Black Label Advisor

07/31/2026

🚨 The Sellers Bill of Rights is Dead 🚨

I'm sorry, but I really had to write this post. I see wayyyyy too many sellers celebrating this proposed legislation, yet they fail to understand that this bill will never become law.

So, a few days ago, U.S. Representative Becca Balint and Nydia Velazquez introduced this bill to Congress with the goal of protecting sellers and their rights.

It proposes to do the following:

- Requires Amazon/Walmart to give sellers advance notice of any policy changes that affect their business.
- Requires platforms to show proof of a rule or law violation before suspending or deactivating a seller’s account.
- Limits how long platforms can freeze/hold a seller’s inventory or funds (generally no more than 30 days) unless they meet a legal standard of proof that the goods/funds involve counterfeiting or other unlawful activity.
-Mandates prompt written notice (within 72 hours) explaining any inventory or fund holds, plus clear appeal options.
-Requires platforms to return inventory (or release funds) after 30 days if no proof of illegal conduct is provided.

This is all great and stuff, but this bill has less than a 1% chance of passing before midterms.

Let me explain why.

1. Republican majorities control both the House and Senate (and the presidency), while the bill has only Democratic sponsors.

2. Extremely limited legislative time left before the November 3, 2026 midterms, with recesses and campaign focus dominating the calendar.

3. No bipartisan support, Republican cosponsors, hearings, or committee markup since its introduction on July 21.

4. 98% of introduced bills (especially minority-party ones) die in committee; overall passage rate is only. If Democrats proposed it, it's going to die.

5. Not a priority issue and faces EXTREME resistance from Amazon and Walmart. Did you know that they spend tens of millions on lobbying? Now you do!

For this bill to become law, it would need to FIRST pass out of committee, then be brought before the floor of the House for a vote, then be approved in the Senate, and then have Trump sign it.

Basically, if you think this has a chance, you live in fantasy land. I'm sorry if this post gave you depression, but you need to know the truth of how our government works. It's extremely inefficient yet somehow the BEST system in human history.

Third-party sellers will NEVER receive federal protection. Bookmark this.

04/16/2026

In a stunning turn of events, Amazon just sent out a notice to most sellers telling them that they can still use credit cards for ads.

For now…

It’s clear by this point that this policy will most likely only affect a select group of sellers. My bet is that it will be the small time players.

So, enjoy the free flights and trips to Fiji while you still can!

This has happened before where a rogue employee sends out a notice to every seller by accident and then Amazon retracts it. Then weeks later it goes live. I think that’s what will happen here. But maybe it will include ad spend brackets or something similar.

Some sellers did get a custom notice that Amazon is rolling this out on August 1, 2026 so there’s that to look forward to.

Stay tuned! The drama will continue tomorrow I’m sure. 😂

04/11/2026

🚨 Don't Fall for the Amazon “Boycott” 🚨

This might surprise you, but I'm actually one of the first 25 founding members of the infamous MDS group. I had to stop supporting them many years ago for a variety of reasons, but now they are up to this nonsense, and I have to comment.

Yes, you read that right. An advertising boycott. Over 100 naive rand owners have committed to turning off ads for 24 hours on April 15.

MDS is even gloating about Chinese sellers joining the boycott. They mean one Chinese seller...

If it were a math class, Amazon would call this "boycott" statistically insignificant. That's how stupid a 24-hour boycott is.

I feel bad for any brand taking part in this nonsense.

Here's what is going to happen.

Amazon will ding your rankings, and you will have to scrape them back in the coming months. Your competitors will lock in the cheaper bids, and you will regret ever "going against the man."

Secondly, Amazon is going to know who participated in this boycott. Not only can they see you turning off your ad spend, but they will know because they are in the MDS group, spying on brands. Punishment will come.

Suing Amazon never works out. Unionized sellers failed years ago. Seller guilds have failed. Do you honestly think that a few sellers among millions are going to make an impact? Dream on.

