Quick answer. FBA sellers lose their accounts mostly for problems with the product itself, not with shipping. The common causes are authenticity and intellectual property complaints, restricted or unsafe products, products that are not eligible for FBA, expiration-dated items with wrong attributes or dates, non-compliant prep and packaging, abusive reimbursement claims and review manipulation. Amazon’s FBA product restrictions page says non-compliance can lead to refused, disposed or returned inventory, blocked shipments, charges, fines or deactivation of the selling account.
FBA moves storage, packing, shipping, customer service and returns to Amazon. It does not move responsibility for what you send in. We set out the policies behind the FBA suspensions we see most often, what Amazon says can happen under each one, how to answer the notice and how to stop the next one before it starts.
What FBA Changes and What It Does Not
Amazon’s Order Defect Rate page says ODR only applies to seller-fulfilled orders. ODR counts negative seller feedback, A-to-z Guarantee claims and credit card chargebacks over a 60-day period, and Amazon requires sellers to keep it under 1 percent. The penalty for a high ODR on that page is suspension of Fulfilled by Merchant selling privileges or deactivation of the affected seller-fulfilled offers. Late shipment and cancellation metrics follow the same logic, because they measure the fulfillment work Amazon now does for you.
What stays with you is everything Amazon cannot see inside the box before it arrives. Whether the product is authentic. Whether it is legal and safe to sell. Whether it qualifies for FBA at all. Whether its expiration data is right. Whether it is prepped, labeled and packed to Amazon’s standards. Whether the invoices behind it are real and match the account. FBA sellers who assume Amazon’s warehouse takes on that responsibility are the sellers whose inventory ends up refused or disposed of.
There is a second difference. With FBA, Amazon holds your inventory. Several policies give Amazon the right to dispose of that inventory, sometimes at your expense and sometimes without reimbursement, so an FBA suspension can cost stock as well as sales.
Common FBA Suspension Reasons
| Reason | Amazon policy | What Amazon says can happen |
|---|---|---|
| Inauthentic or counterfeit products | Anti-Counterfeiting Policy | Suspension or termination of the account and related accounts, withheld payments, disposal of inventory at your expense |
| Intellectual property complaints | Intellectual Property Policy | Listing removal, warnings, suspension. Repeat infringers terminated in appropriate circumstances |
| Restricted or unsafe products | Restricted Products policy | Suspension or termination, inventory destroyed without reimbursement, permanent withholding of payments |
| Products not eligible for FBA, including most hazmat | FBA product restrictions | Refused, returned or disposed inventory, blocked shipments, charges, fines or deactivation |
| Expiration-dated products set up or shipped incorrectly | Expiration dates on FBA products | Listing removal, inventory disposal or account deactivation |
| Non-compliant prep and packaging | Product packaging requirements | Refused or disposed inventory at your expense with no reimbursement |
| Abuse of reimbursement or support processes | FBA inventory reimbursement policy | Delayed support, monitoring, investigation and account action |
| Review manipulation | Seller code of conduct | Cancellation of listings, suspension or forfeiture of payments, removal of selling privileges |
Authenticity and Intellectual Property Complaints
How the authenticity rule works
Amazon’s Anti-Counterfeiting policy says products offered on Amazon must be authentic and that each seller and supplier is responsible for sourcing, selling and fulfilling only authentic products. Prohibited products include bootlegs, fakes, pirated copies, illegally replicated or manufactured items and products that infringe another party’s intellectual property. If you sell inauthentic products, Amazon may immediately suspend or terminate your account and any related accounts, dispose of inauthentic products in its fulfillment centers at your expense and withhold payments.
The complaint does not have to come from a rights owner. The policy says Amazon removes suspect listings based on its own review of products. Counterfeit complaints are visible on the Account Health page in Seller Central.
For FBA sellers this policy carries extra weight because the inventory is already in Amazon’s building. A finding of inauthenticity can end with the stock destroyed and the bill sent to you.
