Understanding Amazon's Selling Restrictions
Hello sellers,
We have been seeing a lot of threads where sellers are reporting increased cases of initial selling authorization denials and existing authorization revocations. Let´s dive into this:
Selling on Amazon comes with great opportunities, but also important responsibilities. One key aspect you need to understand is Amazon's product selling restrictions. Let's break down what these restrictions mean for your business and how to navigate them successfully.
What Are Amazon's Selling Restrictions?
Amazon implements selling restrictions to protect customers and maintain trust in the marketplace. These restrictions ensure that products sold are:
- Safe for customers
- Authentic and genuine
- Compliant with local regulations
- Meeting Amazon's quality standards
Types of Restrictions
Restrictions can apply at multiple levels:
- Individual ASINs
- Specific brands
- Entire categories
- Sub-categories
- Brands within certain categories
Note: Some products may have multiple layers of restrictions, requiring separate approvals for each level.
How to Check if You Need Approval
- Log into Seller Central
- Go to "Add a Product"
- Click "Show limitations"
- Review any restrictions or requirements listed
The Approval Process
If you discover you need approval to sell a product:
- Submit an application through Seller Central
- Provide required documentation, which may include:
- Purchase invoices from manufacturers or authorized distributors
- Product photos
- Compliance certificates
- Safety documentation
- Other category-specific requirements
Important: Not all restricted products accept applications. If you see "Your account does not qualify" or there's no "Apply to sell" option, that restriction cannot be lifted at this time.
Managing Ongoing Restrictions
Keep in mind that:
- Restrictions can change over time
- Previously approved products may become restricted
- New documentation may be required periodically
- Performance issues can affect your ability to sell restricted products
What If Your Application Is Declined?
If your application is declined, you can:
- Review the rejection reason carefully
- Gather new or additional documentation
- Submit a new application when ready
- Monitor for any changes in restrictions
Pro Tip: Keep detailed records of all your approval documentation, as you may need to reference them later.
Best Practices for Success
- Research restrictions before sourcing products
- Maintain high-quality documentation
- Stay informed about category requirements
- Monitor your account health regularly
- Keep records of all approvals and documentation
Remember: Amazon Selling Partner Support cannot provide additional information about certain restriction decisions. The best approach is to monitor the categories you're interested in and watch for changes in restrictions over time.
Understanding Amazon's Selling Restrictions
Hello sellers,
We have been seeing a lot of threads where sellers are reporting increased cases of initial selling authorization denials and existing authorization revocations. Let´s dive into this:
Selling on Amazon comes with great opportunities, but also important responsibilities. One key aspect you need to understand is Amazon's product selling restrictions. Let's break down what these restrictions mean for your business and how to navigate them successfully.
What Are Amazon's Selling Restrictions?
Amazon implements selling restrictions to protect customers and maintain trust in the marketplace. These restrictions ensure that products sold are:
- Safe for customers
- Authentic and genuine
- Compliant with local regulations
- Meeting Amazon's quality standards
Types of Restrictions
Restrictions can apply at multiple levels:
- Individual ASINs
- Specific brands
- Entire categories
- Sub-categories
- Brands within certain categories
Note: Some products may have multiple layers of restrictions, requiring separate approvals for each level.
How to Check if You Need Approval
- Log into Seller Central
- Go to "Add a Product"
- Click "Show limitations"
- Review any restrictions or requirements listed
The Approval Process
If you discover you need approval to sell a product:
- Submit an application through Seller Central
- Provide required documentation, which may include:
- Purchase invoices from manufacturers or authorized distributors
- Product photos
- Compliance certificates
- Safety documentation
- Other category-specific requirements
Important: Not all restricted products accept applications. If you see "Your account does not qualify" or there's no "Apply to sell" option, that restriction cannot be lifted at this time.
Managing Ongoing Restrictions
Keep in mind that:
- Restrictions can change over time
- Previously approved products may become restricted
- New documentation may be required periodically
- Performance issues can affect your ability to sell restricted products
What If Your Application Is Declined?
If your application is declined, you can:
- Review the rejection reason carefully
- Gather new or additional documentation
- Submit a new application when ready
- Monitor for any changes in restrictions
Pro Tip: Keep detailed records of all your approval documentation, as you may need to reference them later.
Best Practices for Success
- Research restrictions before sourcing products
- Maintain high-quality documentation
- Stay informed about category requirements
- Monitor your account health regularly
- Keep records of all approvals and documentation
Remember: Amazon Selling Partner Support cannot provide additional information about certain restriction decisions. The best approach is to monitor the categories you're interested in and watch for changes in restrictions over time.
