Walmart’s INFORM Consumers Act verification is how Walmart meets a federal law that requires online marketplaces to collect, verify and keep current the bank, tax and contact information of high-volume third-party sellers. Walmart’s Business information policy states that, in accordance with applicable law such as the federal INFORM Consumers Act and similar state laws, Walmart may reach out to verify the business information on file in Seller Center. You must respond to each inquiry in a timely manner. Failure to respond may result in consequences up to and including a pause or suspension of your Marketplace account. Sellers with $5,000 or more in gross revenue and 200 or more new or unused products sold on Walmart Marketplace must also certify their business information every year. The federal rule behind the request has applied since June 27, 2023, and Walmart’s policy page was last revised on June 24, 2026.

What the INFORM Consumers Act Requires of Walmart Sellers

The INFORM Consumers Act is codified at 15 U.S.C. 45f. Congress passed it on December 29, 2022 as section 301 of division BB of Public Law 117-328, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023. Subsection (h) set the start date at 180 days after enactment, and the Federal Trade Commission’s business guidance on the INFORM Consumers Act confirms it took effect on June 27, 2023. The law places duties on online marketplaces. Walmart turns those duties into conditions of selling, which is why its requests arrive with fixed fields and a due date.

Collection

Subsection (a)(1)(A) requires a marketplace to have each high-volume third-party seller provide four items no later than 10 days after it qualifies.

Bank account information. A bank account number, or, if the seller has no bank account, the name of the payee for payments.
Contact information. For an individual seller, the individual’s name. For any other seller, a copy of a valid government-issued identification for an individual acting on the seller’s behalf, or a copy of a valid government record or tax document that includes the business name and physical address.
A business tax identification number, or, if the seller does not have one, a taxpayer identification number.
A current working email address and phone number.

Verification and annual certification

Under subsection (a)(2), the marketplace must verify the information within 10 days of collecting it, and it must verify any later change within 10 days of being told about it. It must notify each high-volume seller at least once a year to keep the information current, and the seller must electronically certify, within 10 days of that notice, either that it has provided any changes or that there have been none.

Suspension for non-compliance

If a seller does not provide the information or the certification, the statute requires the marketplace, after written or electronic notice and an opportunity to comply within 10 days of that notice, to suspend the seller’s future sales activity until the seller complies. That rule in subsection (a)(1)(C) is the legal backbone of the pause or suspension Walmart’s policy describes.

Limits on how the data is used

Subsections (a)(3) and (a)(4) restrict what a marketplace may do with the information. Data collected only to comply with the statute may not be used for any other purpose unless another law requires it, and the marketplace must keep reasonable security safeguards around it. Sellers who hesitate to upload a bank letter or an IRS notice can weigh that restriction. Subsection (b)(3) adds a consumer-facing duty. Every high-volume seller’s listing must carry a clear way to report suspicious marketplace activity by electronic and telephone means.

Disclosure for larger sellers

The statute adds a second tier. A high-volume seller with an aggregate total of $20,000 or more in annual gross revenues on the marketplace must provide its full name, physical address and contact information. The marketplace discloses them to consumers on the product listing page or in order confirmation. The seller must also say whether another seller supplied the product. Sellers without a separate business address, or with a combined business and residential address, may request partial disclosure. Walmart’s Business information policy notes that your business contact information and business name are visible on your seller page on Walmart.com, and that Walmart may display business information on product listings and seller pages.

Walmart’s policy also asks sellers who use a third-party seller to supply items to tell Walmart they intend to do so and to provide the third-party seller’s name and contact information. The policy page explains how to send that notice.

Who enforces it

The Federal Trade Commission enforces the statute against marketplaces under subsection (c), which treats a violation as a breach of a rule against unfair or deceptive acts or practices. Under subsection (d), a state attorney general can sue in federal district court after giving the FTC notice. The exposure sits with the marketplace, not the seller, so Walmart has no room to waive a missed certification as a courtesy. The FTC guidance also lists exemptions, including a seller that already publishes its name, business address and contact information and holds a contract with the marketplace to manufacture, distribute, wholesale or fulfill shipments for it.