What Amazon asks for
The policy says Amazon may request invoices showing the authenticity of your products or your authorization to list them. You may remove pricing from those documents. Any other edit, or a document that is misleading, is itself a violation and leads to enforcement. When appealing, sellers are typically asked for invoices or letters of authorization, and if Amazon confirms the products are genuine, it removes the claims from the account. Each violation has its own appeal steps shown on the Account Health page.
In our case work, authenticity appeals fail most often because the invoices do not line up with the notice. The supplier is a retailer rather than a manufacturer or authorized distributor, the quantities purchased are lower than the units sold, the dates fall after the sales in question, or the business name on the invoice does not match the account. Fix the match before you submit.
Intellectual property complaints
Amazon’s Intellectual Property Policy says a seller can receive a warning or suspension even when infringing without knowledge, and that Amazon terminates the accounts of repeat infringers in appropriate circumstances. The response depends on the notice. For a product you never listed, reply and say so. If you have a license or agreement, contact the rights owner and request a retraction. For a trademark or counterfeit claim on the product or packaging, provide an invoice or order ID through Account Health showing authenticity. For a claim about the detail page, change the page so it no longer infringes.
Restricted Products and Products Not Allowed in FBA
Restricted products
The Restricted Products policy says products on Amazon must comply with all applicable laws, regulations and Amazon policies, and that the sale of illegal, unsafe or restricted products, including prescription-only products, is strictly prohibited. If you supply a product in violation of the law or Amazon’s policies, Amazon may immediately suspend or terminate selling privileges, destroy inventory in its fulfillment centers without reimbursement, return inventory, end the business relationship and permanently withhold payments. The same page warns that listings found to be purposely inaccurate, miscategorized or deceptively described to get around category, product and listing restrictions can lead to immediate termination of selling privileges.
Products that can be sold but not through FBA
Amazon’s FBA product restrictions page says certain products may be eligible for sale on Amazon but not for Fulfillment by Amazon. FBA products must also meet the expiration-date and temperature-sensitive product requirements. Most products regulated as hazardous materials by the US Department of Transportation cannot be processed by FBA, and Amazon publishes a dangerous goods identification guide and document requirements for products that may be regulated as dangerous goods, including those with lithium batteries.
The penalty sentence on that page covers the whole FBA program. Failure to comply with FBA prep requirements, safety requirements and product restrictions may result in refusal, disposal or return of inventory at the fulfillment center, blocked future shipments, charges for prep or noncompliance, deactivation of the selling account or fines.
The pattern we see is a seller who confirms a product is allowed on Amazon and assumes it is allowed in FBA. Those are two separate checks. Run the hazmat and FBA eligibility check before you create the shipment, not after it is refused.
Expiration-Dated Products
Expiration problems are the FBA-specific cause we see most often in grocery, supplements, beauty and pet categories. Amazon’s Expiration dates on FBA products page says failure to meet its requirements may result in removal of listings, disposal of inventory or deactivation of the selling account.
Which products count
Amazon considers any product with a shelf life, or that loses effectiveness over time, to be subject to expiration, even with no date on the packaging. The page lists consumables such as snacks, pet food, tea, infant formula, OTC medication and supplements, critical safety products such as car seats and fire extinguishers, topicals such as creams, shampoos and sunscreen, cleaning products, bundles with an expiring component, outdoor products such as pest control and lawn care, and anything with a period-after-opening symbol.
Attributes at ASIN creation
Sellers must select three attributes accurately at ASIN creation. They are Is Expiration Dated Product, Product Expiration Type and Shelf Life. The Product Expiration Type follows what is printed on the item. If an expiry, use by, sell by or best by date is printed, select Expiration Date Required. If only a production or manufacture date is printed, select Production Date Required. If no date is printed but the product has a limited shelf life, select Shelf Life. Amazon says it monitors these attributes for accuracy after the ASIN is created.
