A consumer brand spends years building its price, its image and its distribution network. On a marketplace, all of that can unravel over a weekend: an unknown seller lists your product 25% cheaper, takes the Buy Box, gets “arrived opened” reviews, and your rating drops for everyone. The scale of the problem is real: in 2025, Amazon alone identified, seized and disposed of more than 15 million counterfeit products worldwide (Amazon, 2025 Trustworthy Shopping Experience Report).
Brand protection on marketplaces isn’t a legal issue you solve once. It’s an ongoing operation. This article explains what to look for, how to document it and what to do in each case.
The 6 problems we find most often
| Problem | What it looks like | Why it hurts |
|---|---|---|
| Unauthorized seller | Someone who isn’t your official store or distributor sells your product | You lose control of price, service and experience |
| Below-MSRP pricing | Your product appears well below the price you set for the channel | It drags down pricing across the channel and creates conflict with your retailers |
| Gray market or parallel imports | Product from another country, with different labeling or no local registration | Regulatory risk and customer complaints |
| Suspected counterfeit | Packaging, lot or photos that don’t match the original | Risk to the consumer and to the brand |
| Hijacked or incorrect listing | Your catalog listing has photos, titles or data changed by a third party | It confuses the shopper and the AI that reads that listing |
| Buy Box held by third parties | On your product’s listing, another seller gets the sale | The sale exists, but it isn’t yours |
How to run an audit in 5 steps
1. Define the scope. Your priority SKUs (the ones that drive 80% of digital sales) on every marketplace where they sell: Mercado Libre, Amazon, Walmart, Liverpool, Coppel, TikTok Shop or delivery apps, depending on your category.
2. Search the way shoppers do. By brand name, by SKU and by the category’s generic searches. Log every listing: seller, price, shipping, rating, photos, capture date.
3. Classify every seller. Official, authorized distributor, retailer, or unauthorized. For that you need an up-to-date distributor list, which many brands don’t have.
4. Flag the alerts. Price below the threshold you set, product with signs of a different origin, photos that aren’t yours, reviews mentioning “not original”, “expired” or “arrived opened”.
5. Document with evidence. Dated screenshot, link and, in serious cases, a test purchase. Without evidence, no claim gets anywhere.
What to do in each case
- Unauthorized seller with genuine product. First, trace where the product comes from: it’s almost always a distributor selling outside its territory or channel. The fix is commercial (contracts, channel policy), not just a report.
- Below-MSRP pricing. Define a minimum advertised price policy and apply it evenly with your distributors. And check your own ads: sometimes the official store’s promotions are what drag the price down.
- Suspected counterfeit or altered listing. Use each marketplace’s brand protection program (Mercado Libre and Amazon have registration and reporting programs for trademark owners). You need an active trademark registration and the evidence.
- Buy Box held by third parties. Check three things on your official store: price, shipping time and stock. In most cases we see, the Buy Box is lost because of an out-of-stock or slower shipping, not price.
For legal matters, involve your legal team. The audit organizes the evidence; legal decisions are theirs.
How it becomes a process, not a fire drill
A one-off audit sizes the problem. Monitoring is what solves it:
| Frequency | What gets reviewed |
|---|---|
| Daily (automatic) | New sellers on priority SKUs, out-of-range price, lost Buy Box |
| Monthly | Seller report, open and closed cases, price trend by channel |
| Yearly | Full catalog audit and review of the distribution policy |
An effect few people consider: AI
AI assistants read marketplace listings and reviews to describe and recommend products. If your listing has been altered or is full of reviews about questionable product, AI repeats it. And if a third party holds the Buy Box, the purchase link the assistant gives can send the shopper to that third party. Brand protection now also protects your AI Shelf.
In short
Protecting your brand on marketplaces means maintaining channel execution: who sells, at what price and with what product. Start with an audit of your priority SKUs and turn it into monthly monitoring.
At Balloon we run the Brand Protection Audit with dated evidence and a remediation plan for each platform. If you want to know who’s selling your brand today, request the assessment.
FAQ
Is it illegal for a third party to resell my genuine product?
In general, reselling genuine product that was acquired legitimately is not illegal. Counterfeiting and misuse of the brand are. That's why the strategy combines marketplace protection programs, commercial policy with distributors and monitoring. For specific cases, consult your legal team.
What do I do if I suspect a product is fake?
Document it with dated screenshots, a test purchase and a comparison with the original product; then report it through the marketplace's brand protection program. Don't claim publicly that it's fake without a formal determination.
How often should we audit?
A full audit once a year and monthly monitoring of priority SKUs. During peak seasons, weekly.