0 replies
Seller_AlYpsVHv0gj21
The restriction I am interesting in is on second hand books "you are not authorised to sell this brand (publisher) " You do not really give any reason as to why this is happening or what we sellers can do to overcome it
Seller_ZVAz3d5lZuGid
Absolutely agree with @Seller_AlYpsVHv0gj21 - Amazon do NOT seem to understand the law/rule:
You don't need permission to resell books you've legally purchased. The copyright holder's rights are exhausted after the first sale. The first sale doctrine allows you to resell books you've legally purchased.
We should NOT have to request authorisation to sell books published by certain publishers.
Seller_tQCfsb3zoC4AP
you need to send this to your own staff in seller support as they have no understanding of your restrictions.
Safe for customers you say? How is blocking authentic goods but allow fake goods safe for customers
Authentic and genuine your staff cannot tell the difference between fake and genuine
Meeting Amazons quality standards? How are fakes reach your standards but authentic cannot?
Seller_xP044DLiavzY6
how many steps in the process are you skipping in your 1,2,3,4 ?
Log into Seller Central
Go to "Add a Product"
Click "Show limitations"
Review any restrictions or requirements listed
Seller_rVNe9RwS0aeqT
It would be helpful is seller support actually provided reasons for decline. I've noticed I had an error which was rectified. But support are still just rejecting without providing reason. All other applications are going through fine now I've sorted the issue. But not the 1 as it's just given a generic decline response.
Seller_afGpzNBJac6CP
I have had a similar issues where invoices were provided from two different supplier along with supply chain confirmation and authenticity letter.
Rejected and given no reason whatsoever. Here's the exact phrase:
"We have reviewed the documentation that you provided and determined that you are not eligible to sell X products. We evaluated the information that you provided, but it did not pass our review. We took this action to ensure the mutual success of our sellers and buyers on our site."
It's just too inconsistent as the same invoice could be used to ungate one brand and not the other There could be a rejection reason due to quantity where quantity is clearly over 10 units. Document name referenced in the rejection reply is completely random and nothing to do with the actual invoice name uploaded.
The guidelines provided during the application is not followed by the team that reviews and honestly I find the decisions to be COMPLETELY RANDOM. It depends on whoever from the team is reviewing at the time and once there is a false rejection there is no way to challenge that as all of the additional documentations or appeals will be rejected straight away by bots.
The platform's approach to selling partners have come to a level where sellers lost their trust to the channels they should be getting help from, hence they don't bother creating cases. This is literally hundreds of thousands of users constantly nudging every piece of the platform and suggesting improvements and somehow Amazon thinks they can afford to ignore?
Whereas new dashboards are proudly introduced, moving panes from right to left most of the time breaking the data integrity. Can ANYONE actually reconcile their inventory? I recently downloaded an FBA report where my sales shipped 90 days column is 1/3 of what I have in transaction report. The other day I listed asins using a flat file and I got them all nicely in manage inventory page. When I actually sent the stock to FBA everything went straight into stranded with "Listing error" response. Imagine inventory showing available, status showing out of stock and homepage showing stranded. I had to delete all listings and create new listings for each one of them. The list of examples for stupid errors, unlawful practices (exhaustion of rights in parallel imports), inconsistent / contradicting processes are ENDLESS.
Maybe, maybe not any marketplace now, maybe not today. Surely someday some other marketplace will take over where common sense prevails. This is extremely unsustainable.
Below are the case IDs for the earlier paragraph, sorry I had to vent out:
11209715922
11209770502
Seller_ZVAz3d5lZuGid
@Spencer_Amazon - any update on this ? - especially in relation to selling second-hand books that should NOT require approval , due to the first sale doctrine - "You don't need permission to resell books you've legally purchased. The copyright holder's rights are exhausted after the first sale. The first sale doctrine allows you to resell books you've legally purchased".
Seller_5BmbL9wJF7d3W
The restriction on second hand books also applies to vinyl records where exactly the same message appears "you are not authorised to sell this brand (publisher)" even though no such restriction exists in UK law for used and second hand items. We are perfectly entitled to sell second hand vinyl records, especially when they are out of copyright but Amazon fails to see this.
Seller_CJAn9FclIoBJn
Cobblers! We had a product removed which was suitable for sale in the UK - The SDS proved it but alas the Amazon team looking at it were too stupid to realise this so we lost the listing. Still sell it on our website with no issue - we noticed lots of sellers were selling the same product and products which obviously were not compliant with UK law on Amazon. That problem with bots and poorly trained staff - total chaos.
You do all of what you have suggested but if your teams are useless for appeals we are are snookered. More Amazon mayhem!
