Brand Registry, MAP & resellers
There are two different things called reseller policy, and mixing them up is why so many brands get nowhere. The first is Amazon's own rulebook, which says who may sell on the marketplace and under what conditions. The second is your brand's policy, which says who may resell your product and on what terms. Amazon enforces the first. Only you enforce the second.
Your brand policy is the document that sits between the contract and the price list. It is issued rather than negotiated, it applies to every account the same way, and it is the thing you point at when a reseller does something you did not expect. This article covers what it should contain and how it differs from the other documents in the set.
What Amazon's own rules actually say about reselling
Worth knowing, because it sets the boundary of what complaining to Amazon can ever achieve.
Amazon permits the resale of genuine goods. A business that lawfully acquires your product and lists it in accurate condition is operating within the marketplace rules, whether or not you approve of them. There is no requirement that a seller be authorised by the brand.
What Amazon does prohibit is counterfeit product, inaccurate condition claims, listing content that infringes intellectual property, tampering with a listing's identity, and a long list of category-specific rules — expiry dating, hazardous materials, restricted categories, and so on.
The practical consequence: every enforcement route that works runs through one of the prohibitions, not through your authorisation status. The routes and how to use them are in how to remove unauthorized sellers.
Policy, agreement or terms of sale
Three documents, three jobs.
The agreement is a signed contract with a specific account. It creates mutual obligations and it is where negotiated terms live — exclusivity, territory, a particular payment arrangement. The clauses worth having are in the Amazon reseller agreement.
The policy is your standing statement of how you trade, issued to every account, unnegotiated. It is easier to update than a contract because you are not reopening a negotiation with twenty accounts to change one rule.
The terms of sale are the transactional fine print on each order: payment due, freight, damage claims, title.
Putting a rule in the wrong document has practical costs. A rule inside a signed contract cannot be changed without going back to every signatory. A rule in a policy can be reissued with notice. So the test is simple: anything you expect to update — the price floor, the promotional calendar, the approved channels — belongs in policy.
The sections your policy needs
Scope and definitions. Who it applies to, which products, which markets. Define reseller, authorised reseller, end customer and channel, because every later clause leans on those words.
Authorisation. How an account becomes authorised, that authorisation is not transferable, and that it can be withdrawn. Reference your published list. The structure around this is in an authorised reseller programme.
Approved channels. Name them. Physical retail, the reseller's own website, specific marketplaces. State explicitly whether Amazon listing is permitted, because silence gets read as permission.
Sub-selling. Whether the account may sell to other resellers, and if so only to approved ones. This is the clause that decides whether your product shows up in channels you have never heard of.
Product integrity. No repackaging, relabelling, bundling with other brands, or removing lot codes and serial numbers. Require units to be sold in the original packaging within any dating requirements.
Advertised price. Either the floor itself or a reference to the separate MAP policy document. Keeping it separate is usually cleaner because the numbers change more often than the rules.
Brand assets. A limited licence to use your images, copy and marks for selling the product, ending when authorisation ends. Add a line forbidding registration of your name as a domain, a marketplace brand, or a trademark in any territory.
Warranty and support. Which units you warrant and how a customer claims. If your warranty applies only to product bought from an authorised source, say it here and say it on your website.
Reporting. For distributors, a requirement to report which accounts received product. This is the clause that makes a leak traceable.
Consequences. The escalation ladder: notice, order hold, removal from the list. State that the brand determines violations in its sole discretion and makes supply decisions independently.
Changes and notice. How you will publish updates and how much notice accounts get. Sixty days is customary for price, shorter for rules.
The clauses that matter most for a marketplace brand
Three of the above do more work than the rest for a brand whose main channel is its own Amazon listing.
Channel authorisation is first, because an account that sells into physical retail grows your business and an account that lists on your ASIN mostly redistributes it. Being explicit costs one sentence and prevents the most common surprise.
Sub-selling restriction is second. Most off-price Amazon listings of genuine product come from two or three steps downstream, not from the account you signed. If you cannot reach those parties contractually, you cannot close the leak.
Product integrity with lot codes is third, because it is what turns an investigation from guesswork into an answer. Codes on cases, recorded against accounts, and a policy requiring they stay intact.
The day-to-day work of checking and acting is in MAP policy monitoring and enforcement.
Publishing it, and getting it acknowledged
A policy has force when accounts have actually received it. That means three things.
Put it on your website on a stable URL, dated, with a version number. A policy nobody can find is hard to rely on.
Send it with every new account pack and require an acknowledgement — a signed receipt saying they have read it, not a negotiated agreement to it. The distinction matters, particularly for the price section.
Reissue it when it changes, with notice, to every account. Quietly editing the page and pointing at it later is not the same thing.
For existing accounts that never received one, send the policy with the next order confirmation and make acknowledgement a condition of the order after that. Some will ask questions. Those questions usually tell you something useful about how they have been selling your product.
When you are ready for one
Not on day one. An Amazon-only brand with no wholesale accounts has nobody to issue a policy to, and writing one early is procrastination dressed as preparation.
The trigger is the first serious wholesale conversation. At that point you need the pack — policy, agreement, price list, MAP appendix — because a buyer who asks for terms and gets a hesitant email decides you are not ready to supply them. The confidence that comes from having the documents on hand is worth as much as the protection.
Write the policy when you know who you are writing it for. Finding that out is the step most Amazon brands skip. Paste your listing into WholesalePilot and the preview shows which distributors and retailers would plausibly stock the product, which tells you whether your policy needs to handle marketplaces, physical retail, or both. The broader path from marketplace to distribution is in from FBA to wholesale.
Questions brands ask about reseller policy
Does Amazon require sellers to be authorised by the brand? No. Genuine goods may be resold.
Can I put my price floor in the policy? Yes, though a separate MAP document is easier to update.
Is a policy legally binding? It is not a contract. Its force comes from your right to decide whom to supply, plus whatever the signed agreement adds.
What if a reseller ignores it? Notice, then stop shipping. Supply is the enforcement.
Do I need one for a single retail account? Terms of sale on the invoice are enough for one small account. A policy is for when there are several.
Should my policy mention Amazon by name? Yes. Ambiguity about marketplaces is the single most common source of disputes.