«Amazon is not the seller, we only provide the platform, please contact the seller». That is the answer almost everyone gets when they open a claim for an order that never arrived or a counterfeit product, and it is partly true, because in a marketplace sale the contract of sale is concluded with the third party shown on the listing as «Sold by», and not with Amazon EU S.à r.l. But the argument does not close the matter, for three reasons. The first is that Amazon undertook by contract, in its A-to-z Guarantee, to refund the price when a third-party order does not arrive or arrives in a condition materially different from what was advertised. The second is that the consolidated text of the Spanish General Law for the Protection of Consumers and Users imposes the same delivery and conformity obligations on any professional seller, whoever and wherever they are, and, since the 2021 reform and the European Digital Services Act, imposes on the platform duties of information and seller identification that can also be enforced. The third is that, if there was deception from the outset, what you are facing is no longer a breach of contract but the offence of fraud under Article 248 of the Spanish Criminal Code, and there Amazon becomes a third party obliged to cooperate with the court.
Who sold to you, the fact that decides whom you claim against
Three situations coexist on Amazon that look alike on screen and are nothing alike in law. When the listing says «Sold and shipped by Amazon», the seller is Amazon EU S.à r.l., a Luxembourg company, and the contract is with it. When it says «Sold by [name] and fulfilled by Amazon», the seller is a third party, but warehousing, shipping and returns are handled by Amazon, which in practice makes recovery much easier. When it says «Sold and shipped by [name]», both the sale and the logistics belong to the third party, and Amazon only collects payment, relays messages and, if its conditions are met, guarantees.
That information appears on the order page and in the confirmation email, and it is the first thing to secure, because the seller can vanish from the platform within days and take the product listing with it. The seller’s name links to its profile page, where Amazon is obliged to display the company name, address and registration or tax identification number of any professional seller. That requirement comes from Article 30 of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065, the Digital Services Act, which obliges online marketplaces to verify the identity of traders before letting them sell. If that page is empty or the details are plainly false, you have an argument against the platform that did not exist before 2024.
Be wary of a widespread assumption. The fact that the seller is in China, Hong Kong or a country you could not place on a map does not strip you of rights. If it sells habitually it is a trader for the purposes of Article 4 of the Consumer Law, and because it directs its activity at the Spanish market, Spanish distance-selling rules apply to it. Enforcing a judgment against it is another matter, and that is the real problem and the reason Amazon’s guarantee matters so much.
What the A-to-z Guarantee covers
It is a contractual commitment by Amazon, not a legal obligation, and so it has its own rules. According to the conditions the platform publishes, it covers third-party orders in two main cases, that the order did not arrive and that the item received is materially different from what was advertised, which includes damaged, defective, counterfeit or incomplete goods or simply a different product. It also covers returns made in line with Amazon’s policy that the seller fails to refund. Amazon decides on them through an internal procedure and by its own criteria.
The time requirements matter more than the substance. Amazon requires that, before opening the claim, you have contacted the seller through the platform’s messaging system and waited forty-eight hours for a reply, and it sets a deadline of ninety days from the latest estimated delivery date to file it. After that deadline the guarantee no longer applies, even though Spanish law still protects you. If Amazon rejects the claim there is an internal review, and with that the platform’s circuit is exhausted.
What it leaves out is as important as what it covers. Items sold by Amazon itself are excluded and go through its ordinary returns policy. Payments made outside the platform are excluded, and that is the most frequent scenario in genuine scams, because the seller who asks you to pay by bank transfer, Bizum or gift card to «avoid fees» is taking you out of the only place where Amazon answers. Purchases on websites imitating Amazon are excluded, as are charges arising from a text about a «parcel held at customs» or a call from the supposed «Amazon security department», because in those cases the platform played no part in the transaction. And disputes over price or taste are excluded when the product received is the one you bought.
