Shopify banned payments, brand permission

[catman710]

Shopify has banned my payments for selling major brands such as Marvel comics although I have a resale license and source from legit wholesale distribution (diamond comics distribution). However shopify support keeps asking me for a direct brand permission as if my invoices are not enough. This is super troubling as this simply does not exist.. A large company would never give a small seller direct permission, and that is not how the business world works. I have a right to sell, and use photos of these large brands as a resale certificate holder and invoices proving I am getting real product. Diamond comics is the largest comic distributor in the world. Why is shopify asking for direct permission, and what can I do since this does not actually exist for large brands? I'm stuck because I did everything right and they want something fron me that is non existent. I'm giving these brands my money up front to resell their product, that is how it works. Direct brand permission does not exist..Please help if you were in a similar situation and figured this out. Thank you

[morbo]

Same thing happened to my client’s store. 

Shopify asked for authorization from the brands.  Apparently the receipts you got isn’t enough.  You are not allowed to sell branded items on Shopify. 

 

[Your-Factotum]

This is a big issue for comic and game shops, and anyone else selling pop culture novelties, etc..

First things first, Stay on top of your emails m- Shopify typically reaches out requesting proof of "permission to sell"
Regardless, reach out to Shopify and appeal.  Explain that you are a retail store that purchases all of its goods from licensed official distributors, such as Diamond and Lunar, and supply them with the websites to those distributors, and if you actually have a Diamond Rep, include their information.

As near as I can tell, over-zealous algorithms go after Disney and Nintendo properties, especially.  

The comic shop I managed got shut down for this (thankfully only for a couple of hours), but I've also had this happen to a number of my clients.  One did not reach out to me until well over a week, and they had no access to their online shop.  

The good news is, once you reach a human at Shopify, its typically pretty easy to get things sorted.