Sued as an Amazon Seller: Schedule A Lawsuits and Frozen Funds (TROs)

This article is general information for Amazon sellers, not legal advice, and reading it doesn’t make us your lawyers.

A Schedule A lawsuit is a federal IP case that lists many online sellers on a sealed exhibit and often starts with a TRO that freezes Amazon funds. That freeze is a court order, not a Seller Central suspension, so a Plan of Action will not lift it. Sellers generally collect the papers and decide whether to appear.

What is a Schedule A lawsuit?

“Schedule A” is not a statute. It is a filing style used in many trademark and copyright cases against online storefronts. The public complaint caption often names a brand versus “the Partnerships and Unincorporated Associations Identified on Schedule A.” The actual seller aliases, marketplace URLs, and related accounts sit on an exhibit that is frequently filed under seal at the start of the case.

A large share of these cases are filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. That court even publishes a sample sealed TRO for Schedule A cases. The template is not a finding that any particular seller infringed anything. It is a window into the relief plaintiffs usually ask for: stop the listings, restrain assets, and give notice through email or a website rather than a process server at your door.

Claims are typically brought under the Lanham Act. Federal law gives district courts power to grant injunctions against trademark violations, and it creates a rebuttable presumption of irreparable harm in many injunction and TRO settings once the plaintiff makes the required showing. See 15 U.S.C. § 1116(a). A separate subsection, § 1116(d), authorizes a narrow form of ex parte seizure in true counterfeit-mark cases, with extra findings, security, and a prompt hearing. A Schedule A asset freeze directed at Amazon or PayPal is not automatically that statutory seizure. It is usually framed as a Rule 65 restraining order plus directions to third parties who have notice of the order.

How does a TRO freeze Amazon funds?

A temporary restraining order is a short-term court command. Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 65(b) allows a TRO without written or oral notice to the other side only if specific facts in an affidavit or verified complaint clearly show immediate and irreparable injury before the other side can be heard, and the applicant’s attorney certifies efforts to give notice and why notice should not be required.

The Illinois template order, which tracks what many plaintiffs request, tells marketplace platforms — it names Amazon.com, Inc. among others — and payment providers to locate accounts tied to the Schedule A aliases and restrain those funds from being transferred. It also tells defendants not to move assets. When Amazon receives a copy of an order like that, the freeze you see in Seller Central is Amazon complying with a court paper, not Amazon concluding that you failed Account Health.

That is the distinction sellers miss. A withheld balance after a suspension is Amazon using the Business Solutions Agreement. A Schedule A freeze is a judicial restraint. Amazon Support cannot dissolve a federal TRO. Only the court can, or the plaintiff by agreement.

Rule 65(b)(2) says a no-notice TRO expires at the time the court sets, not more than 14 days after entry, unless the court extends it for good cause for a like period or the adverse party consents to a longer extension. Rule 65(b)(3) then pushes a preliminary-injunction hearing to the front of the docket. If the plaintiff does not proceed on that motion, the court must dissolve the TRO. Rule 65(b)(4) lets the restrained party move to dissolve or modify on two days’ notice, or shorter notice the court sets.

Rule 65(c) generally requires the plaintiff to post security in an amount the court considers proper to cover costs and damages if the restraint was wrongful. The Illinois template asks for a deposit within seven days of the order. Whether that bond is large enough, and whether you can claim against it, depends on the order and the facts. It is not a refund window inside Seller Central.

How is this different from an Amazon suspension?

Keep the two tracks separate on paper. Mixing them in one email to Seller Support wastes time.

	Seller Central suspension	Schedule A TRO freeze
Who acted	Amazon, under its policies and seller agreement	A federal judge, on a plaintiff’s motion
Typical first notice	Performance or Account Health email	Court papers, a freeze email, or a marketplace hold citing a case number
How funds are held	Reserve, investigation, or deactivation hold	Court order directing Amazon or a payment provider to restrain assets
Usual next step	Plan of Action and documents Amazon asked for	Appear in the case, move against the order, or negotiate with plaintiff’s counsel
Who can release the money	Amazon (or, in some contract disputes, arbitration)	The court, or the plaintiff agreeing to lift the restraint

You can have both at once. A brand may file a Schedule A case and also send Amazon an IP or ASIN complaint or an inauthentic complaint. Clearing one does not automatically clear the other.

We have older posts on TROs that freeze Amazon money and on options after a brand obtains a TRO. This article is the map of the Schedule A filing pattern itself — the sealed list, the ex parte freeze, and why it is not a policy appeal.

How do I even know I was sued?

