Quick answer. Do not appeal in the first hour and do not open or lean on another selling account. Read the notice and your Account Health page, list every violation and every ASIN under review, check whether the case has a deadline such as the three-day window Amazon gives for a critical violation, and gather the documents Amazon asked for. Then submit one complete appeal from Account Health with the root cause, the corrective actions and the evidence. Amazon says to expect a reply within two days, so a rushed first appeal costs time instead of saving it.

The first 72 hours after a deactivation decide how hard the rest of the case will be. Sellers who appeal in a panic usually send an apology without a root cause, attach documents that do not match the ASINs in the notice, and then spend weeks answering follow-up requests. Sellers who spend a day reading, sorting and collecting usually send one appeal that answers every question Amazon will ask. For the full appeal process after this first response, see our guide on how to get a suspended Amazon account back.

What a Suspension Notice Means and What Triggered It

Amazon uses the words deactivation and suspension for the same practical result. Your selling privileges in that store are switched off, your offers stop showing, and the account stays in that state until Amazon accepts an appeal or the underlying problem is resolved. The notice in your email and in Seller Central names the policy, and the Account Health page shows the violation that triggered it.

Amazon’s Business Solutions Agreement sets out when Amazon can act. Amazon may terminate an account for convenience with 30 days’ advance notice. It may suspend or terminate immediately if you materially breach the agreement and fail to cure within 7 days of a cure notice, if the account has been or may be used for deceptive, fraudulent or illegal activity, if your use of the services has harmed or may harm other sellers, customers or Amazon, if your Account Health Rating falls below the published deactivation threshold, or if the law requires it. Amazon commits to notify you of the reason and any options to appeal, except where that information would hinder an investigation of fraudulent or illegal activity or help you get around its safeguards.

The Account Health Rating path

Most policy deactivations now run through the Account Health Rating, or AHR. The AHR is a score from 0 to 1,000 shown on the Account Health page for each store you sell in. A score of 200 to 1,000 is Healthy, 100 to 199 is At Risk, and 99 or lower is Unhealthy, which means the account is eligible for deactivation or already deactivated. New sellers start at 200. The score reflects policy adherence and selling activity over the last 180 days.

You lose points when Amazon records a new violation and gain them back when you address it. Amazon says point values typically range from two to eight depending on severity, and that negative values can double for repeat violations of the same policy. You also gain four points for every 200 orders fulfilled over the last 180 days. A critical violation sets the score to zero on its own.

Violations outside the AHR

A Healthy score does not protect the account from every action. Amazon states that regardless of the AHR, it may deactivate immediately if the law requires it, if it suspects fraudulent, deceptive, illegal or otherwise harmful activity, including any attempt to circumvent its systems, or if you violate policies outside the AHR. Suspected fraud or deception, attempts to get around Amazon’s systems and violations of policies outside the AHR can all produce a notice while the score still looks fine.

Which Kind of Deactivation You Are Facing

The first decision is classification, because each type has a different clock and a different fix. Read the notice for the policy name, then match it to the Account Health page.

What the notice and Account Health page show	What Amazon’s pages say happens	Your first move
A critical violation, with the AHR turned red at zero	You have a three-day period to address it before deactivation, and an Account Health specialist may call you.	Treat the three days as the deadline. Address the violation from the banner on the Account Health page.
The maximum number of repeat violations for one policy within 180 days	The limit is five for infringement-related policies and two for restricted products policies. It surfaces as a critical violation with the same three-day period.	Appeal through the Product Policy Compliance dashboard and fix the listings that repeat the problem.
An AHR below 100 from several smaller violations	The account is reinstated once the score returns to 100 or higher.	Appeal or dispute the open violations, starting with the highest severity.
Customer service or shipping metrics under the Order Performance program	The account can be deactivated for missing performance targets.	Find the operational cause behind the defect rate or late shipments before you write anything.
Suspected fraud, deception, inauthentic goods or a related account	Amazon may act immediately and, for inauthentic goods, may withhold payments.	Gather supply chain and identity documents before you contact Amazon.

Some notices combine two or more of these. Amazon says some deactivations result from a combination of issues, and the appeal has to answer each one.

Read the Notice and the Account Health Page First

The notice and the Account Health page carry every fact the appeal depends on. Amazon describes the Account Health page as an overview of how your account adheres to the performance targets and policies required to sell, and it is the place where the appeal starts.

Write down every violation

List each violation, the policy it falls under, its severity label, the date it posted and the Impact column entry. Amazon labels repeat violations in the Impact column, which tells you whether the case is a first event or a pattern. A pattern changes what the appeal must prove.

Find every ASIN under review

Amazon says the list of products under review sits at the bottom of the original notification. Copy that list into a working sheet. Your evidence has to cover every ASIN on it, not only the bestsellers. An appeal that documents 8 of 10 ASINs is incomplete.