Who Walmart Treats as a High Volume Seller

Walmart’s Business information policy FAQ states that all third-party Marketplace sellers who have made $5,000 or more in gross revenue and have sold 200 or more new or unused consumer products on Walmart Marketplace must certify their business information annually. Those thresholds come from the statute, which defines a high-volume third-party seller as one that, in any continuous 12-month period during the previous 24 months, has entered into 200 or more discrete sales or transactions of new or unused consumer products and has an aggregate total of $5,000 or more in gross revenues. Only sales made through the marketplace, or processed by it or its payment processor, count.

Three practical points follow.

Most active sellers qualify. Two hundred units and $5,000 is a low bar for a business selling at any volume. Assume you are in scope once you are selling consistently.
The window looks back. The statute uses any continuous 12 months within the prior 24. A seller whose volume dropped this year can still qualify from last year.
The request decides. Walmart’s policy also states it may reach out to verify business information under applicable law and similar state laws. If Walmart asks, respond, whatever you believe your volume to be.

Toggle your Walmart sales history to see whether the INFORM Consumers Act treats the account as a high volume seller and what that requires.

Related guide, Walmart Patent Claim Dispute.

A Seller Center banner that already reads past due needs action this week. Our Walmart suspension team reads the certification notice, lines up the records behind each field and prepares the submission with you.

Bank, Tax and Contact Details

Walmart’s Business information policy requires accurate and current business information, giving examples such as a valid business name, address, tax details and phone number. The INFORM data points sit inside that requirement. The reviewer checks that certified data matches the underlying records, so each data point needs a record behind it.

Data point	Record that supports it	Where it is changed in Seller Center
Legal business name	IRS EIN letter or government registration	Business Information page
Business address	Registration, utility bill or bank statement in the business name	Business Information page
Tax ID	IRS LTR 147C or CP 575 for a US EIN, or the national tax registration for a non-US business	Business Information page
Bank account	Bank statement or letter in the business’s legal name	Payment details in Seller Center
Customer service phone and email	A working business line and monitored inbox	Manage contacts and roles dashboard

The phone verification step

For US and China sellers, Walmart verifies the customer care phone number or email by a one-time passcode sent by text or voice call. Walmart states that landline and VoIP numbers cannot receive the passcode. If you do not receive the passcode, you can choose to have Walmart verify later, and Walmart will contact you by phone within seven days. A customer care line that is a VoIP number, or a number nobody answers, turns a five-minute task into a delay.

Where mismatches hide

The question we ask first is whether anything changed since the last certification, because that is where mismatches hide. A new bank account, a move to a new warehouse address, a legal name amendment, a new EIN after a restructuring, or a new customer service team with a new phone number. Any of those can leave the data on file out of step with your records. Fix the change in Seller Center before you certify.

See also How to Fix Walmart Tax and Payment Account Verification Holds and Walmart Payments Held for Tax or Bank Verification Issues.

Annual Verification

Walmart’s Business information policy sets out the certification steps.

Get started. Go to the INFORM ACT Certification page in Seller Center. Walmart displays a banner 30 days before your certification due date, or if it is past due. Once certified, the page shows your next annual due date.
Review and update. Review the information and select Certify. To change business information, go to the Business Information page and select Edit Business details. To change customer service contacts, use the contact management settings.
Verify the phone (US and China sellers). Complete the one-time passcode by text or voice.
Submit. Check everything and select Certify. The Account Compliance page shows certification status.

Walmart notes that you must have admin access to Seller Center to complete Seller Certification, that an email goes to your primary business contact asking you to certify, and that a prompt appears at sign-in. You can recertify at any time before the due date from the Submitted tab of the Account Compliance page. Walmart states it may take seven to ten business days to verify business information. Our guide to the Walmart INFORM Act annual verification walks through the yearly cycle step by step.

Responding to an Information Request

An information request is different from the scheduled certification. Walmart’s policy states it may reach out to verify the business information on file, in accordance with the INFORM Consumers Act and similar state laws, and that you must respond to each inquiry in a timely manner. Walmart’s FAQ adds that it will inform you of a pending consequence and the time to respond before the consequence takes effect, using Seller Center and the contact information on file.