Service of a federal complaint is governed by Rule 4. Personal delivery is the familiar method. Rule 4(f)(3) also lets a court order another means of service on a defendant abroad, so long as the method is not prohibited by international agreement. The Illinois Schedule A TRO template authorizes notice by publishing a link to the papers and emailing that link, and it cites Rule 4(f)(3). It says that combination, plus notice from payment processors, is meant to be notice reasonably calculated to apprise defendants of the case.

So the “service” you received may be an email with a link, a message in Seller Central, or a freeze letter that recites a case number in the Northern District of Illinois. Treat that as a lawsuit until a lawyer tells you it is not. Do not assume that because nobody knocked on your door, you can ignore it. Default judgments are how many of these cases end when nobody appears.

If you have a case number, you can look up the docket on PACER or the court’s site. Sealed Schedule A exhibits may not be public at the beginning. The complaint, motions, and later unsealing orders often are. A docket printout is worth more than a screenshot of a Seller Central banner.

Judges in that district do not all handle these motions the same way. Some have granted the template-style relief for years. Others have refused routine ex parte TROs or prejudgment asset freezes when they concluded the papers did not meet Rule 65 or did not support joinder of dozens or hundreds of unrelated stores. The point for a seller is practical: your judge and your order control, not a blog summary of “how Schedule A always works.”

What do sellers generally do after a freeze?

This is not a script, and it is not a promise that any step works. It is the sequence most sellers who take the case seriously actually follow.

1. Get the papers. Case number, court, judge, the TRO or injunction, the complaint if you can obtain it, and every Amazon or payment-provider notice. If you only have an email, save the full headers and the link.
2. Calendar the real deadlines. Rule 65 hearings and extension dates live on the docket. Amazon’s “appeal by” date, if any, is a different clock. Missing the court date because you were drafting a Plan of Action is a common and expensive mix-up.
3. Separate the accused products from everything else. Invoices, test buys, manufacturer letters, and listing history for the ASINs in the complaint. A freeze that covers an entire seller account is not the same as proof that every dollar in that account came from the accused listings.
4. Do not move money in a way that violates the order. If the TRO restrains assets and you have actual notice of it, moving those funds can create a contempt problem on top of the IP case. Read the order. If you do not have it, get it.
5. Decide whether to appear. Options in a given case can include a motion to dissolve or narrow the TRO, a challenge to service or personal jurisdiction, a request to sever an improperly joined defendant, negotiation with plaintiff’s counsel, or — if the facts support it — fighting the infringement claim on the merits. None of those is mandatory in every case, and default is also a choice, just usually a bad one.
6. Keep Amazon in the loop only as the order requires. Send Amazon what it asks for to identify the court order. Do not expect Seller Support to argue the Lanham Act for you.

Sellers who sell genuine goods, authorized goods, or goods that simply are not the plaintiff’s brand still get swept into these captions because the plaintiff sued a list of aliases, not a fully investigated set of supply chains. Being on Schedule A is an allegation plus a freeze, not a verdict. The opposite is also true: some listed storefronts are selling counterfeits. The court process is how those facts get tested, and it only works if someone shows up with records.

What should I not do?

Do not open a new Amazon account to “start over” while a freeze or IP case is pending. That can create a related-account problem and, if a court order already restrains your selling, a compliance problem with the order.

Do not call Amazon and ask them to ignore a federal injunction. They will not, and the request can be used later as evidence that you knew about the order.

Do not assume a small sales volume means the case will go away. Plaintiffs in this model often seek statutory damages and default judgments, then try to collect from the frozen balance. Volume is a fact you may use in a motion to narrow a freeze. It is not a reason to sit still.

Do not publish a rant that identifies sealed defendants or accuses the judge of corruption. It does not lift a TRO. It can complicate settlement and, in a sealed case, create other problems.

When is a lawyer worth calling?

Call when funds that matter to payroll or inventory are frozen, when you have a hearing date you do not understand, when the order reaches accounts that have nothing to do with the accused ASINs, or when you cannot even find the complaint. Schedule A work is federal court practice. It is not the same skill as writing a Plan of Action.

LA Law Group, APLC is a California firm. Aryan Amid, Founding Attorney, works with Amazon sellers around the country on marketplace disputes, including court-side IP fights that land on Seller Central as a freeze. No lawyer can promise that a TRO will be dissolved, that Amazon will restore listings, or that a settlement will be cheap. An organized record and a timely appearance are still better than silence.

If a brand sued you on a Schedule A or Amazon froze your balance because of a TRO, start at our Amazon seller lawyer hub, or call (866) 625-2529 for a free, confidential consultation.

This article is general information, not legal advice, and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Laws change and every situation is different. For advice about your specific matter, speak with a licensed attorney. Attorney Advertising.