Compliance Expert Was Allowed to Opine on Amazon Policy

ZAGG initiated this action against DVG, TX Trading Inc. (“TX Trading”), and Menachem Mendel Ichilevici (“Ichilevici”) (collectively, “Defendants”), alter egos collectively doing business as Amazon Seller “Mac N’ Cheese,” violated Sections 32 and 43 of the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. §§ 1114, 1125(a), by infringing on ZAGG’s trademarks and falsely advertising ZAGG products.

Plaintiff, ZAGG, Inc., filed a Daubert motion to exclude the report and testimony of DVG’s Amazon policy expert, Rachel Johnson Greer.

Compliance Expert Witness

Rachel Johnson Greer worked as a Program Manager at Amazon for five years, overseeing various elements of Amazon’s compliance programs. She has has served as an Amazon compliance consultant since 2015. Greer published a book on Amazon product safety. She has appeared as an “Amazon Product Compliance” speaker at various events from 2016 to 2022.

Greer received a Master of Business Administration degree from Seattle University.

Discover more cases with Rachel Johnson Greer as an expert witness by ordering his comprehensive Expert Witness Profile report.

Discussion by the Court

I. Qualifications

ZAGG claimed that Greer is “an unqualified and unreliable witness as to Amazon’s current processes and policies (or any policies after she left in 2017).”

However, Greer’s experience both as a manager at Amazon and as a consultant to Amazon sellers qualifies her as an expert in the field of “Amazon policy compliance.”

Despite Greer’s demonstrated experience in the Amazon marketplace, ZAGG attacked her qualifications in four ways. First, ZAGG claimed that none of Greer’s roles at Amazon “involved any of the issues or policies at issue in this case.” But that’s not entirely true. Greer “investigated sellers and vendors for safety and intellectual property infringement,” “managed quality & compliance for Amazon’s own brands,” and “managed the legal compliance of all global imports.”

Second, ZAGG contended that Greer isn’t qualified because she hasn’t worked at Amazon since 2017 and thus (ZAGG says) isn’t familiar with Amazon’s “current processes and policies.” But ZAGG hasn’t cited any authority for the proposition that an expert must be currently (or even recently) employed by a company whose policies he or she intends to outline.

Third, ZAGG insisted that “only Amazon itself can testify as to its practices and procedures.” However, courts routinely allow experts who are unaffiliated with a company to testify about that company’s policies or practices if those experts are otherwise qualified to do so. To the extent ZAGG thinks that Amazon would be a better witness, it hasn’t identified any authority that requires the Court to exclude an expert’s testimony simply because a better witness might have been found.

Finally, ZAGG claimed that Greer is impermissibly trying to “testify on behalf of Amazon.” The Greer Report made it clear that Greer is offering her perspective on Amazon’s policies and practices as an expert who’s navigated the Amazon marketplace for years.

II. Reliability

Because Greer is a non-scientific expert testifying about her experience, the relevant question is “how that experience leads to the conclusion reached, why that experience is a sufficient basis for the opinion, and how that experience is reliably applied to the facts.”

Greer has shown that her opinions about Amazon’s policies and practices are based, in part, on her experience “providing compliance guidance to Amazon sellers regarding Product Policy, Fulfilment by Amazon (‘FBA’) compliance, Amazon’s intellectual property policies, and other Seller Performance issues,” and “providing advisory services on meeting Amazon and regulatory product compliance requirements for consumer goods.”

Her “opinions in this case are based on her experience working at Amazon and in her Amazon consulting business, Amazon policy documents, publicly available listings of ZAGG products on Amazon.com, and her review of certain documents provided to her by DVG.” That’s more than sufficient for the Court to find her report and testimony reliable under Rule 702.

Since Greer’s proposed testimony is based on her personal experience working with Amazon’s quality control policies over many years, the Court denied the second aspect of ZAGG’s motion.

III. Helpfulness

ZAGG argued that the Greer Report is not helpful because it “contains exclusively fact testimony and is completely devoid of any opinions that go beyond the understanding of an average layperson.”

However, DVG argued that Greer does much more than just recite Amazon policies and procedures. In saying so, DVG identifies several of Greer’s opinions that (it believes) will help the trier of fact, including:

• Amazon public-facing policies “are often contradictory or outdated” because “Amazon’s process for changing and updating policies, guidelines and other seller documents on the Amazon Marketplace is a multi-step process that requires internal tickets and up to six approvals.”

• “Based on her experience at Amazon and in providing consulting services to Amazon sellers, it has always been understood that a “new” item is simply one that is brand-new and unused, free of blemishes, smudges or dirt, and in the original packaging.”

The Court agreed with DVG that Greer’s report and testimony go well beyond a mere recitation of Amazon’s policies and that her expert analysis of Amazon’s policies and practices would assist the trier of fact. The Court thus denied this third aspect of ZAGG’s motion.

IV. Opinions & Hearsay

First, ZAGG said that “it is entirely unclear what ‘opinions’ are being offered by Greer.” ZAGG claimed that the Greer Report is “a hodgepodge of speculative factual assertions made by Greer masquerading as ‘opinions.’”

However, in making this argument, ZAGG identified several of Greer’s specific opinions—thus belying its claim that it has no way of knowing which opinions Greer plans to offer. (“Greer testified that she is offering only two opinions. First, she testified that: ‘Accordingly, it is my opinion that ZAGG’s conclusion that defendants cannot list ZAGG products as being in new condition is based on an incorrect interpretation of Amazon’s policies that is not used by Amazon in practice.’ Second, she testified that: ‘it is my opinion that defendants’ stickering of ZAGG products comports with Amazon’s policy, as does the marking over the barcode on the lower left of the packaging above.’”)

Second, ZAGG believed that Greer’s opinions are merely “out-of-court assertions about Amazon’s policies and practices, offered for their truth.”

The Court held that Greer’s testimony isn’t a mere recounting of the out-of-court statements of others—it’s expert analysis about the industry’s business practices gleaned from her years of experience as an Amazon employee and consultant.

Held

The Court denied ZAGG’s motion to exclude the report of DVG’s expert, Rachel Johnson Greer.

Key Takeaway

Knowledge of an industry’s business practices is gleaned from years of working within the industry and with its professionals. It is not a recounting of out of court statements of others.

Case Details:

Case Caption:	Zagg Inc. V. TX Trading, Inc.
Docket Number:	1:23cv20304
Court Name:	United States District Court, Florida Southern
Order Date:	December 16, 2025