An Amazon Code of Conduct deactivation is the removal of selling privileges after severe or repeated breaches of the Seller Code of Conduct, most often for abusing another seller or contacting buyers outside Buyer-Seller Messaging. It usually lands after earlier violations of the same policy were recorded and the conduct continued, or after one act serious enough that Amazon did not wait. The Code sits inside the Account Health Rating, where each repeat of the same policy costs more points than the last. Section 3 of the Business Solutions Agreement also lets Amazon suspend or terminate at once where an account has harmed, or might harm, other sellers or customers. At this stage an appeal that explains one message or one complaint will not carry the case. The reviewer wants proof that the business changed who can act in its name and how that access is checked.

How Cases Escalate to an Amazon Code of Conduct Deactivation

Amazon’s Selling policies and seller code of conduct page requires sellers to act fairly and honestly. It warns that violating the Code or any other Amazon policy may lead to cancellation of listings, suspension or forfeiture of payments, and removal of selling privileges. Four of the Code’s lines drive most deactivations where Amazon finds a seller abusing sellers who compete with it or reaching buyers off the platform.

• No attempt to damage or abuse another seller, their listings or ratings.
• No unsolicited or inappropriate communications.
• Customer contact only through Buyer-Seller Messaging.
• No attempt to circumvent the Amazon sales process.

How the notice shows up

The first sign is rarely the deactivation itself. A policy warning appears on the Account Health page citing the Seller Code of Conduct, often worded around an attempt to damage or abuse another seller, and the rating drops by the points attached to it. Sellers who ignore two or three of these Amazon repeated policy warnings then receive the deactivation email, which names the policy and links back to the same Account Health violation. In EU stores the email is also the statement of reasons that platform law requires, so save it as a PDF the day it arrives.

The repeat-violation path

Amazon lists both the Seller Code of Conduct and its Communication guidelines on the page of policies included in the Account Health Rating. The Account Health Rating program policy explains the escalation. The points attached to a violation increase each time the same policy is violated, so repeats pull the score down faster. An account may also be at immediate risk of deactivation once it reaches the maximum number of repeat violations for a single policy in a 180-day period, and Amazon states that maximum can be as low as two for higher severity violations.

The score runs from 0 to 1,000. A rating of 200 to 1,000 shows green as Healthy. A rating of 100 to 199 shows yellow as At Risk. A rating of 99 or lower shows red as Unhealthy, and the account is either eligible for deactivation or already deactivated. Points come back when a violation is successfully addressed, which is why answering the first warning properly protects the account from the second.

Most conduct cases follow that shape. A first violation is recorded and costs points. The conduct continues, or a related practice surfaces, and the second count arrives heavier. The account crosses the repeat limit or falls under 100, and the deactivation follows. Our guide to the Amazon Code of Conduct warning covers the first stage, and the parent guide on the Seller Code of Conduct violation covers the policy as a whole.

The contract path

Section 3, Term and Termination, of the Amazon Services Business Solutions Agreement lets Amazon end the account for convenience with 30 days’ advance notice. It also lists grounds for immediate suspension or termination, and three of them fit conduct cases.

• Clause (b) covers an account that has been used, or that Amazon’s controls identify may be used, for deceptive, fraudulent or illegal activity.
• Clause (c) covers use of the services that harmed other sellers, customers or Amazon’s legitimate interests, or that its controls flag as likely to harm them.
• Clause (d) covers an Account Health Rating below Amazon’s published threshold for deactivation.

Clause (c) is the one that maps onto abuse of a competitor. Clause (a) covers a material breach left uncured 7 days after a cure notice, though Amazon can shorten that period where the breach exposes it to third-party liability. The same section commits Amazon to promptly notify you of a termination or suspension by email or in Seller Central, with the reason and any options to appeal. The stated exception is where Amazon believes that information would hinder the investigation of deceptive, fraudulent or illegal activity, or help you get around its safeguards.