Shelf life on arrival
At check-in, products must have enough remaining shelf life to be consumed in full plus an additional 90 days. Amazon’s example is a 240-serving daily supplement, which needs 330 days remaining. Baby formula needs at least 180 days. Amazon’s guide table gives minimum arrival times such as 90 days for chips and snacks, 270 days for beverages, 365 days for pasta and peanut butter, 730 days for herbal or mineral supplements and 900 days for cleaning supplies and personal care products, and says the table is a guide, not a complete list.
Labels and shipment dates
- All ingestible products, including animal products, must show an expiry or manufacturing date. Lot numbers alone are not enough.
- Case packs, multipacks and display boxes must show the date on the outer packaging and on each item inside.
- Each box can hold only one expiry date per ASIN. Units of one ASIN with different dates ship in separate boxes.
- Items past expiry on arrival are marked for disposal and cannot be returned to you.
The rule that catches experienced sellers is the shipment date. Amazon uses the expiration date entered in Send to Amazon as the date of record for outbound, liquidation and removal decisions. If that date does not match the date printed on the item or on the box label, Amazon classifies it as an expiration date defect, which may lead to blocked or removed listings, disposal of inventory or deactivation. When the product shows only month and year, enter the first day of that month.
Prep, Packaging and Labeling
Amazon’s Product packaging requirements page says inventory that arrives with non-compliant, unsafe packaging may be refused or disposed of at your expense and will not be eligible for reimbursement. Amazon may also refuse, return or repackage products with inadequate packaging or labeling, and may add requirements to a product because of damage or damage-related returns.
- FNSKU. Each FNSKU must be unique and correspond to one product. Every size, color and condition needs its own.
- Barcodes. Each unit needs an exterior scannable barcode with human-readable numbers, placed away from corners and curves. Existing barcodes on shipping boxes must be covered or made unscannable.
- Sets. Units sold as a set must be labeled as a set and sealed so they cannot be separated.
- Poly bags. Bags with a 5-inch opening or larger need a suffocation warning.
- Case packs. Every box of a case-packed product must hold the same quantity of the same SKU and condition, with a limit of 150 units per case.
- Security tags. Units must not arrive with theft-prevention devices attached.
Prep failures rarely deactivate an account on the first shipment. They build a record of refused and disposed inventory, damage-related prep requirements and charges, and they cost reimbursement eligibility, because the reimbursement policy requires items to comply with FBA product restrictions and inventory requirements. When a prep problem reaches account level, the appeal has to show a changed process at the prep stage, not a promise to be careful.
Reimbursement Claims and Support Abuse
Amazon replaces or reimburses eligible FBA items lost or damaged in its facilities or by carriers operating for it. The FBA inventory reimbursement policy lists the conditions. The item was registered in FBA at the time, complies with FBA restrictions and inventory requirements, matches the exact items and quantities in your shipping plan, is not in a canceled or deleted shipment, was not pending disposal, is not defective or customer-damaged, and your account is in normal status when you file and while the claim is under review.
The same policy warns that activity which interferes with Amazon’s capacity to help other sellers, including insufficiently researched or premature requests and large numbers of requests in a short time, can lead to delayed support, monitoring, investigation and account action for sellers who repeat it. The maximum reimbursement for a single unit is $5,000. Amazon may decline a sourcing cost submission that is an outlier, uses forged, tampered or illegible documents, or comes from an account suspected of fraud or significant violations.
Claims built on reconciled records protect both the money and the account. Claims filed in bulk without checking shipment receipts, removal records and customer return status are the pattern the policy names. If you dispute a reimbursement value for a customer return claim, Amazon gives you 60 days after it issues the reimbursement to file through Contact Us.