Here's what to do instead. Expand off-Amazon aggressively. This means you should be targeting Walmart, TikTok, and Shopify. If anyone tells you otherwise, they are lying to you.

Stay focused and don't become a victim.

You have been warned.

02/24/2026

🚨 Tariffs Were NOT Overturned! 🚨

At least, not in the way you think. Whenever we have a historic SCOTUS ruling like this, everyone on LinkedIn becomes a "legal expert."

99% of what you have read online is WRONG. I'm going to help clarify a few things so you can stay up to date and not fall prey to misinformation.

✅ Fact #1: The SCOTUS ruling was an extremely narrow ruling that ONLY affects Trump's IEPPA tariff authority. Guess how many other tariff authority tools he has left? 6.

✅ Fact #2: Trump signed an executive order yesterday to impose a global 10% tariff on every country that does trade with us. This one is legal because it falls under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974. This one will last 150 days or until the Commerce Department conducts unfair trade investigations to replace his IEEPA tariffs with similar rates under Section 301 and 232. This serves as a "stopgap." Congress can intervene on this one if they want to.

✅ Fact #3: The SCOTUS ruling does NOT decide whether similar ones can be reimposed under other statutes. This is where the media is silent right now because they know what's coming. This is why it was very unwise to pop the champagne yesterday. The ruling is not what you think.

✅ Fact #4: The White House has already confirmed that this was Plan B al along, and the US Treasury will see virtually unchanged tariff revenue in 2026. In other words, tariffs went from one bucket to another bucket. They never went anywhere.

✅ Fact #5: You are not getting any refunds on past tariff payments. The court's ruling does not mention refunds at all. To capture these, you will need to sue the Feds and become a plaintiff. 99% of brands obviously do not have the budget for this legal fight that will take up to 5 years.

✅ Fact #6: I saw premature celebrating yesterday about the supposed De Minimis suspension going away. I'm not sure why they posted this because it's still in full effect. The court did not mention this in their ruling, and the White House has issued a full statement online confirming that all duty-free De Minimis for all nations is still suspended.

💡 Justice Kavanaugh's dissent should clue you in: “although I firmly disagree with the Court’s holding today, the decision might not substantially constrain a President’s ability to order tariffs going forward … because numerous other federal statutes authorize the President to impose tariffs and might justify most (if not all) of the tariffs at issue in this case.”

Goldman Sachs said much the same thing shortly after the Trade Court ruling that started all this: “This ruling represents a setback for the administration’s tariff plans and increases uncertainty, but might not change the final outcome for most major U.S. trading partners. For now, we expect the Trump administration will find other ways to impose tariffs.”

Welcome to a Constitutional Republic. It's messy, but it's still the best government structure known to man!

02/21/2026

You're doing your Amazon pictures all wrong.

This just might be the best hero image I've ever seen.

Perfect color saturation, 3D flavor objects, perfect callouts, perfect packaging showcase!

Yes, Gruns is breaking the rules, but they don't care because Amazon doesn't care!

05/01/2024

🚨PSA🚨

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01/23/2024

Did you know that the #1 best seller in garlic presses on Amazon is NOT a Chinese seller?

That's right, it's none other than Aaron Cordovez! Many of you know him from his interviews but few have had the chance to interview this legendary Amazon seller and get into the weeds.
That is exactly what you'll read about in today's weekly Amazon Insiders newsletter issue.

You won't want to miss this interview! In it, you'll learn about Aaron almost going bankrupt 3 times 😵 and how he deals with black hat sellers 😡.

Sign up here to read the interview: https://blacklabeladvisor.ck.page/amazon-insiders

08/18/2023

If there was ever an image that showcased the grit of a bootstrapped Amazon seller, it's this one.

He's a client of mine and you are looking at 3 pallets of inventory that arrived at his condo. Then up a flight of stairs to hand inspect!

Year 1 on Amazon is never glamorous.

Grit builds empires.