Why repeat cases are judged differently

A first violation asks whether one practice was fixed. A deactivation for repeated conduct asks whether the business can control itself. Amazon is asking whether the seller turned platform tools against someone else, and the diagnostic question is who in the business can file complaints or message buyers. When the answer was “anyone, without review” at the first violation and still “anyone” at the second, the reviewer has seen the pattern before reading your explanation.

Where the violation history also includes a fraud or deception finding, the appeal has to answer that ground too, and our guide on appealing a deactivation for deceptive activity covers that standard.

Severe Conduct Amazon Acts on Immediately

Not every conduct case passes through a warning. The Account Health Rating policy states that, regardless of the score, Amazon may deactivate an account immediately if it suspects fraudulent, deceptive, illegal or otherwise harmful activity. It also describes critical violations as the most serious tier, which can lead to immediate account enforcement.

The published policies point to five kinds of conduct that draw that response.

• Filing infringement notices as a brand’s agent to benefit your own account. The Code bars individuals with active selling accounts from filing notices as an agent where the notices could benefit their own selling account, for example by removing competing listings. Sellers who do may have their selling account terminated.
• Coordinated attacks on a competitor. Fake orders, reviews or complaints organized to damage a rival’s listings or ratings breach the Code and fit clause (c) of Section 3.
• Using customer data outside Amazon. The Code allows customer information to be used only to fulfill the order and requires it to be deleted after the order is processed. Loading buyers into an email or text marketing list breaks the Code and the Communication program policy together.
• Manipulating sales rank or search. The Code lists accepting non-authentic orders or orders you paid for, inflating traffic with bots or paid clicks, and keyword manipulation as unfair activity.
• Conduct that violates price fixing laws. The Code names it directly.

Messaging rules that turn into conduct cases

The Communication program policy sets hard limits that sellers cross without noticing. A proactive message you start must go out within 30 days of order completion and include the complete 17-digit order ID. It must reach the buyer in their preferred language and fit one of the permitted purposes. Marketing or promotional content, coupons and offers of free products are prohibited, and so are external links unless they are secure links needed to complete the order. A follow-up sequence that sends a discount code to every buyer on day 35 breaks three of those rules at once.

The business models that end up here

Repeat and severe cases come from the same models as first warnings, run harder. Private label sellers in crowded niches escalate from a test buy to an organized campaign. Brands policing resellers without valid IP grounds file more complaints after the first ones work. Sellers building an off-Amazon customer list move from a single insert to automated emails. Each model can run compliantly. Report a listing only when your brand owns the mark or copyright at issue and the infringement is visible on the page. Use Buyer-Seller Messaging only for fulfillment and service. Never place orders on competitor listings to manipulate them, and pull any insert or message that invites buyers to deal off Amazon.

Some sellers find that the messages or complaints behind the violation were sent by someone who got into the account without permission. That is a security case first, and our guide to recovering a hacked Amazon seller account explains how to document it before the conduct appeal goes in.

When the deactivation notice is already in your inbox, our Amazon suspension specialists read the violation history, map each count to the access behind it and draft the record with you.

Amazon Code of Conduct Appeal Structure

The appeal is filed from the violation on the Account Health page. Amazon’s appeal questionnaire guidance asks for clear, concise, factual and direct answers. It asks sellers to avoid emotive language and to remove references to ongoing support cases. It also asks you to explain all issues, look for the root causes behind them, describe specific actions with dates of changes or documentation, and support every item. A conduct deactivation usually involves more than one count, so the instruction to explain all issues carries real weight here.

Before writing a word of the appeal, work through the record in this order.

1. Download the deactivation email and every Account Health violation tied to the Code, with their dates.
2. Export the Seller Central user list and note who held messaging, Report Infringement and Brand Registry access on each violation date.
3. Pull the outgoing message log, the complaint filing history and any insert artwork for the 180 days before the deactivation.
4. Fill the audit worksheet, one row per violation, and write the reason each one recurred.
5. Complete the corrective work and the first monthly audit, then write the appeal from those documents.