Check the document timeframe

Amazon tells sellers to check the timeframe requested for documents and notes that some products require invoices from the last 365 days. If the notice names a window, every invoice you send must fall inside it.

Check where listings stand

For listing removals, Amazon directs sellers to the Product Policy Compliance tab first, then to Manage Inventory for inactive listings, and to Performance Notifications for removal details. A full deactivation often arrives after a run of listing removals, and those earlier notices usually explain the root cause better than the final one.

Your First 72 Hours, Step by Step

We run the first three days in a fixed order because each step feeds the next. Skipping ahead to writing is the most common reason first appeals fail.

Day 1, classify. Read the notice and the Account Health page, list every violation and ASIN, and decide which type of deactivation you face. If a critical violation shows a three-day window, the plan below compresses into that window.
Day 1, protect operations. Check open seller-fulfilled orders, FBA inventory and any listings still active in other stores. Ship open orders you are still able to ship, because new late shipments or cancellations add defects to an account that is already under review.
Day 1, update contact details. Confirm that the emergency phone number under Notification preferences is current. Amazon says an Account Health specialist may try to call during a critical violation period.
Day 1 to 2, find the root cause. Trace each violation to a decision or gap inside your own operation, such as an unverifiable supplier, a listing that claims something you cannot support, or a warehouse process that ships late.
Day 2 to 3, collect evidence. Pull invoices, authorization letters, order IDs, test reports or screenshots that match the notice, then mark the ASINs, supplier names and dates in each one.
Day 3, submit once. Submit one complete appeal from Account Health, then watch your email and the View Appeal link for a decision or a request for more information.

The tracker lays out the first response plan day by day. Step through each stage to see what to do and what to have ready.

For a closely related case, read How to Become a Successful Amazon Seller.

How Amazon Reviews Your Appeal

The appeal path is short on the screen. In Seller Central, go to Account Health and click Reactivate your account at the top of the page. Follow the instructions to submit the appeal, which may ask you to complete a questionnaire, acknowledge a violation, complete a quiz or upload supporting documents. Click Submit to send it.

After that, Amazon says to monitor your email for a decision and to expect a reply within two days. If Amazon asks for more information, click View Appeal on the Account Health page and add the documents it requested to your next submission. Each round adds days, which is why the first submission should answer everything.

What the reviewer looks for

Amazon’s appeal guidance lists the standard. The appeal should be clear, concise, factual and direct. It should focus on the facts and events that led to the issue rather than introducing your product, business or customers. It should leave out other questions and references to open support cases, and it should avoid emotive language. It must explain every issue and name the root causes, give specific actions with dates of changes or documentation, and include supporting evidence for every product under review.

Disputes and appeals are different requests

When to dispute and when to appeal

Amazon treats these as separate outcomes. A dispute means you provide evidence that the violation was detected in error. An appeal means Amazon decides that while you did violate the policy, it was not intentional and the violation should be forgiven. Both remove the violation and its AHR impact if accepted. Amazon notes that violations removed after a successful appeal, where you did not dispute that the activity occurred, can still count toward the repeat violation limit for 180 days. Choose dispute only when your records show the activity did not happen, such as a handling time error that generated false late shipment defects.

The Evidence That Carries an Appeal

Evidence decides most cases. The plan of action explains what changed, and the documents prove it. Amazon’s Account Health Support FAQ lists the evidence it expects by violation type, and it lines up with what we see in case files.

Intellectual property violations. Documentation that proves your right to sell the product, such as authorization letters or invoices from authorized distributors.
Counterfeit or inauthentic complaints. Invoices from the manufacturer or an authorized distributor that show the supply chain for the flagged products.
Performance defects. A review of your metrics that identifies the pattern, followed by the root cause and the preventive measures you put in place.
Multiple accounts. The legitimate business justification for each account, with supporting documentation.

Documents must be unedited

Amazon’s Anti-Counterfeiting Policy allows you to remove pricing from invoices. Any other edit, or a document that is misleading, violates the policy and leads to enforcement against your account. That includes changing quantities, cropping out a supplier address or retyping an invoice. An altered document turns a recoverable case into a much harder one.

Mark what matters

Amazon suggests circling or highlighting the most important parts of supporting documents, such as ASINs, supplier names or supplier terms. We match every highlighted line to an ASIN on the notice list so the reviewer does not have to search for it.

Match the plan to the documents

Every action in the plan should point to a document, a date or a process change. If the plan says you removed a supplier, the evidence shows the last order date and the replacement supplier’s invoice. If the plan says you changed a warehouse process, it states when the change took effect and how you check it.

Mistakes That Make a Suspension Worse

Opening or shifting sales to another account

Amazon’s Seller Code of Conduct allows one Seller Central account for each region you sell in, unless you have a legitimate business need for a second account and all of your accounts are in good standing. If any account is not in good standing, Amazon may deactivate all of your selling accounts until all of them are. Amazon’s own examples of a legitimate need include owning multiple brands with separate businesses, manufacturing for two distinct companies, or being recruited into a program that requires separate accounts. A new account opened to keep selling during a deactivation is not one of them.