The deadline

Walmart’s page does not state a fixed number of days for answering an inquiry. The statute gives marketplaces a 10-day framework, with 10 days to certify after the annual notice, and an opportunity to comply within 10 days of a notice before suspension. Read the deadline in the notice itself and treat it as firm. If the notice gives a date, that date governs.

How we answer one

We answer INFORM requests with our identity and business verification method, which holds one position, that the information is accurate, and any hold is a correctable document issue.

Confirm the request is genuine. Walmart warns sellers never to respond to unknown email addresses requesting verification, since they may be phishing. Open Seller Center directly and check the notice there, or contact Support through the Help button.
Identify what is being verified. Name the field that did not reconcile, or the request that was missed.
Reconcile before you submit. Compare the data on file to your current bank, tax and registration records. Update anything that changed through the designated Seller Center page.
Submit matching records. Provide documents in the business’s legal name that show the same values as the data on file.
Record the submission. Note the date and the documents.

If the account was paused

Walmart’s suspension policy defines a pause as making both seller-fulfilled and Walmart-fulfilled listings non-transactable, and states that pauses are resolved by completing the required tasks on the Seller Center homepage. For accounts penalized for non-certification, Walmart’s FAQ states that once business information is submitted it may take at least 24 hours to reinstate the account, that updates to business information may take up to seven days to verify, and that the account reinstates immediately after certification if no additional verification is pending. If the account was suspended instead, Walmart’s appeal guide routes you through the Help button. Name the field, the document and the control that keeps it current.

A first lapse compared with a repeat lapse

Walmart documents no tiers for missed certifications. What it documents is a sequence, starting with notice of a pending consequence with time to respond, then a consequence that can reach a pause or suspension, then reinstatement after certification if nothing else is pending. A first lapse, answered with matching records, usually ends there. A repeat lapse is a different signal. It tells Walmart that the business has no reliable process for a legal requirement, and that is harder to explain in any later review. Treat the first missed deadline as the moment to set up the routine below, so there is never a second.

What a mismatch looks like in practice

These composite examples are typical of the cases we see. None describes a specific client.

The new bank. A business moved its operating account to a new bank and updated payouts, but the legal name on the new account includes a trade name. The certified business name and the bank account name no longer match. The fix is a bank letter showing the account in the legal name, or a corrected account title.
The moved warehouse. A seller relocated and updated its shipping settings, but not the business address on the Business Information page. The certified address points to a location the business has left. The fix is an address update with a current utility bill or bank statement before certifying.
The VoIP support line. A seller switched customer care to a VoIP system. The one-time passcode cannot be delivered. The fix is a mobile number for verification, or the verify-later option, followed by a call from Walmart.
The restructured entity. A business converted from one entity type to another and received a new EIN. Seller Center still shows the old tax ID. The fix is to update tax information through the Business Information page with the new IRS letter, and expect verification to take time.

Common record mismatches behind a Walmart INFORM verification request, what Walmart sees and the fix for each. Open a mismatch to compare.

Business Models That Miss Certification

INFORM problems are rarely about the law. They come from how a business runs its Seller Center account. A missed Walmart certification usually traces back to one of the three operating setups below.

US sellers who have just crossed the threshold

A growing seller passes 200 units and $5,000 and receives its first certification request without realizing the law now applies to it. The banner looks like another admin task and gets deferred.

To operate compliantly, assume certification applies once you sell consistently, and calendar the due date as soon as Walmart shows it.

Sellers whose details changed since onboarding

Businesses change banks, addresses and phone systems. The certified data stays as it was at onboarding. When Walmart verifies, the bank account or address no longer matches the records the business can produce.

To operate compliantly, update Seller Center the week a change happens, and reconcile all records before certifying.

Owners who delegate Seller Center to staff or agencies

The request lands with someone who cannot certify. Walmart requires admin access for Seller Certification, and the email goes to the primary business contact. An agency user, a virtual assistant or a former employee may see the banner and have no authority or permission to act.

To operate compliantly, keep admin access with an owner or officer who can certify, keep the primary business contact current, and route Walmart compliance emails to a monitored inbox.

INFORM and Walmart’s Other Markets

The INFORM Consumers Act is a US federal law that applies to high-volume third-party sellers on US online marketplaces. Walmart’s policy refers to it and to similar state laws. The Canada, Mexico and Chile marketplaces run their own business and tax registration checks, and Walmart states that US Marketplace sellers may become eligible for them after completing the setup requirements for each market.