Our method holds one position for these cases. The business’s conduct is now compliant, and each cited concern traces to a narrow cause that is closed. For a repeat case, governance sits in the middle of that sentence. The appeal has seven parts.

1. The decision and your position

Name the deactivation notice, the Seller Code of Conduct and each recorded violation. State your position in one sentence. Do not argue that the earlier violations were minor.

2. Root cause, for every count

Use the audit worksheet. For each violation, name the conduct, the person or agency, the access they had and the control that was missing. Then name the reason the problem recurred, because that second answer is what the reviewer is reading for. A composite example reads, “Our first violation traced to a customer service template sent by a contractor. We deleted the template but did not restrict the contractor’s ability to create new ones or review outgoing messages. The second violation traced to a new template the same contractor created two months later. The recurrence happened because we fixed the message and left the access and review gap open.”

3. Corrective actions already taken

List what has been done, with dates. Conduct stopped, templates and inserts withdrawn, unsupported complaints retracted, permissions removed, and the agency relationship ended or rewritten. We target completing the immediate corrective work and re-attesting to the Code within 24 to 48 hours of the notice. Give counts, such as 14 templates reviewed, 6 complaints retracted and 3 users removed from messaging.

4. Preventive measures now in place

Describe the written conduct procedure, its named owner, the checkpoints before any complaint, template, insert or competitor purchase, and the monthly audit. Promises without documents fail. The reviewer needs a control that would have stopped each past violation.

5. Why the record meets Amazon’s standard

Show that the corrected conduct meets each line of the Code you were cited under. Keep any legal point factual and never threaten. If you want to preserve your position under the agreement, one closing line noting that you reserve your rights under Section 20 covers it.

6. Supporting evidence

Attach the notice, the corrective action log, the written procedure and signed attestations, the before and after permission lists, the complaint withdrawal confirmations and a dated chronology. Name only documents you can produce.

7. One request

Ask for reinstatement on the corrected record in one sentence.

What a reviewer sees in a denied repeat appeal

The repeat appeals we are asked to rescue tend to fail in three ways. The first restates the original fix, often the same template deletion, as though the second violation were a new problem. The second describes new controls in general terms without a single approval record or audit. The third names a contractor or agency as the cause and stops there, which tells the reviewer the business still does not see its own role in handing that person unchecked access. Each leaves the central question open, which is what changed about who can act for this account and how that is checked.

Handling competitor involvement

Sellers often believe a competitor caused the deactivation by reporting them. Sometimes that is true, and it changes nothing about what the appeal has to show. If a report misdescribed what happened, provide the evidence and the documented conduct timeline, and leave the competitor’s motives out. Amazon’s guidance asks you to focus on the facts and events that led to the issue. A seller who blames a rival reads as a seller who has not looked at its own controls.

Proving Behavior Changed

The prevention lesson for repeat cases is narrow. Limit user permissions and review messaging logs monthly. Proving you did both is what separates a reinstated account from a denied one.

Permission evidence

Export the Seller Central user list before and after the changes. Show which users had access to Buyer-Seller Messaging, Report Infringement and Brand Registry before, and which do now. Remove anyone whose role does not need those tools. If an agency files complaints for your brand, attach the written authority and the filing log you now review.

Checkpoint evidence

Show each checkpoint as a document. A template approval record carries the date, the approver and the policy section checked. A complaint approval record carries the right, the infringement and the evidence. An insert approval record carries the artwork version. A competitor purchase rule requires written approval and bars purchases made to support a complaint.

Audit evidence

Finish the first monthly audit before you submit and attach it. It shows the sample of messages reviewed, the templates and inserts checked, the complaint log reviewed and the permission list confirmed, with the date and the person who did it. An appeal that promises a monthly audit is a promise. An appeal that attaches one is evidence.

People evidence

The Code lists allowing other people to act on your behalf in a way that violates Amazon’s policies as unfair activity. Signed conduct policies from every person and agency with access, plus a record of their training, show the controls reach the people who caused the problem.

