Changes to program policies
Listed below are upcoming changes to Amazon’s program policies.
Update to the FBA lost and damaged inventory reimbursement policy
Effective May 25, 2022, the following changes will be made in the FBA lost and damaged inventory reimbursement policy:
1. In the “How we calculate reimbursement value” section, the description of price indicators when calculating the reimbursement value for items lost or damaged in the fulfillment center or by a carrier will be updated by setting longer period and using median price replacing average price. We are making this change to gather more data to help calculate accurate reimbursement values.
- The current list price you have set for the same item on Amazon or the mean list price if you have multiple listings for the same item
- The median price at which you have sold the item on Amazon over the past 18 months
- The median list price for the same item from other sellers on Amazon
- The median price at which other sellers have sold the same item over the past 18 months
2. In the “Eligibility” section, the sentence “Your selling account is in normal status when you file a claim for a lost or damaged item” will be replaced by “Your selling account is in normal status when you file a claim or when your claim is under review, including during any appeals, for a lost or damaged item”. This change is to clarify that a seller’s selling account status must be in normal status (for example, not restricted or suspended) not only when the claim is submitted, but also when it is under review for a final decision. The seller can check their status by signing in Seller Central. If no alert shows that the account has been deactivated, the seller is in normal status.
For more information, go to FBA lost and damaged inventory reimbursement policy.
Update on countries accepted for seller registration
Effective March 11, 2022, we are not accepting registrations from Russia or Belarus. For more information, see Countries accepted for seller registration.
Personal information protection measures required to be taken by sellers outside of Japan
We will add “Personal information protection measures required to be taken by sellers outside of Japan” to the Program Policies. The Policy is available here. The Policy sets forth, among other things, the personal information protection measures required to be taken by sellers outside of Japan, necessary representation and warranty from the sellers, procedures in case of breach and relevant investigations. Sellers outside of Japan are required to carefully read, represent and warrant, and comply with the Policy. The Policy will become effective on April 1, 2022.
Upcoming changes to program policies
The following change will enter into effect on June 04, 2021:
- We are adding the Unsuitable Inventory Investigations Policy as a new program policy. Under this policy, if there is suspicion that a Selling Partner may have been engaged in the sale of counterfeit products or other illegal goods at Amazon, we may require additional information regarding the affected FBA inventory. If the requested information is not provided, or we find after investigation that the inventory constitutes Unsuitable Units, we may dispose of it.
Upcoming changes to the Amazon Marketplace Fair Pricing Policy
We are making changes to the Amazon Marketplace Fair Pricing Policy. These changes will go into effect in 15 days, that is, April 24, 2021.
The key changes are summarized below:
- The last sentence before the bulleted list, "Pricing practices that harm customer trust", "If we see pricing practices on a marketplace offer that harms customer trust, Amazon may remove the Buy Box, remove the offer, or in serious or repeated cases suspend or terminate selling privileges." has been replaced with, "If we see pricing practices on a marketplace offer that harms customer trust, Amazon may remove the Featured Offer, remove the offer, suspend the ship option or in serious or repeated cases, suspend or terminate selling privileges."
- In the bulleted list, "Pricing practices that harm customer trust", we have included an additional point: Setting a shipping fee on a product that is excessive. Amazon considers current public carrier rates, reasonable handling charges, as well as buyer perception when determining whether a shipping price violated our fair pricing policy.
Your continued use of Selling Services after April 24, 2021, constitutes your acceptance of the updated policy.
As always, our goal is to help you and all our selling partners continue to succeed with Amazon and grow your businesses around the world. Thank you for being an Amazon Selling Partner.
Update to Monitor your account health, Amazon Vine terms and conditions and Category, product, and listing restrictions
We are making some changes to our program policies for clarification purposes that will go into effect on April 14, 2021, and apply to all sellers who use the services or features covered by these policies.
- Monitor your account health: We are clarifying your performance metrics in this policy.
- Amazon Vine terms and condition: We are clarifying that the units requested by Vine Voices must be fulfilled using Fulfillment by Amazon to protect the anonymity of our Vine Voices population.
- Category, product, and listing restrictions: We are clarifying that you may be restricted from selling certain types of products for various reasons, including regulatory compliance, product safety and customer experience.
This list is a summary of the changes, so we encourage you to review the updated program policies carefully.
- A redlined version of the Monitor your account health policy is available here in Japanese, English and Chinese.
- A redlined version of the Amazon Vine terms and conditions is available here in Japanese, English and Chinese.
- A redlined version of the Category, product, and listing restrictions policy is available here in Japanese, English and Chinese.
Redlined versions show changes to the latest program policies (effective as of April 1, 2021, for Monitor your account health).
If you have questions about these changes, reach out to Selling Partner Support. Your continued use of Selling Services after April 14, 2021, constitutes your acceptance of the updated program policies.
Update to Supply Chain Standards
Effective October 15, 2020, we are updating our Supply Chain Standards page to provide details about our existing policy and help you adhere to these guidelines. Our standards include the Amazon supplier code of conduct, which requires that products be manufactured in safe, healthy, and inclusive work environments. The Supply Chain Standards page also provides information about why standards are important, how we implement them, and the potential consequences for violations. We are not changing our supplier code of conduct as part of this update. See the updates here.
Update to Communication Guidelines
From November 19, 2020, our Communication Guidelines are being updated with additional information related to Buyer-Seller messages. See the updates here (link updated on 04/11/2020).
Compliance with the Installment Sales Act and Other Laws and Regulations
We are adding Examination by Acquirer section which includes the term regarding the action when failing the investigation by credit card acquirers to Installment Sales Act and Other Laws and Regulations on May 1, 2020. Please see Sell On Amazon for the detail of investigation process.
Amazon Vine Terms and Conditions
We are adding the Amazon Vine Terms and Conditions to the Program Policies page on January 20, 2020. You can access a copy here.
Compliance with the Installment Sales Act and Other Laws and Regulations
We are adding the Compliance with the Installment Sales Act and Other Laws and Regulations to the Program Policies page on January 23, 2020. You can access a copy here. This is to request all Sellers to compliance of Installment Sales Act (“ISA”) and other laws and regulations and submission of the information necessary for the screening under ISA.