Condition Complaints and Review Manipulation
Customer complaints about the product
FBA customers return items and leave reviews through Amazon, so complaints about condition, defects and not-as-described products land on your listings whether or not you ever touched the package. Seller Central reports these complaints through Account Health and the Voice of the Customer page. Patterns of the same complaint across an ASIN often lead to listing removals first, and appeals for those removals ask what caused the problem and what you changed with the supplier or the listing.
Reviews and ratings
The seller code of conduct says you may not attempt to influence or inflate customers’ ratings, feedback and reviews. You may ask your own customers for reviews in a neutral way, but you may not pay or offer incentives such as coupons or free products for reviews or for removing them, ask only for positive reviews, ask customers to change or remove a review, solicit only customers who had a good experience, or review your own or a competitor’s products. Violations can lead to cancellation of listings, suspension or forfeiture of payments and removal of selling privileges. The code also prohibits manipulating sales rank through paid or externally refunded orders and inflating traffic with bots or paid clicks.
FBA sellers sometimes run review programs through outside services that ship product inserts or offer refunds after a review. The insert sits in Amazon’s warehouse and goes out with every unit, which makes it one of the easiest violations to document.
Our Amazon suspension and reinstatement team handles FBA account appeals. For lost, damaged, or disposed FBA units, see our Amazon inventory reconciliation service, and for ongoing monitoring, our Amazon account health maintenance service.
How to Respond to an FBA Deactivation
Amazon’s appeal help page describes the path. In Seller Central, go to Account Health and select Reactivate your account at the top of the page, then follow the instructions. You may be asked to complete a questionnaire, acknowledge a violation, take a quiz or provide supporting documents. After you submit, watch your email for a decision, and if Amazon asks for more information, use View Appeal on Account Health. The page says to expect a reply within two days.
- Read the notice for the policy and the ASINs. The appeal answers that policy for those ASINs. An appeal about prep when the notice is about authenticity will not be read as an answer.
- Freeze the problem. Close affected listings, stop inbound shipments of the same ASINs and decide what to do with inventory already at Amazon before the next decision lands.
- Find the root cause in your own records. Trace the supplier, the purchase dates, the prep vendor, the ASIN attributes and the shipment entries. Name the specific failure.
- Gather documents that match. Invoices covering the ASINs and timeframe in the notice, letters of authorization, safety or compliance documents, corrected expiration attributes and prep instructions.
- Describe the changes you made. Supplier changes, a new pre-shipment check, corrected listing data, staff training and who checks what before a shipment is created.
- Submit once, completely. Partial appeals spent on guesswork leave a record that the next appeal has to correct.
Withheld funds and inventory
If Amazon deactivates the account and withholds funds, the funds disbursement eligibility policy says reinstated accounts have funds released on the normal schedule. If the appeal fails or you do not appeal, you can separately ask for withheld funds through disbursement-appeals@amazon.com any time after 60 days from deactivation. Amazon releases remaining funds, less amounts it uses to cover returns, A-to-z claims, inventory removal costs, fees and damages, after reviewing the account for deceptive or illegal activity and confirming identity. For inventory, plan removals early, because disposal rights under the counterfeit and restricted products policies do not wait for the appeal.
First-Time Versus Repeat Violations
Amazon’s policies draw this line in their own words. The Intellectual Property Policy terminates repeat infringers in appropriate circumstances. The reimbursement policy targets sellers who repeatedly file premature or unresearched claims. The funds policy names repeated policy violations as grounds for permanent withholding. A first prep or expiration defect with a clear fix is a different case from a third authenticity complaint on the same brand.
For a first case, the appeal can focus on the one failure and the control that prevents it. For a repeat case, the appeal has to explain why the earlier fix did not hold and what is structurally different now, such as a new supplier, a removed brand or a change in who runs prep. Repeat appeals that restate the first plan are the ones we see denied.