A prevention routine that holds after reinstatement

The controls in the appeal only protect the account if they keep running. The schedule we set up for these accounts runs on four intervals.

• Weekly, the owner spot-checks 20 outgoing buyer messages against the 30-day window and the permitted purposes.
• Monthly, the owner reviews every complaint filed, every new template and insert, and the user permission list.
• Quarterly, every person with account access re-signs the conduct policy and the owner re-reads the Code page for changes.
• On any new agency or hire, access starts at view-only and messaging or filing rights are added only after training.

A composite repeat case

Consider a composite case built from patterns we see, with no real seller behind it. A supplements brand uses an outside agency for brand protection. Over five months the agency files a series of trademark complaints against resellers, several without a clear infringement, and Amazon records a Code of Conduct violation. The brand asks the agency to be more careful. Two months later the agency files again against a competing private label product that does not use the brand’s mark, a second violation is recorded, and the account is deactivated.

The appeal we would build does not stop at the agency. It shows the brand ended the agency’s access to Report Infringement, retracted every complaint it could not support, and moved filing authority to one named employee who records the right, the infringement and the evidence before any filing. It attaches the withdrawal confirmations, the new filing procedure, the before and after permission lists and the first monthly audit of the complaint log. It explains that the recurrence happened because the first response changed the agency’s instructions without changing its access or adding a review step. That governance change is what the reviewer is looking for.

Options After Final Denial

If the appeal is denied and the account stays deactivated, several routes may still apply. Which ones depend on where you sell and what Amazon decided about your funds.

Ask for the reason if it is unclear

Section 3 commits Amazon to tell you the reason for a suspension or termination and any options to appeal, subject to its stated exceptions. If the notices do not show which conduct the decision rests on, ask Account Health Support to state it. A revised appeal that answers the wrong conduct will fail again.

Revise and resubmit while the option remains

If the Account Health page still shows an appeal option, a revised appeal with new evidence is possible. Amazon does not publish a fixed limit on the number of appeals, but each one should add something the last one lacked. Our guide to a denied Account Health deactivation appeal covers rewriting after a denial.

Withheld funds

Amazon’s Funds disbursement eligibility policy applies where Amazon deactivates an account under Section 3 and determines your actions may create risks to Amazon or third parties. Withheld funds can be used to offset amounts you owe, such as returns, refunds, A-to-z claims, removal costs and outstanding fees. Even if the reinstatement appeal fails, you can separately appeal for withheld funds by writing to the disbursement appeals address the policy names at any point after 60 days from the date of deactivation. The same policy lets Amazon permanently withhold payments where a seller has abused its systems or repeatedly violated its policies, so the governance evidence above protects the money as well as the account.

Do not open another account

The Code allows one Seller Central account for each region unless there is a legitimate business need for a second and all accounts are in good standing. If any of your accounts is not in good standing, Amazon may deactivate all of them until every account is. A new account opened to keep selling after a deactivation breaks that rule and puts every related account at risk. Our guide on the multiple seller accounts policy explains the rule in full.

Regional routes and the law

Sellers on Amazon’s European and UK stores hold rights under platform regulation that run alongside the appeal. Treat the table as orientation and confirm how it applies to your account with counsel licensed where you sell.

Repeat cases carry one EU and UK detail that sellers miss. Article 4(4)(c) of Regulation (EU) 2019/1150 lifts the 30-day notice period where the platform can demonstrate that the business user has repeatedly infringed the applicable terms. Amazon must still give reasons without undue delay on a durable medium, and Article 4(3) still gives you the chance to clarify the facts through internal complaint handling. The UK version of Article 4 keeps the same exception, with a wording change made on 31 December 2020. A repeat history therefore shortens the warning you get, and it makes the statement of reasons the document to dissect.

Under the Digital Services Act, Article 17(1)(d) requires a statement of reasons for the suspension or termination of an account. Article 20 gives you at least six months from the decision to complain through Amazon’s internal system free of charge. Article 21 lets a certified out-of-court body decide within 90 calendar days, extendable for highly complex disputes to a total of 180 days. Our guide to the Amazon EU deactivation statement of reasons explains how to use these routes, and our guide to Amazon Section 3 termination covers the stage where the agreement itself is ended.

