Ascent Protein Reseller Policy
Last Updated: January 1, 2023
Ascent Protein (Ascent) strives to ensure that our customers can enjoy our products without fear of mishandling or spoliation. Our protein powders, protein waters & pre-workout powders are intended and designed for sale only through Ascent Protein and our authorized third-party distributors and sellers (“Authorized Partners”). Our Reseller Policy helps ensure our customers receive authentic products and quality service, and thereby protects Ascent’s brand in the marketplace.
Our Reseller Policy strictly prohibits the distribution or sale of Ascent products by unauthorized resellers. Unauthorized resale, even of seemingly genuine products, harms customers and Ascent. This Policy is intended to inform consumers and resellers, and explains the steps we take to deter unauthorized resellers before resorting to legal action.
Why are Authorized Partners important?
Authorized Partners are businesses we trust. They are authorized by contracts with us to help make our products available in the marketplace. Authorized Partners must meet specific storage, safety, and hygiene requirements. We use site visits, customer feedback and other measures to ensure those requirements are met.
When sold by an Authorized Partner, Ascent products stay within our chain of distribution. Maintaining our chain of distribution helps us ensure product authenticity, ingredient integrity and hygiene and safety standards. For these reasons, Ascent can only offer customer support for purchases from Ascent and Authorized Partners.
What’s the problem with unauthorized resellers?
An “unauthorized reseller” is anyone selling products labeled as Ascent products outside our website or our Authorized Partner channels. Ascent has no way to ensure unauthorized resellers will not, among other things:
- relabel and/or reseal other liquid products as Ascent products and/or in Ascent packaging,
- adulterate or dilute genuine Ascent products,
- resell genuine Ascent products that have been improperly stored or handled (such as by exposure to extended periods of freezing or high temperatures or UV light),
- resell genuine Ascent products months or years after the date when an Authorized Reseller would no longer be permitted to sell them for quality, freshness or other reasons.
In many cases, unauthorized resellers do not know whether the products they resell fall into the foregoing categories.
Unauthorized resellers harm our mission and brand by compromising our ability to ensure that products with the Ascent name have been manufactured, shipped, stored and sold in accordance with our stringent integrity requirements. Our marketplace monitoring shows that sales of unauthorized products routinely generate disproportionate customer support inquiries and poorer customer feedback. This damages our brand’s reputation for quality, integrity and satisfaction.
How we combat unauthorized resellers
Unauthorized resellers do not have our consent to sell merchandise labeled as Ascent products. This includes anyone who obtains genuine Ascent products, even if purchased at clearance, and later resell them on marketplaces like Walmart, eBay or Amazon.
Ascent products may not be sold by unauthorized resellers under any circumstances. Any sale or suspected sale of Ascent products by an unauthorized reseller will be reported to us and our marketplace-integrity partners.
Because many resellers are not aware of the how their activities harm us and our customers, we strive to avoid adversarial language in our initial communications with them. Unauthorized resellers are generally first contacted by one of our marketplace-integrity partners and given the opportunity to immediately cease all sales activity.
However, we reserve the right to take more formal action, whenever necessary to defend the integrity of our products and our customers’ satisfaction. This may include the legal action against unauthorized resellers, as well as formal notifications to third parties who enable the unauthorized reseller, like marketplaces (which generally prohibit inaccurate or misleading information in product pages) and often have policies for imposing financial penalties against and suspension or loss of marketplace access.
To notify us of a suspected unauthorized sale of Ascent products, please contact customerservice@ascentprotein.com.
