The INFORM Consumers Act is a US federal law in effect since June 27, 2023. It requires online marketplaces such as Amazon to collect, verify and keep current the identity, bank, tax and contact information of high-volume third-party sellers. On Amazon you count as high volume if, in any continuous 12-month period during the previous 24 months, you sold 200 or more new or unused consumer products and had 5,000 USD or more in gross revenue. Amazon must verify your information when you qualify, again whenever it changes, and asks you to certify it at least once a year. When the certification notice arrives, Amazon says you must complete the electronic certification within 10 days to avoid account deactivation. If the account is deactivated, it is reinstated 48 to 72 hours after both verification and certification are complete.

What the INFORM Consumers Act Requires of Amazon

The law is codified at 15 U.S.C. 45f and is enforced by the Federal Trade Commission. Its full name is the Integrity, Notification, and Fairness in Online Retail Marketplaces for Consumers Act. The duties fall on the marketplace. The FTC’s business guidance summarizes them in four parts.

1. Collect. Once a seller meets the definition of a high-volume third-party seller, the marketplace has 10 days to collect bank account information, a tax ID and contact information.
2. Verify. Once the seller provides that information, the marketplace has 10 days to verify it, using methods that let it reliably determine the information is valid, corresponds to the seller, and is neither misappropriated nor falsified.
3. Keep current. At least once a year, the marketplace must require the seller to certify electronically that the information has not changed or that updated information has been provided.
4. Disclose. For high-volume sellers with 20,000 USD or more in annual gross revenue on the marketplace, certain identity and contact details must be disclosed to consumers.

The FTC notes that violations can bring civil penalties against online marketplaces of 53,088 USD per violation. That figure applies to the marketplace. It explains why Amazon treats the deadlines as firm. The law also includes a presumption that information in a valid government-issued tax document is verified as of the date of the document.

What changed on Amazon

Amazon’s help page on the Act says Amazon already ran verification processes during and after registration, and that the law requires certain additional steps for high-volume sellers. In practice there are two visible changes. First, the annual certification. Second, a firm rule that any change to your information must be verified, with deactivation possible if it cannot be.

Amazon also states that its existing seller profile page, showing name, address, an optional customer service phone number and a link to Buyer-Seller Messaging, satisfies some of the disclosure requirements. To meet another part of the law, Amazon notifies customers in shipping confirmation emails when an item was supplied by a different seller from the one they ordered from, and links to the supplying seller’s profile in the order history invoice.

How the disclosure tier affects you

The FTC explains that for high-volume sellers with 20,000 USD or more in annual gross revenue on a marketplace, the marketplace must clearly disclose the seller’s full name, physical address and contact information that allows direct communication, on the product listing page or in order confirmation messages and account transaction histories. A physical address for returns on the listing is enough to satisfy the address part. For sellers who operate only from home, the law includes a limited exception, where the marketplace discloses the country and, where applicable, the state, plus a means of electronic contact.

The practical point is that the details you certify to Amazon are, in part, the details customers see. A wrong address or a dead phone number becomes a public problem as well as a compliance one. That is one more reason to keep the profile and the certified records identical.

How the notice reaches you

Amazon states that when you are required to certify, you receive a notification by email, in Performance Notifications and on the Account Health page. If you have no outstanding INFORM items, the requirements are not shown on Account Health at all. That means the absence of an INFORM section is normal for most of the year, and its appearance is the signal to act. If Amazon needs further steps to verify your current information, it says it will contact you by email with specific instructions and a timeline.

Who Counts as a High Volume Seller

Amazon’s wording follows the statute. The law applies to third-party sellers on Amazon who, in any continuous 12-month period during the previous 24 months, sold 200 or more new or unused consumer products and had 5,000 USD or more in gross revenues. Both conditions must be met in the same 12-month window.

Three details catch sellers out.

• The window slides. Any continuous 12 months inside the last 24 count. A strong holiday season two years ago can still qualify you today.
• Units are what count. The 200 threshold counts products sold, and an order can hold several. A seller with 80 orders of three units each has sold 240 products.
• New or unused only. The definition counts new or unused consumer products. Used goods do not count toward the 200, though most resellers sell enough new goods to pass it anyway.

See also Amazon Seller Verification Rejected Again and Amazon UK KYC Verification.

Our Amazon suspension team can take this Amazon case from first review to final submission.

What Information Amazon Must Verify

Amazon’s INFORM page lists what it must collect and verify. The list is your name, a government-issued identification document, a business address, bank account information, a working email address, a working phone number and a tax identification number. This information must be in the business name of the seller or of an individual legally authorized to act on the seller’s behalf.