Non-US businesses selling on the US marketplace still go through the same INFORM certification. What changes is the paper behind the tax field. Walmart’s tax classifications guide, last updated on November 2, 2026, sets documents by country of incorporation.

United States. A W-9 classification with an EIN, backed by IRS LTR 147C or IRS LTR CP 575, plus a state business license, registration certificate, articles of incorporation or Certificate of Good Standing.
Canada. A utility bill or bank statement from the past six months, and screenshots showing the GST or HST number, plus BC PST or Quebec QST details where they apply.
Mexico. A Cédula de Identificación Fiscal issued within the past three months, with the articles of incorporation.
China. A color copy of the business license stamped with the company chop, and a utility bill or bank statement at the business address issued within the past three months.
Chile. A color copy of the RUT certificate and a company bank statement issued within the past three months.

The recency windows matter at certification time. A bank statement that was current at onboarding is often too old to support an address or bank change two years later.

For non-US businesses selling on the US marketplace, INFORM applies to the US sales. Keep the documents that support your US-facing data, including the bank account in the business’s name and the tax ID used for Walmart, consistent with the records in your home country. This is general information, not legal advice.

Annual Verification Routine

The prevention lesson is to calendar the annual verification and keep bank, tax and contact details current in Seller Center. The routine below is the one we set up with clients.

Annual verification checklist

Certification due date recorded in a shared calendar with two reminders, at 30 days and at 10 days before.
The owner of the task is an owner or officer with Seller Center admin access.
Primary business contact and compliance inbox confirmed current and monitored.
Legal name, address and tax ID in Seller Center match the IRS letter or registration.
Payout bank account is in the business’s legal name and matches the latest statement.
Customer service phone is a mobile or other number that can receive a text or voice passcode, and someone answers it.
Customer service email is monitored.
Every change since the last certification has been entered in Seller Center and verified.
Certification submitted, status checked on the Account Compliance page, and the next due date recorded.

Between certifications

Log every change to bank, address, legal name, tax ID and contacts on the day it happens.
Update Seller Center within the same week. Walmart states updates may take up to seven days to verify.
Check the Seller Center homepage and Account Compliance page weekly for tasks.
Treat any unexpected verification email as suspect until you have confirmed it inside Seller Center.

The business information behind INFORM is the same information Walmart checks at onboarding. Our guide to Walmart seller application and business verification covers how to build a consistent record set from the start, and our guide to reapplying after a rejected application covers fixing one that failed.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Walmart require INFORM Act verification?

Yes, certain sellers must verify their business information annually. Walmart’s Business information policy applies the INFORM Consumers Act and similar state laws, and Walmart may also contact any seller to verify the information on file.

What information does Walmart need under INFORM?

Walmart needs bank, tax and contact information. The statute covers a bank account, a business tax ID, contact information including a government ID or tax document for the business, and a working email and phone. Walmart’s certification also reviews business and customer service details.

How often must I verify on Walmart?

Annually. Walmart shows a banner 30 days before the due date and records the next due date after you certify. You can recertify earlier from the Account Compliance page.

What happens if I do not respond?

Walmart’s policy states the consequences can go up to and including a pause or suspension of the account. Walmart says it will tell you about a pending consequence and the time to respond before it takes effect, so check the request for the deadline. The statute also requires suspension of future sales after a 10-day opportunity to comply.

Who counts as high volume under INFORM?

The law covers sellers meeting its sales and revenue thresholds, which are 200 or more sales of new or unused products and $5,000 or more in gross revenue in any continuous 12 months within the previous 24. Walmart’s FAQ applies the same figures, so check the request details if you are unsure.

Get Help With Walmart INFORM Verification

If the account was paused after certification and Support cannot say why, a reconciled document package usually resolves it, and we prepare that package, with matching bank, tax and contact records and a clear note of what changed. Start with our Walmart account services, submit your case for a free assessment, or book a consultation to review your records.

Sellers who also run accounts on other US marketplaces answer to the same statute there, and our marketplace suspension services hub lists the platforms we handle.

How to Complete Walmart INFORM Consumers Act Verification