01 — OverviewAmazon's Three Levels of Enforcement
Amazon enforcement runs on a ladder. Knowing which rung you are on tells you how serious the problem is and how to respond.
Every rung is tracked by one number: your Account Health Rating.
02 — DefinitionDeactivation vs a Blocked Listing
A deactivation — Amazon's word for a suspension — stops every listing under your account, holds your balance, and removes your ability to sell until you appeal successfully. That is account-level. A single suppressed listing only takes down one ASIN and leaves the rest of your account trading.
Both are governed by your Account Health Rating (AHR), a 0–1,000 score shown on the Account Health dashboard. A score of 200 or above is healthy (green). New accounts start at 200; each violation deducts points (typically 2–8, though a critical one can drop the score to 0), and you earn points back — roughly 4 for every 200 orders fulfilled cleanly over 180 days, or by winning an appeal.
03 — CausesWhy Accounts Get Deactivated
Most deactivations trace back to one of these. The more severe ones are account-level and fall under Section 3 of Amazon's Business Solutions Agreement.
| Cause | What triggers it | Severity |
|---|---|---|
| Performance metrics | Order Defect Rate above 1%, Late Shipment Rate above 4%, low Valid Tracking Rate | Medium |
| Review manipulation | Incentivised, solicited, or fake reviews | High |
| Dropshipping breach | Shipping from another retailer where you are not the seller of record | High |
| IP complaint | Trademark, copyright, or patent claim from a rights owner | High |
| Restricted products | Selling a gated or prohibited item | Medium–High |
| Related accounts | A link to another account that is itself deactivated or under complaint | Critical (Section 3) |
| Inauthentic / counterfeit | A product-authenticity complaint | Critical |
| Identity / INFORM Act | Verification failure or mismatched documents | Account-level |
04 — Act FastThe First 72 Hours
What you do immediately decides how hard reinstatement will be. Work through these in order.
Do not open a new account
A new account is treated as a related-account violation and gets suspended too. You also cannot close a suspended account to escape it. Stay put and appeal.
Read the notice and your Account Health page
Find the exact violation, ASIN, or policy Amazon cited, and note what the template does and does not actually tell you.
Call Seller Support to pin down the trigger
The deactivation email is usually a standard template — it names the policy but rarely the specific listing, complaint, or data point behind it. A call to Seller Support, or a written clarification request, can surface the actual trigger so you appeal the right thing.
Clarify — don't let calls replace the appealGather your documents
Pull supplier invoices, identity documents, bank records, and your business registration. You cannot appeal an authenticity claim without valid invoices.
Diagnose the real root cause
Be honest about what triggered the action. Amazon finds inconsistencies fast, and an accurate diagnosis is the foundation of the whole appeal.
Submit one strong Plan of Action
Through the Account Health dashboard, click Submit Appeal and send a concise Plan of Action. One strong appeal beats several weak ones.
Typical response: 3–5 business days05 — The AppealThe Plan of Action That Works
The Plan of Action (POA) is the appeal itself. Amazon reviewers look for the same three parts every time, and templated or vague submissions are the most common reason an appeal fails.
1. Root cause — the specific thing that went wrong. "We improved our processes" signals you have not diagnosed it. Name the exact complaint, document gap, or policy.
2. Corrective actions — what you have already done, in past tense. Reviewers want completed steps, not promises.
3. Preventive measures — the systemic change that stops it recurring: the process you added, the supplier you dropped, the check you built in.
Keep it to about one page, professional and factual, with no emotional language and no arguing with Amazon's decision. Do not count on a rejection telling you what was missing — it usually won't. You often have to extract the real reason yourself, and it can take several calls before you reach a person who gives you a straight answer. Once you know the gap, fix that exact point; resubmitting the same text rarely works. There is no limit on appeal attempts, and if Amazon goes quiet after two or three rounds, that does not mean appeals are closed — keep going, stronger and more specific each time.
06 — SolutionsCause-by-Cause Fixes
Related accounts
Owning more than one account is not, by itself, a violation. If you have a genuine business reason, you can contact Seller Support in advance, explain it, and get official approval to run two or more accounts. The real danger is what happens when one account is deactivated: the link then pulls every connected account down with it. And a deactivation is not always about something you did — competitors sometimes file complaints purely to knock a rival out of the race. That is why we still recommend one account per company or person.
When a related-account block lands, Amazon's notice usually shows part of the name of the account it has linked you to. Use that fragment to work out whose account it is and to map every point of overlap before you appeal.
Not all links carry the same weight. Amazon does not publish how its matching works; the pattern below is what surfaces repeatedly in real cases, and the severity of the underlying issue probably matters too.
| Connection type | What it takes to link two accounts |
|---|---|
| Personal & financial — owner identity, email, bank card, bank account | A single match is usually enough |
| Shared infrastructure — address, phone, computer or device, internet connection | Usually needs 2–3 overlapping signals together |
To appeal, do the work Amazon will not do for you: name the linked account, list every connecting trigger yourself, and justify each one — why one computer logged into two accounts, why the same phone number or bank card appears on both. Then change the connecting details in your account, explain how you have separated everything, and commit to not repeating it. An appeal that identifies all the triggers and explains them convincingly has a high chance of reinstatement; if you miss one, expect to redo it. If the link is genuinely a mistake, prove you are separate entities with a notarised affidavit, utility bills, a lease, and your business registration showing a clear, separate timeline.