The FTC guidance adds detail on what the marketplace collects.

• Bank account information. The account number, or if the seller has no bank account, the name of the payee for payments.
• Tax ID information. A business tax identification number, or a taxpayer identification number if the seller has none.
• Contact information. For an individual, name, working email address and phone number. For a business entity, a working email and phone number plus either a valid government ID for an individual acting on its behalf or a government record or tax document showing the business name and physical address.

Amazon points to its separate help pages for each item, with global seller identity verification for identity, the banking page for bank details, phone verification for the phone number, business address verification for the address and tax information for the tax ID.

When verification runs again

Amazon states that if your information has been verified and has not changed, you do not need to verify it again. However, high-volume sellers must keep their information up to date and notify Amazon when it changes, and Amazon must verify any update. If Amazon cannot verify the update, the account may be at risk of deactivation. You can complete certification while Amazon verifies new information.

That is the link between INFORM and every other verification problem. A bank change, a new address or a new tax ID all start a verification that the law requires. If the documents behind the change do not match, you face the same failures described in our guide on Amazon business verification documents rejected.

Business Models That Run Into INFORM Problems

INFORM problems cluster in three kinds of businesses. Each has a simple compliant routine.

Growing resellers crossing the threshold for the first time

A seller scaling a wholesale or private label catalog crosses 200 units and 5,000 USD without noticing, and the first certification request arrives unexpected. Certification becomes mandatory from that point. Track the threshold monthly using the walkthrough above, so the first notice is expected and the information behind it is ready.

Sellers with outdated bank, tax ID or contact details

Sellers who opened the account years ago often still list an old phone number, a closed bank account or a sole proprietor’s Social Security number after forming a company. Annual certification exposes the mismatch, because you cannot honestly certify information that is out of date. Review bank, tax and contact details in Seller Central every quarter and update them with matching documents ready.

Businesses with absentee owners

Where the owner delegates daily operations, notices go to an inbox nobody reads, and the 10-day window passes. Route Amazon’s email to a monitored shared inbox and make one named person responsible for the certification.

Restoring an Account After a Missed Certification

Amazon’s page sets out the consequences plainly. If you do not respond within the timelines given, or Amazon cannot verify your information, Amazon may withhold your payments or deactivate your selling account until you provide what is needed to complete verification. An account can be deactivated under the Act by failing to complete either verification or certification.

The question we ask first is whether the account missed the certification or certified data that does not match. The first case is a deadline problem and is usually quick to fix. The second is harder, because it can look like inaccurate disclosure, and the fix starts with the records.

Case one, the certification was missed

1. Open the account deactivation email Amazon sent, or go to Reactivate your account at the top of the Account Health page.
2. Review the INFORM requirements shown on Account Health and confirm that bank, tax, address, phone and email information are current.
3. Complete the electronic certification on the Notice and Certification page.
4. Complete any verification step Amazon lists.
5. Watch for the acknowledgement email confirming the certification.

Amazon states the account will be reinstated 48 to 72 hours after you have completed both verification and certification.

Case two, the certified information did not verify

Here the certification was made, but the bank, tax ID or address on the account does not match the documents behind it. Our method applies the identity and business verification approach.

• Position. The information is accurate and the hold traces to a correctable document issue.
• Root cause. Name the field that did not reconcile, for example a tax ID registered to the owner while the account is registered to the company.
• Corrective action. Update the field in Seller Central, resubmit matching bank, tax and contact records, then certify again.
• Preventive measure. One consistent identity across the seller account, banking and tax records, a document repository and a calendar for annual certification.

If funds are held while this runs, see our guide to funds held during reverification.

A composite example

This scenario is a composite of the pattern we see, with no single client behind it. A two-person business sells home goods on Amazon. The founder opened the account as a sole proprietor using a personal tax ID, then formed an LLC and moved banking to an LLC account, but never updated the tax information in Seller Central. The annual certification email arrives while the founder is traveling, and the operations manager does not have access to the registered inbox. Eleven days later the account is deactivated.

Two problems need fixing, in order. The missed deadline is the easy one. The harder one is that the bank account now belongs to the LLC, while the tax ID still belongs to the founder personally, so the information the founder would certify does not describe one business. The fix is to complete the tax interview for the LLC with its own tax ID, confirm the LLC’s legal name matches across the bank, the tax record and the account, then certify. Amazon’s 48 to 72 hour reinstatement window starts once both verification and certification are complete. The preventive step is to give the operations manager access to a shared inbox and put the certification date on the company calendar.