| Situation | A-to-z Guarantee | Legal route |
|---|---|---|
| Third-party order that never arrives | Yes, within ninety days of the latest delivery date | Termination for non-delivery (Article 66 bis) and fraud if there was deception |
| Counterfeit or materially different product from a third party | Yes | Lack of conformity and fraud under Article 248 of the Criminal Code |
| Sold and shipped by Amazon, not delivered or defective | No, Amazon’s returns policy applies | Fourteen-day withdrawal and lack of conformity |
| Payment outside Amazon by transfer, Bizum or gift card | No | Criminal complaint for fraud |
| Charge on your account or card that you did not make | No | Payment services rules against the bank and unlawful access to the account |
| Text, email or call impersonating Amazon | No | Bank and criminal complaint for fraud |
When the seller is Amazon
A distance sale with Amazon EU is governed by the consolidated text of the General Law for the Protection of Consumers and Users, approved by Royal Legislative Decree 1/2007. You have a right of withdrawal for fourteen calendar days from receipt of the product, without giving reasons and without penalty, under Article 102 and following, with the exceptions in Article 103 for personalised goods, sealed goods opened for hygiene reasons or digital content already downloaded. Amazon’s commercial policy is usually broader than that minimum, but the minimum is the law and depends on nobody’s goodwill.
If the product is defective, does not match its description or is not fit for the advertised purpose, there is a lack of conformity. The regime in Article 114 and following, after the reform by Royal Decree-Law 7/2021, gives you three years from delivery to demand repair, replacement, a price reduction or termination of the contract with a refund, and during the first two years the defect is presumed to have existed at delivery, so it is the seller who must prove otherwise. If the order does not arrive, Article 66 bis lets you terminate the contract and recover what you paid when the seller fails to deliver within the agreed period or, if none was agreed, within thirty days.
These rights apply equally against a third-party seller. The difference with Amazon EU is that the Luxembourg company can be sued in A Coruña, because the Brussels I bis Regulation allows a consumer to litigate in their own domicile, and the judgment can be enforced against it. Against the seller in Shenzhen, in practice, it cannot.
The platform is not a neutral bystander
Amazon usually invokes the liability exemption for intermediaries, which in Spain is found in Law 34/2002 on information society services and now in the Digital Services Act itself. That exemption has a limit written into Article 6.3 of the Regulation. It does not apply, in consumer matters, where the platform presents the offer in a way that leads an average consumer to believe the product is supplied by the platform itself or by someone under its control. An item with the Prime badge, fulfilled by Amazon, shipped in an Amazon box and returned to Amazon is, in nobody’s eyes, someone else’s offer, and that argument has mileage once the internal guarantee has been refused.
There are also information duties. The Consumer Law, after the reform by Royal Decree-Law 24/2021, obliges the online marketplace to tell you before you buy whether the seller is a trader or a private individual and how the obligations under the contract are split between the seller and the platform. And Article 32 of the Digital Services Act obliges a platform that becomes aware that an illegal product has been sold through it, whether counterfeit, recalled or dangerous, to notify those who bought it in the preceding six months and to identify the seller to them. If Amazon removed the product listing shortly after your purchase, that fact is relevant, because it suggests the platform knew.
When it is the offence of fraud and what changes for you
A seller who fails to deliver because it went out of business, who sent the wrong product or who disputes a return is in breach of contract. A seller who posted the listing with no intention of shipping anything, who sends a box with a brick in it, who sells a counterfeit as genuine or who persuades you to pay outside the platform and disappears commits fraud. Article 248 of the Criminal Code punishes anyone who, for gain, uses sufficient deception to mislead another and induce them to make a disposition of assets to their own or someone else’s detriment. Since the reform by Organic Law 14/2022, Article 249 treats as equivalent to deception the manipulation of computer systems and the unauthorised use of another person’s cards, payment data or credentials, which is what happens when someone gets into your Amazon account and buys with the card you had saved.
The basic penalty is six months to three years in prison. If the amount defrauded does not exceed four hundred euros, it is a minor offence punished with a fine of one to three months, tried under a fast-track procedure in which a lawyer is not compulsory, although with a lawyer it usually goes better. With the aggravating factors in Article 250, among them an amount above fifty thousand euros, harm to a large number of people or exploitation of business credibility, the penalty becomes one to six years in prison plus a fine. The aggravating factor of a large number of victims is the one that arises in mass scams by the same seller against hundreds of buyers, and it is why pooling complaints makes sense.
