Repeated Featured Offer / Buy Box suppression cases no longer look like ordinary competition alone
I know moderators cannot always see everything internally, but the same pattern keeps appearing across multiple threads and it does not look like a normal “seller priced too high” situation every time.
Sellers are reporting:
- competitive thresholds below FBA fulfilment cost alone
- temporary reinstatement followed by suppression again
- benchmarking against products that do not appear like-for-like
- comparison against headline shelf prices that may ignore delivery or basket conditions
- support saying “not competitive” without addressing the arithmetic contradiction
At that point, the visible symptom is Buy Box loss, but the hidden issue may be something else:
- bad comparator source
- bad comparison method
- wrong product match
- or an internal eligibility-state problem
This is why generic advice to “monitor pricing” is not enough in cases where the benchmark itself may be wrong.
For example, sellers in recent threads have reported:
- enforced thresholds below FBA fulfilment fee alone
- repeated restore / suppress cycles
- no authorised external retailers, yet still being told the price is not competitive against “reputable retailers”
Two years ago, sellers in the older Buy Box megathread were already posting cases where Amazon wording referred to technical review and override granted, which suggests at least some cases were never ordinary competition to begin with.
So the key question is:
Can Amazon distinguish between normal Featured Offer competition loss and cases where an internal benchmark, comparator, or eligibility problem may be producing the suppression instead?
And if a case is manually reviewed, is the team validating the actual comparator and purchase conditions behind it, or only reconfirming the current benchmark already held in the system?
I am not saying every Buy Box loss is a bug. Clearly some are normal competition. But the repeated cases above suggest there is also a different category of problem, and sellers are currently getting the same generic response for both.
If moderators cannot answer the pricing detail itself, it would still help to clarify which internal team is responsible for reviewing whether the benchmark or comparator is wrong.
https://sellercentral.amazon.co.uk/seller-forums/discussions/t/fef42466-78b7-489e-8969-016a1298fac5
Repeated Featured Offer / Buy Box suppression cases no longer look like ordinary competition alone
I know moderators cannot always see everything internally, but the same pattern keeps appearing across multiple threads and it does not look like a normal “seller priced too high” situation every time.
Sellers are reporting:
- competitive thresholds below FBA fulfilment cost alone
- temporary reinstatement followed by suppression again
- benchmarking against products that do not appear like-for-like
- comparison against headline shelf prices that may ignore delivery or basket conditions
- support saying “not competitive” without addressing the arithmetic contradiction
At that point, the visible symptom is Buy Box loss, but the hidden issue may be something else:
- bad comparator source
- bad comparison method
- wrong product match
- or an internal eligibility-state problem
This is why generic advice to “monitor pricing” is not enough in cases where the benchmark itself may be wrong.
For example, sellers in recent threads have reported:
- enforced thresholds below FBA fulfilment fee alone
- repeated restore / suppress cycles
- no authorised external retailers, yet still being told the price is not competitive against “reputable retailers”
Two years ago, sellers in the older Buy Box megathread were already posting cases where Amazon wording referred to technical review and override granted, which suggests at least some cases were never ordinary competition to begin with.
So the key question is:
Can Amazon distinguish between normal Featured Offer competition loss and cases where an internal benchmark, comparator, or eligibility problem may be producing the suppression instead?
And if a case is manually reviewed, is the team validating the actual comparator and purchase conditions behind it, or only reconfirming the current benchmark already held in the system?
I am not saying every Buy Box loss is a bug. Clearly some are normal competition. But the repeated cases above suggest there is also a different category of problem, and sellers are currently getting the same generic response for both.
If moderators cannot answer the pricing detail itself, it would still help to clarify which internal team is responsible for reviewing whether the benchmark or comparator is wrong.
https://sellercentral.amazon.co.uk/seller-forums/discussions/t/fef42466-78b7-489e-8969-016a1298fac5
20 replies
Seller_J76mX1QzhL35g
Great post, thank you
Since mid-February, I’ve had an ongoing issue where TWO asin's are repeatedly flagged for “competitive pricing,” reinstated after review, and then flagged again within days. This cycle has now happened multiple times with no permanent resolution.
The main issue seems to be that Seller Support and the internal team are not grasping the core problem. For example:
* I sell an item at **£2.99**
* Amazon is suggesting a competitive price of **£1.62**
* My FBA fulfilment fee alone is around **£1.75 (excluding VAT)**
That means I would be making an **instant loss on every sale**, before even factoring in the product cost itself.