If you do own the linked accounts, you cannot "unrelate" them — reinstate the first-deactivated account ("patient zero") first, and for a cross-border chain fix the marketplace where the problem started, then use that reinstatement as proof for the others.
Inauthentic or counterfeit
This appeal stands or falls on documentation. You need invoices from an authorised, official distributor of the specific brand — Amazon does not accept receipts from major retailers, and if the supplier is not an authorised distributor of that brand the invoice will be rejected. Amazon often verifies the paperwork by phoning the supplier directly, so every detail must be real and reachable.
Amazon also sets out exactly what each invoice has to show — match all of it:
The supplier's name, address, phone number, and website; your business name and address exactly as they appear in Seller Central; the invoice date (usually within the last 365 days); the product name; and a quantity that covers the units you have sold.
If the invoice lists several products, circle or mark the ASIN of the disputed item so the reviewer can find it at a glance.
A Letter of Authorisation from the brand helps where you resell a branded product. Without valid invoices that meet these conditions, you generally cannot appeal an authenticity claim at all.
Identity and INFORM Act verification
Under the US INFORM Consumers Act, Amazon must verify "high-volume" sellers — those with 200 or more sales and $5,000 or more in gross revenue over a 12-month period; sellers above $20,000 a year also have their name and address shown to buyers. Verification is literal: your name, tax ID, bank account, address, and phone number must match character-for-character across documents. "Sarah J. Smith" on Seller Central and "Sarah Jane Smith" on a bank statement will fail. Re-upload documents that match exactly; Amazon may also use a video call or mail a postcard with a code to confirm your address.
Section 3 (Code of Conduct)
Section 3 is the broadest and most serious category — fraud, related accounts, review manipulation, counterfeit, or identity failure. Expect comprehensive documentation, sometimes a video interview, and more than one round of submissions. First rejections are common; if you are stonewalled after a complete, accurate appeal, escalation beyond the standard queue is sometimes necessary.
Performance metrics
Usually the easiest to resolve. Acknowledge the issue in Account Health, explain the operational cause (a supplier delay, a shipping mistake), and show the process change that fixes it. A short, specific POA is enough — do not over-engineer it.
IP complaints
We recommend going to the source: contact the rights owner directly and try to settle the dispute with them. The complaint is theirs, so a retraction from them makes it disappear with no Amazon appeal needed — and a direct agreement is usually faster than the appeal queue. Failing that, for a copyright claim you can file a counter-notice; for a trademark claim, remove the brand term from your listing or prove your right to sell the product. Patent disputes are the hardest and usually need legal input.
07 — MoneyYour Money and Your Listings
When an account is deactivated, your listings are suppressed and your balance is generally held for a roughly 90-day settlement period to cover potential refunds, chargebacks, and A-to-z claims. You keep access to Seller Central to manage your appeal, and if you are reinstated before the period ends, normal disbursement resumes.
| Cause | Typical reinstatement time |
|---|---|
| Performance issues | ~3–10 days |
| Authenticity / inauthentic claims | ~1–4 weeks |
| IP disputes and related accounts | Weeks to months |
08 — PreventionStaying Out of Trouble
Sellers in good standing get Account Health Assurance — a free safety net where Amazon contacts you and gives a 72-hour window to resolve an issue before deactivating. You keep it by holding your AHR in the green and clearing violations as they appear.
The most avoidable deactivation is a verification failure, and it usually comes down to inconsistent business details. A US LLC with a clean, consistent identity — the same legal name on your EIN letter, your business bank account, and your Seller Central profile, backed by a real US address — passes Amazon's checks first time. Mismatches between those documents are a leading reason new accounts are deactivated at signup.
09 — Quick ReferenceCause, Fix, and Timeline at a Glance
| Cause | What fixes it | Typical timeline |
|---|---|---|
| Performance metrics | POA: acknowledge, explain, show the process change | ~3–10 days |
| Inauthentic / counterfeit | Authorised-distributor invoices + Letter of Authorisation | ~1–4 weeks |
| Related accounts | Reinstate "patient zero"; affidavit + utility bills + registration | Weeks to months |
| IP complaint | Rights-owner retraction; counter-notice; remove brand term | Days to weeks |
| Identity / INFORM Act | Documents matching character-for-character; video or postcard | Days |
| Section 3 | Comprehensive POA + documents; sometimes a video interview | Weeks to months |
10 — FAQFrequently Asked Questions
Forming a US LLC for Amazon?
A clean US LLC — matching legal name, EIN, US address, and a business bank account — is what passes Amazon's verification the first time. We set yours up correctly and keep it compliant, so you avoid the most preventable deactivation of all.