Where there is an offence, four things change. You can file a complaint with the National Police or the Guardia Civil in A Coruña even if the seller is abroad, because since the non-jurisdictional plenary agreement of the Second Chamber of the Supreme Court of 3 February 2005 the competent court is that of any of the places where an element of the offence occurred, including the place from which you paid. The court can require Amazon to hand over the seller’s, the account’s and the payment’s data, which it will never give to you. The civil action to recover the money is joined to the criminal one, with no need for a separate lawsuit. And limitation runs on its own terms, one year for the minor offence and five for basic fraud, under Article 131 of the Criminal Code.
And some things do not change. The complaint does not replace the claim against Amazon or the bank, and if the seller is outside the European Union and used false identities, the case will in many instances be provisionally closed. Provisional closure under Article 641 of the Criminal Procedure Act is not an acquittal, it is reopened if the perpetrator is identified, and it does not bar any civil claim, but you should know from the start that the investigating court is not the fastest route to recovering two hundred euros. I go into it in the article on getting your money back after phishing.
At the firm we act for the prosecution and the defence in cybercrime matters, and in these cases the first thing we do is establish which of the possible claims makes sense given the money at stake, because not all of them always do.
The payment, the card and the bank
If you paid by card, the transaction has a second route besides Amazon, the chargeback through the card network, designed for goods not received or not as described, and it works even if the seller is on the other side of the world because it is directed at the entity that collected the money. If the charge was made by someone else without your consent, because your account was accessed or your card cloned, payment services rules oblige the bank to refund it, and that regime exists regardless of what Amazon says. How that claim is framed, with what evidence and in what terms, is the lawyer’s job, and the sequencing relative to the Amazon claim also matters, because opening both at once with different accounts of events works against you.
If you paid by transfer or Bizum to a seller who took you off the platform, that route practically does not exist and what remains is the criminal one. And when the charge originated in a text, an email or a call impersonating Amazon, the matter is one of impersonation and access to your banking details, which I cover in what to do after a bank impersonation scam.
Situations that are not fraud even if they feel like it
Prime renewed without you remembering. It is a subscription, the law requires the price and the renewal to be disclosed before you sign up, and Article 62 of the Consumer Law prohibits obstacles to cancelling. You can cancel and, if the required information was missing, claim the charge back, but there is no offence.
Parcels you never ordered, the practice known as brushing. Article 66 quáter of the Consumer Law relieves you of any obligation to pay for or return what you did not request. What matters is something else, because someone has your name and address and probably your account details, and it is time to change passwords and check orders and payment methods.
Bought reviews and fictitious discounts on a price that never existed. These are unfair practices under the Unfair Competition Act since the 2021 reform, and they help to reinforce lack of conformity or deception, but on their own they do not get your money back.
What you can do today without a lawyer
Keep the full order page with the «Sold by» line visible, the seller’s profile with its identification details, every message exchanged through Amazon’s messaging system and the confirmation and dispatch emails with their headers. If the product has arrived, photograph the packaging with its label, the contents and any difference from the listing, and do not throw it away or return it to an address the seller gives you by private message. Download the bank statement showing the charge. If it started with a text or a call, do not delete the message or the call log.
Do not accept a partial refund outside Amazon in exchange for withdrawing the claim or changing your review. Do not install any remote-access application at the request of someone claiming to be from Amazon, and do not call the number in a text message. Do not close your Amazon account while the claim is open, because you lose access to the history. And do not write threats or insults to the seller that could later be used against you, because a written insult has its own criminal consequences. Electronic evidence decides these cases, and I explain why in this article.