When to involve a lawyer

Bring in counsel when funds are permanently withheld, when the business depends on the account and every Amazon route has been used, or when the conduct involved intellectual property complaints a competitor may challenge. Under 17 U.S.C. 512(f), a person who knowingly materially misrepresents that material is infringing can be liable for the resulting damages. Commercial email sent to Amazon buyers off platform also falls under the CAN-SPAM Act. The FTC’s CAN-SPAM compliance guide, edited in January 2024, puts the penalty at up to $53,088 for each violating email and requires opt-outs to be honored within 10 business days. In the EU and UK, the same list raises data protection questions. Our guide on abusive IP notice warnings covers the complaint side, and our guide to an unhealthy Account Health Rating covers how the score combines violations.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can Amazon deactivate me for Code of Conduct violations?

Yes, Amazon can deactivate an account for severe or repeated Code of Conduct violations. The Code counts toward the Account Health Rating, where repeats carry more points and the repeat limit can be as low as two in 180 days for higher severity cases. Section 3 of the Business Solutions Agreement also allows immediate action where an account has harmed or might harm other sellers or customers.

What should a Code of Conduct appeal include?

It should state what happened, who did it and the controls that stop it from recurring. For a repeat case it must also explain why the earlier fix did not hold. Attach the corrective action log, the written conduct procedure, the permission changes and a completed audit.

Does staff misconduct count against my account?

Yes, the account owner answers for everyone who uses it. The Code lists allowing other people to act on your behalf in a way that violates Amazon’s policies as unfair activity, and contractors and agencies are included.

What if a competitor caused the deactivation?

Provide the evidence and a documented conduct timeline that shows what happened. Keep the appeal on facts and events, as Amazon’s guidance asks, because a competitor’s motives give the reviewer nothing to verify.

Can I open another account after a Code of Conduct deactivation?

No, a new account opened to evade a deactivation breaks policy. The Code allows one account per region without a legitimate business need, and only while all accounts are in good standing. Amazon may deactivate every related account if any one is not.

How long before I can ask for withheld funds?

You can write to the disbursement appeals address in the Funds disbursement eligibility policy at any point after 60 days from the deactivation date. Amazon releases remaining funds after offsetting amounts you owe, unless it permanently withholds them for abuse or repeated violations.

Get Help With an Amazon Code of Conduct Deactivation

Once a warning becomes a deactivation for repeated conduct, the appeal has to prove a governance change, and that is where we help structure the record. We rebuild the violation history, trace each count to the access that allowed it, put the permission, checkpoint and audit controls in place, and present them as evidence a reviewer can verify.

Hand it to our Amazon suspension and reinstatement service, submit your case for an assessment, or book a consultation to plan the appeal and the routes that remain.

Selling on Walmart, eBay or another marketplace as well? Our marketplace reinstatement desk handles conduct cases on those platforms.

Sources

1. Amazon Seller Central (US), Selling policies and seller code of conduct
2. Amazon Seller Central, Communication program policy
3. Amazon Seller Central, Policies included in Account Health Rating
4. Amazon Seller Central, Account Health Rating program policy
5. Amazon Seller Central, Amazon Services Business Solutions Agreement
6. Amazon Seller Central, Complete an appeal questionnaire to reinstate selling privileges
7. Amazon Seller Central, Funds disbursement eligibility policy
8. GovInfo, 17 U.S.C. 512
9. Federal Trade Commission, CAN-SPAM Act compliance guide for business
10. EUR-Lex, Regulation (EU) 2019/1150 on fairness and transparency for business users of online intermediation services
11. EUR-Lex, Regulation (EU) 2022/2065, the Digital Services Act
12. legislation.gov.uk, Regulation (EU) 2019/1150, Article 4, as it applies in the UK