US, EU and UK differences for FBA sellers
The policies cited here are Amazon’s US help pages, and Amazon publishes its own versions for each region in that region’s Seller Central. Hazmat rules are a clear example. The US page refers to products regulated by the US Department of Transportation, while EU and UK fulfillment follow the dangerous goods rules Amazon publishes for those stores. Expiration and packaging rules are also set per store, so check the requirements for the store you ship into before you prep a shipment for it. The anti-counterfeiting, intellectual property and code of conduct obligations apply to every Amazon store.
How to Protect an FBA Account
- Source from verifiable manufacturers or authorized distributors, keep invoices for every unit and check that the business name and quantities match what you sell.
- Check FBA eligibility and hazmat status before creating shipments, separately from checking whether the product is allowed on Amazon.
- Set expiration attributes correctly at ASIN creation, plan for minimum shelf life at arrival and enter dates in Send to Amazon that match the item exactly.
- Follow packaging and labeling requirements for every product type, including FNSKU uniqueness, barcode placement and box barcode coverage.
- File reimbursement claims only after reconciling shipment, removal and return records.
- Remove review inserts and incentive programs that conflict with the code of conduct.
- Monitor Account Health, Performance Notifications and Voice of the Customer on a fixed schedule.
Mistakes that make an FBA case worse
- Editing invoices. Removing prices is allowed. Changing anything else, or submitting misleading documents, is a separate violation under the Anti-Counterfeiting policy.
- Sending replacement inventory into the same problem. New units of an ASIN under review add to the stock at risk of disposal.
- Treating disposal as the end of it. Inventory Amazon disposes of for a policy reason is not reimbursed, and the record of why stays on the account.
- Filing reimbursement claims during a review. The reimbursement policy requires the account to be in normal status when you file and while the claim is reviewed.
- Opening a second account to keep selling. The code of conduct allows Amazon to deactivate all accounts if any is not in good standing.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can FBA sellers be suspended for late shipments?
Amazon’s ODR page says ODR applies only to seller-fulfilled orders, and shipping metrics measure fulfillment work Amazon does for FBA orders. FBA sellers are more often affected by authenticity, compliance, expiration and product quality issues.
Can Amazon dispose of my FBA inventory?
Yes, in several situations. Amazon’s policies allow disposal of inauthentic products at your expense, restricted products without reimbursement, items past expiry on arrival and inventory with non-compliant packaging.
Can filing too many reimbursement claims cause problems?
Yes. Amazon warns that insufficiently researched or premature requests, or a large number of requests in a short time, can lead to delayed support, monitoring, investigation and account action for sellers who repeat them.
Are all products allowed in FBA?
No. Some products can be sold on Amazon but are not eligible for FBA, including most items regulated as hazardous materials by the US Department of Transportation, and FBA products must also meet expiration and temperature-sensitive requirements.
What documents help an FBA appeal?
Supplier invoices covering the ASINs and timeframe in the notice, letters of authorization where relevant, corrected listing and expiration data, and evidence of the operational changes you made. Remove only pricing from invoices and leave every other detail as issued.
Get Your FBA Account Back
Submit your case for a free assessment, or book a consultation.
Related guides. Facts You Need to Know About Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) and Amazon FBM vs FBA.
See also Amazon Inventory Management Mistakes That Cost FBA Sellers Money and Capacity.
Get Help With Your Amazon Case
Our Amazon suspension team can take the case from here. You can also see all our marketplace suspension services.
Sources
- Amazon Seller Central, FBA product restrictions
- Amazon Seller Central, Product packaging requirements
- Amazon Seller Central, Expiration dates on FBA products
- Amazon Seller Central, FBA inventory reimbursement policy
- Amazon Seller Central, Amazon Anti-Counterfeiting policy
- Amazon Seller Central, Intellectual Property Policy
- Amazon Seller Central, Restricted products
- Amazon Seller Central, Order Defect Rate
- Amazon Seller Central, Selling policies and seller code of conduct
- Amazon Seller Central, Appeal an account deactivation or listing removal
- Amazon Seller Central, Funds disbursement eligibility policy