If Amazon closes your account or accuses you
It happens more often than it seems. Amazon suspends accounts for what it calls «returns abuse» or on suspicion of fraud, and with the account it freezes balances, gift cards and purchased digital content. The Digital Services Act obliges the platform to give you the specific reasons for the restriction, in Article 17, and to offer an internal complaint system, in Article 20, through which the decision can be challenged. Withholding a balance the user has paid for without further explanation is, in addition, a term that can be attacked as unfair under Article 82 and following of the Consumer Law. And if Amazon accuses you of returning an empty box or of claiming for something you did receive, the photographs and the return record you kept at the outset are the only defence there is.
Time limits and courts
The time limits run in parallel and none waits for the others. Fourteen calendar days to withdraw, ninety days for Amazon’s guarantee, three years for lack of conformity, one or five years to report the fraud depending on the amount, and five years for the contractual action under Article 1964 of the Civil Code. A civil claim of up to fifteen thousand euros is processed as a verbal trial, and below two thousand euros neither a lawyer nor a court agent is compulsory, although since Organic Law 1/2025 you must show a prior attempt at negotiation before filing. As a consumer you can litigate in the courts of your own domicile, which is a real advantage against Amazon EU and a theoretical one against a seller with no assets in Europe.
What is at stake and what we do
Acting alone, the concrete risk is letting the ninety days of the guarantee run out while arguing with the seller, opening the bank claim with an account of events that contradicts the one you gave Amazon, or filing a complaint without the evidence that makes it useful, so that the amount, whether two hundred or three thousand euros, is lost in each of the places where it could have been recovered. In a case like this, the firm establishes whom to claim against and in what order, drafts the claims to the platform and the bank in the terms each requires and, if there is an offence, files the complaint with the evidence prepared so that the court can require Amazon to produce the seller’s data.
You can call +34 677 841 007 or write through the contact page. When you call, have to hand the order number, the seller’s name as it appears on the listing, the latest delivery date, the amount and the payment method, screenshots of the messages with the seller and of Amazon’s replies and, if there was a text or a call, the message and the number it came from. With that we can tell in the first conversation whether the matter is worth pursuing and where to start. We practise criminal law and civil law from A Coruña.
Frequently asked questions
Can I get my money back if Amazon says it is not responsible because a third party was selling?
Yes, in most cases. Amazon is not the seller, but it undertook by contract the A-to-z Guarantee for third-party orders that do not arrive or arrive materially different, with a deadline of ninety days from the latest delivery date. If it refuses or the deadline has passed, there remain the chargeback if you paid by card, the claim against the seller under the Consumer Law, the platform’s own liability where it presented the offer as its own and, if there was deception, a criminal complaint for fraud.
Is it fraud or just a breach by the seller, and does it change anything for me?
It changes a good deal. If the seller intended to perform and failed, it is a breach of contract pursued through consumer and civil channels. If it never intended to ship anything, sold a counterfeit as genuine or took you off the platform to collect payment, it is fraud under Article 248 of the Criminal Code, punishable by six months to three years in prison or a fine if the amount does not exceed four hundred euros. With an offence you can file a complaint in A Coruña, the court can require Amazon to produce the seller’s data and the claim for the money is joined to the criminal case.
Do I have to report it to the police if it is a small amount, and is it any use?
It is not compulsory and it does not replace the claim against Amazon or the bank, but it is worth doing. Below four hundred euros it is a minor offence and is accepted all the same. The complaint creates an official record of the deception, strengthens the card chargeback and allows your case to be joined with those of other buyers from the same seller, which is how aggravated fraud is reached. Be realistic about the outcome, because if the seller is outside Europe under a false identity the case is frequently closed provisionally.
Is it worth hiring a lawyer for 60, 200 or 1,000 euros?
For sixty euros, no. Amazon’s guarantee and the chargeback on your card, which you can start yourself, are usually enough. For two hundred euros, only if Amazon has already refused the guarantee and the transaction has some complication, such as a payment outside the platform or an account that was used without you. From a thousand euros upwards, or when your account has been closed with a balance in it, or when the charge was made by a third party using your details, it pays off, because the cost of getting the order and content of the claims wrong is greater than the cost of the consultation.