Despite this being clearly explained multiple times, I keep receiving the same response stating that the price is based on a “recently observed price at another reputable retailer.”
This is simply not true within the UK marketplace.
I have also provided proof, including links to reputable UK retailers selling similar products at significantly higher prices, as well as examples of other sellers on Amazon UK selling comparable products at much higher prices. This evidence does not seem to be taken into account.
The products in question cannot be purchased anywhere in the UK at or near the price being suggested. The only places you might see pricing remotely close would be platforms like Temu or Shein, which are not comparable to UK-based FBA offers in terms of fulfilment, VAT, or customer experience.
It’s also important to highlight that nearly all UK retailers charge separate shipping fees, whereas my FBA listings include **free shipping**, meaning the comparison is not like-for-like in terms of total cost to the customer.
As @Seller_kSZCywEhJQQ8J has stated
If moderators cannot answer the pricing detail itself, it would still help to clarify which internal team is responsible for reviewing whether the benchmark or comparator is wrong.
i have over 1200 units now stuck in FBA across 2 asins, which I can't sell because I will make a loss if i sell at the unrealistic price amazon are suggesting, if i reconcile i will be at a loss, and all the time i am incurring storage fees. THIS IS WRONG !
Here is my original post
https://sellercentral.amazon.co.uk/seller-forums/discussions/t/92e2a9e5-c0e9-42dd-865f-e70c198d3fbe?postId=d3ea2162-8011-4a8b-8beb-586abe14de3f
Seller_kSZCywEhJQQ8J
Your example makes the contradiction very clear.
If Amazon is enforcing a competitive price of £1.62 while FBA fulfilment fee alone is already around £1.75 ex VAT, then this no longer looks like an ordinary competitiveness issue. It becomes a question of whether the benchmark itself has been properly validated.
The repeat cycle matters as well: review, reinstatement, then suppression again within days. That suggests the visible state may be reset temporarily, but the same upstream comparator or benchmark logic is being reapplied.
The stranded stock point is also important. At that stage the issue is no longer just Buy Box visibility. It becomes inventory trapped in FBA after an opaque pricing decision, with ongoing storage cost while the seller has no viable pricing route.
I think your strongest unanswered question remains:
if moderators cannot address the pricing detail itself, which internal team is actually responsible for reviewing whether the benchmark or comparator is wrong?
Seller_19xPhE8YgkmxW
Hi jfmamj,
This has been happening for some time in Books where "Listings deactivated due to suspected pricing errors" is matching the current price of a used book with the original cover price from 40 or more years ago.
There have been a lot of threads and comments about this, over many months, but without any resolution
Many of these suppressed books are still being offered by the Bulk Book Merchants, but cannot be listed by the smaller merchants
Hope this adds perspective
Brian
Seller_kSZCywEhJQQ8J
Thanks, Brian,
This is a very useful comparison because it shows the same kind of problem in a different category.
In the earlier cases, sellers were describing impossible low thresholds, non-like-for-like external comparisons, or repeated reinstatement followed by suppression again.
Your Books example suggests another version of the same wider issue: the system may be using the wrong reference point entirely, in this case comparing a current used-book price to an original printed cover price from decades ago.
If that is what is happening, then the problem is not ordinary price competition. It is invalid benchmark logic.
The point about bulk merchants still being able to offer the same suppressed books is important too, because it raises the question of whether the rule is being applied consistently across sellers.
Taken together, these examples suggest the wider problem may be less about sellers being “uncompetitive” and more about different forms of broken comparison logic being treated as if they were valid market signals.
Seller_kSZCywEhJQQ8J
I have reviewed both the UK megathread and the US megathread. My feeling is that this issue may not be resolved quickly through normal Seller Support.
My suggestion is:
1. Start a new thread with your current case ID, problem, and timeline. Invite other affected sellers to join your thread and share their cases.
2. Please share the link to your thread here. I will follow it and may quote public examples in my own analysis thread.
3. To reduce your financial loss, I also suggest writing to the UK CEO / Managing Director office with clear evidence of the impact.
I have attached two templates below:
* Forum post template
**Featured Offer eligibility lost — case ID and timeline**
I am affected by the same Featured Offer / Buy Box eligibility issue.
**Case ID:** [insert case ID]
**Date issue started:** [insert date]
**What happened:**
Featured Offer eligibility changed from Yes to No on [all listings / many listings / selected ASINs].
**Account Health:**
Account Health shows [no warning / warning details].
**Performance Notification:**
I received [no Performance Notification / notification details].