First lapse compared with repeated lapses

INFORM has no warning tiers. Missing the 10-day window can lead to deactivation the first time. Because certification repeats every year, a lapse recurs if nobody owns the process. Reinstatement itself follows the same steps each time. What changes is how much time and cash flow each lapse costs.

What Never to Do With INFORM Data

Certification is a statement that your information is accurate. Treat it with the same care as a tax filing.

• Never certify information you know is out of date. Update it first. Amazon lets you certify while it verifies new information.
• Never enter a tax ID or bank account belonging to another business or person. The FTC guidance states verification must show the information is not misappropriated or falsified.
• Never edit documents to match the account. Get corrected documents from the bank, the tax authority or the registry.
• Never claim a home-business exception you do not qualify for. The FTC notes that marketplaces may have to suspend sellers who make false statements to qualify for the limited disclosure exception for sellers operating from home.
• Never ignore buyer messages. The FTC notes the law also covers suspension where high-volume sellers fail to respond to consumers within a reasonable time frame.
• Never let the notice sit. Ten days is short, and Amazon’s timeline starts when you reach the Notice and Certification page.

Regional Differences

The INFORM Consumers Act applies to the US store and to US high-volume third-party sellers. The European Union and the United Kingdom use different frameworks, which are Know Your Customer checks and, in the EU, trader traceability rules under the Digital Services Act. A seller active in both regions faces both sets of checks, with different documents. Our guide on EU KYC and DSA trader verification covers the European side.

This section is general information for sellers. It is not legal advice for your case.

Annual Certification Routine

The prevention lesson is to calendar the annual certification and keep bank, tax ID and contact details current, so the 10-day window never lapses. A routine with an owner does that.

Monthly

• Check the threshold if you are near 200 units or 5,000 USD in any 12-month window.
• Read the Account Health page for any INFORM item.

Quarterly

• Compare the bank account, tax ID, business address, phone and email in Seller Central with your current records.
• Update anything that has changed, with a matching document in hand, and record who approved the change.
• Confirm the legal name is identical across the account, the bank and the tax registration.

Annually

• Set a calendar reminder a month before the anniversary of your last certification.
• When the notice arrives, review every item and certify the same week.
• File the acknowledgement email in your compliance folder.

Always

• Route Amazon notices to a monitored inbox with a backup reader.
• Keep a document repository with ID, tax registration, a current bank statement and proof of address.
• Name one owner for INFORM compliance and one backup.

For the notice itself and what to do inside the 10-day window, see our guide to the Amazon INFORM Act 10-day certification notice. If Amazon is asking about identity documents for the primary contact, see seller identity verification failed. If the request is for supplier invoices, see supply chain invoices rejected.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is a high volume seller under the INFORM Act?

A US seller with 200 or more new or unused product sales and 5,000 USD or more in revenue in any continuous 12 months during the previous 24 months. Both conditions must be met inside the same 12-month window.

What does Amazon verify under INFORM?

Bank account, tax ID and contact information, certified annually. Amazon’s help page lists name, government-issued ID, business address, bank account, working email, working phone and tax ID, in the name of the business or an individual authorized to act for it.

How long do I have to certify?

Amazon asks sellers to certify within 10 days to avoid account deactivation. The 10 days run from when you go to the Notice and Certification page.

Is INFORM certification a one-time task?

No, high-volume sellers must certify their information at least annually. Amazon must also verify any change you make to the information between certifications.

What happens if I miss the deadline?

The account can be deactivated until the information is provided and certified, and Amazon may withhold payments. Amazon states the account is reinstated 48 to 72 hours after verification and certification are both complete.

Get Help With an Amazon INFORM Act Deactivation

Most missed certifications are fixed by completing the steps above. If certification was done but the account stays deactivated, the problem is usually a record mismatch that needs a reconciled document package. We find the field that is not verifying and prepare the documents that resolve it.

Hand it to our Amazon suspension and reinstatement service, submit your case for a free assessment, or book a consultation to set up your certification routine.

You can also see all our marketplace suspension services.

Sources

1. Amazon Seller Central: About the INFORM Consumers Act
2. Amazon Seller Central: Global seller identity, address, and business verification
3. Amazon Seller Central: Add, update, view, and verify your bank account information
4. Amazon Seller Central: Address verification
5. Federal Trade Commission: Informing Businesses about the INFORM Consumers Act
6. GovInfo: 15 U.S.C. 45f