hold Amazon accountable. However, this guide focuses mainly on straightforward cases, such as withheld money or stock, where the evidence is clear-cut. More complex disputes, such as hijacked listings, intellectual property issues, or indirect losses from account suspensions, may require specialist legal advice. Read through the guide and decide for yourself. In some cases, a well-worded Notice Before Action (NBA) is enough to prompt a resolution. Sometimes they simply do not want to open Pandora’s box.

Step 1: Exhausting Amazon’s Internal Process (For Evidence Collection)

Before suing, you’ll need to show the court (if it ever gets to a hearing) that you made every reasonable effort to resolve the matter through Amazon’s internal processes. This is not because Amazon will fix the issue, they almost certainly won’t, but because it strengthens your case.

What You Need to Do:

1. Raise at least 10-20 seller support cases – These will likely lead nowhere, but they provide a paper trail. You may have done this already.
2. Keep copies of all replies – Amazon’s responses will mostly be AI-generated or scripted, proving their failure to engage properly.
3. Phone Amazon seller support – Calls often connect you to outsourced staff with poor English and no power to act. Note the names (if given) and summarise each conversation in writing. Two or three of these are fine. Just to show you have reached out on all available channels.
4. Escalate within Amazon – Request account managers (which they will deny exist) or demand written responses from higher-ups. You won’t get anywhere, you are just collecting evidence.

This exercise is important. A judge will expect to see that you made reasonable attempts to solve the issue before escalating to legal action.

Step 2: Identifying the Correct Amazon Entity to Sue

Amazon has a deliberately complex and ever-changing corporate structure, and their first defence in any lawsuit is often the “wrong entity” argument. If you sue the wrong Amazon entity, they will have your case dismissed before it even starts, and you will have wasted your money. If you write to the wrong one, they will quite possibly just ignore your letter.

Suing the correct Amazon company is the single most important thing you will do here. When we sought pre-action advice on the correct entity dilemma from James Turner KC at 1KBW Chambers in London, his first question was, “Is there a written contract that identifies the other party to that contract?” There is. Start there.

To determine the correct entity:

1. Check your seller agreement – Amazon buries this in their website, and the URL changes periodically, so you’ll need to search for it. Perhaps open a “support case” to locate it. That’ll be a laugh. At the time of writing it can be found >here<.
2. Look for references to responsibility for FBA, payments, seller accounts or whatever the area of your dispute is. Different entities handle different elements of the Amazon structure. You MUST get the entity correct. If there is more than one, the action can be against two or more at once.
3. At the time of writing, the relevant entities for UK sellers include but are not limited to:
   • Amazon EU Sàrl
   • Amazon Services Europe Sàrl
   • Amazon Europe Core Sàrl
   • Amazon UK Services Ltd

While some of these entities are registered in Luxembourg or Belgium, Amazon’s UK office is at:

1 Principal Place
Worship Street
London
EC2A 2FA

For most seller disputes and court actions, it is acceptable to serve Amazon at their UK address, despite the complex offshore registrations. You need to keep the action in the UK.

Step 3: Sending a Formal Notice Before Action (NBA)

Before filing a lawsuit, you must send a Notice Before Action (NBA). This letter formally notifies Amazon of your intention to sue and gives them a final opportunity to resolve the dispute. It is a required step in the UK legal system.

What to Include in Your NBA:

• A summary of your dispute.
• The quantity and value of the withheld goods, the amount you are claiming (e.g., £X in withheld funds or stock), or the specific outcome you are seeking.
• A demand for a response within 21 days.
• Your intent to seek compensation, legal costs, and interest if legal action proceeds.

Here’s an example of how such a letter is structured, based on a real case involving withheld FBA stock:

[Your Business Name or Headed Paper]
[Your Address]
[Your Contact Details]
[Date]

Amazon EU Sàrl [or correct entity]
Legal Department
1 Principal Place
Worship Street
London
EC2A 2FA

Subject: Notice Before Action – Demand for Return of Goods and Potential Legal Action

Dear Sir or Madam,

I am writing on behalf of [Your Business Name], a seller registered with Amazon UK. Amazon has been unlawfully withholding our FBA inventory, despite multiple attempts to resolve this through your seller support system.

Specifically, Amazon UK has been holding [Number of Units] units of our products [SKU, ASIN and description], valued at [£Amount], since [Date]. Despite numerous support cases, we have received only automated and generic responses with no resolution.

We hereby demand that Amazon UK promptly return our goods to [Your Address] or enable a Removal Order to be created for them within 21 days.

Failure to comply with this demand will leave us with no alternative but to initiate legal action in the County Court. If legal action proceeds, we will seek:

1. Full compensation for the value of the withheld goods.
2. Damages for lost revenue.
3. Interest at 8% per annum.
4. Recovery of all legal costs and administrative time incurred, calculated at CPR rates.

As Amazon’s corporate structure is unclear, please confirm whether this is the appropriate legal entity for this claim. If no response is received, we will assume it to be correct and proceed accordingly, including against multiple Amazon entities if necessary.

We accept service by email at [your email address]

We expect a response within 7 days acknowledging receipt of this letter.

Yours sincerely,
[Your Name]
[Your Position]
[Your Contact Details]

Send this with Royal Mail Tracked with signature, or a similar reliable service (which means not Evri or DX – you want it to arrive, don’t you?). Once this letter is sent, Amazon will likely either ignore it altogether or pass you to a department called Executive Escalation who may engage with you, we’ll cover that in the next post. If Amazon does not resolve the issue within 21 days, you can proceed with filing your claim in the County Court, which we will also cover in Part 2.

Next Steps in Part 2

• Dealing with “Executive Escalation”
• What happens after sending an NBA?
• How to draft and file your County Court claim.

If you’ve had enough of Amazon’s stonewalling tactics and want real justice, stay tuned for Part 2. Learning how to sue Amazon UK takes more than one post.

>>Find part two here<<

Disclaimer: The author is not a solicitor or barrister. This guide is based on personal experience and is provided for informational purposes only. It does not constitute legal advice. If you are unsure about any aspect of your claim, you should seek professional legal assistance.