**Seller Support reply:**
Seller Support said: “[paste exact reply wording]”
**Business impact:**
Before this issue, average daily sales were around [£ / orders].
After this issue, average daily sales dropped to around [£ / orders].
Estimated loss so far: [£ amount].
**Request to Amazon / moderator:**
Can Amazon please check whether there is an internal Featured Offer eligibility issue or hidden restriction affecting my account/listings, as Seller Support has not provided a clear actionable reason?
* CEO office email template
Dear Amazon UK Managing Director / Executive Seller Relations Team,
I am writing because my Featured Offer / Buy Box eligibility has been removed without any clear seller-facing reason, and standard Seller Support has not been able to explain or resolve the issue.
**Seller account:** [store name]
**Primary marketplace:** Amazon UK
**Case ID(s):** [insert case IDs]
**Date issue started:** [insert date]
Featured Offer eligibility changed from Yes to No on [all listings / many listings / selected ASINs].
My Account Health shows: [no warnings / details].
I received: [no Performance Notification / details].
Seller Support replied: “[paste exact support wording].”
This has caused significant financial loss.
Before the issue, average daily sales were approximately: [£ / orders].
After the issue, average daily sales are approximately: [£ / orders].
Estimated loss so far: [£ amount].
I am not asking for a general explanation of how Featured Offer works. I am asking Amazon to check whether there is an internal eligibility restriction, hidden account/listing state, or system error affecting my Featured Offer eligibility.
Please escalate this to the team that can inspect and correct Featured Offer eligibility states, and please confirm whether my account/listings require internal review or override.
Kind regards,
[Name]
[Store name]
[Merchant Token if comfortable]
[Contact email]
Seller_J76mX1QzhL35g
I have opened another case id 12453105172
If it doesn't get resolved this time, it will be a letter to the CEO's office in London
Seller_kSZCywEhJQQ8J
Please share the seller support reply.
I have opened another case id 12453105172
If it doesn't get resolved this time, it will be a letter to the CEO's office in London
Seller_kSZCywEhJQQ8J
I wonder whether part of the problem is not simply “wrong price matching”, but how the system learns from human correction.
If a seller proves that a price comparator is invalid — for example, because a personalised product has been compared with a generic one — that reversal should become useful system memory.
It should tell the system:
this was not a valid equivalent product comparison.
But if the reversal only closes the case, without feeding back into the comparator logic, then the same error can repeat again and again.
Worse, repeated disputes may not teach the system that the comparator was wrong. They may only make the workflow more cautious about future overrides.
So the seller experiences:
I already proved this was wrong.
But the system behaves as if:
this is a contested pricing pattern, so require stronger evidence next time.
That would explain why some pricing problems feel increasingly stubborn after repeated correction.
The issue may not be a lack of seller evidence. It may be that human corrections are not becoming labelled training data for the pricing system.
In other words:
the system is corrected, but not trained.
That is where the real loop may be broken.
Kai_Amazon
Hi @Seller_kSZCywEhJQQ8J,
Thank you for reaching out to us. If you believe the suppression is incorrect, please contact Seller Support directly so they can review your specific case. If the issue remains unresolved, please share your Case ID here and we'll look into it further.
For more information on Featured Offer eligibility, please refer to the following help pages:
Also, if you have follow-up questions on the same topic, please keep them in one thread rather than creating multiple posts. This helps us track and respond more efficiently.
Best,
Kai
Seller_kSZCywEhJQQ8J
Good seller question:
Instead of asking only:
"Why was my Featured Offer removed?"
Ask:
"Which signal caused my Featured Offer eligibility to change,
and has the source of that signal been corrected,
or only the eligibility state manually restored?"
Case-writing version:
My concern is that the manual review may have restored the current Featured Offer eligibility state without correcting the upstream pricing signal that caused the removal.
If the system is using an external competitive price signal, please confirm:
1. What comparator source was used?
2. What product was matched?
3. What price was recorded?
4. What timestamp was used?
5. Was shipping included?
6. Was the product identical in brand, size, quantity, condition, and region?
7. Has the upstream comparator signal been corrected or excluded?
Do not panic-adjust the price immediately.
First check:
- Did I change my price?
- Did Amazon mention external competitive price?
- Did the Featured Offer return after manual review?
- Did it disappear again after a refresh?
- Did Amazon provide the comparator evidence?
If the answer is:
"No price change, manual restore, then repeated loss"
Then the issue may be a system loop,
not a normal pricing mistake.