Contacting buyers outside Amazon

The code of conduct requires that communications to customers go through Buyer-Seller Messaging and be necessary for fulfilling the order or providing customer service. Asking buyers by email or phone to remove feedback, change a review or withdraw a complaint creates a new violation. Amazon lists soliciting product reviews among its critical violations.

Sending an emotional or vague appeal

An appeal that explains how long you have sold, how much revenue depends on the account or how many people you employ does not address the violation. Amazon asks for facts and events, not the story of the business.

Submitting partial appeals

Sending a short appeal to start the clock and planning to add evidence later usually backfires. Each rejection adds days, and later submissions get read in light of the first one.

Deleting listings to make the problem disappear

Amazon states that violations are not removed from the Account Health page when you close or delete a listing. Deleting the ASIN removes your ability to show the corrected listing and does nothing to the score.

Ignoring the rest of the account

New late shipments, cancellations and unanswered buyer messages during the review add fresh defects. Keep running the parts of the business you are still able to run.

What Happens to Your Funds and Inventory

Funds depend on the violation. Amazon’s Anti-Counterfeiting Policy says Amazon may withhold payments if it determines an account was used to sell inauthentic goods, commit fraud or engage in other illegal activity, and that it may dispose of inauthentic products in its fulfillment centers at the seller’s expense. Its Restricted Products page lists immediate suspension or termination, destruction of inventory without reimbursement, returning inventory and permanent withholding of payments among the corrective actions it may take. The Seller Code of Conduct lists suspension or forfeiture of payments as possible actions for code violations.

For deactivations outside those categories, the appeal outcome decides what happens next. The Business Solutions Agreement also states that after termination you remain responsible for obligations tied to transactions entered into before termination. That means refunds, returns and A-to-z claims on past orders still land on the account.

We track three things from day one. The balance in Payments and any reserve, the FBA inventory by fulfillment center and condition, and any inbound shipments still in transit. If the case ends with funds or units unaccounted for, those records are the starting point for a reconciliation claim.

Getting Answers From Amazon Account Health Support

Professional sellers have access to Account Health Support. Amazon says its specialists can help you understand your Account Health page and metrics, understand Amazon’s policies, address performance defects, listing deactivations and policy violations, and submit the information required to avoid deactivation or reinstate a deactivated account.

To reach the team, click Contact us or Call me now on the Account Health page, enter your phone number, and a specialist calls you. The button is also in the Amazon Seller app. Amazon says the team is available 7 days a week and shows the hours for your time zone and language when you click the button. If you do not understand why a violation was triggered, Amazon suggests asking the specialist to explain the policy in detail.

If the appeal button is greyed out or the submission fails, Amazon suggests trying a different browser or clearing the cache, submitting through the Amazon Seller app, contacting Account Health Support through Contact us, and using Seller Central’s general support if that button is also unavailable. If you believe an Amazon system error triggered the violation, say so specifically and provide evidence of the error.

The walkthrough shows how a Professional seller reaches Account Health Support. Click through each screen to see what to ask for.

Use the call to confirm facts, not to argue the case. Ask which violations are open, which ASINs are in scope, which documents the reviewer expects and whether the appeal should go through Reactivate your account or the Product Policy Compliance dashboard. Write down the date, the specialist’s guidance and what you were told to submit.

If the notice is unclear, involves several violation types, or a first appeal has already been rejected, our Amazon suspension and reinstatement team can build the appeal with you. If funds or inventory are tied up, our Amazon inventory reconciliation service tracks what Amazon owes you. If you run more than one business, read about our secondary accounts service before taking any step on another account.

First-Time Cases Versus Repeat Cases

A first deactivation for an isolated issue is usually about showing that you understand the policy, removed the cause and changed the process that allowed it. The appeal can be narrow, and Amazon’s own language about appeals contemplates violations that were not intentional and can be forgiven.

A repeat case is different. Amazon raises the point value each time the same policy is violated, so the score falls faster with every repeat. Hitting the repeat limit for one policy within 180 days triggers a critical violation by itself, even if each individual violation was minor. In those cases the reviewer is looking for a systemic fix, not a listing fix. The plan has to show why the earlier corrections did not hold and what control now stops the pattern, such as a pre-listing review, a supplier approval step or a restricted keyword check.

When the account is deactivated for its AHR score, Amazon keeps all violations on the page instead of letting them age out after 180 days. They stay so you can address them and lift the score back to 100. Waiting for violations to expire does not work in that state.

Regional Differences in the US, EU and UK

Amazon’s help pages state which store they apply to, and the pages cited here apply to selling in the United States. Each regional Seller Central has its own versions, and the notice you receive names the store and the policy that applies. Read the help pages for the store that sent the notice.

Sellers established in the EU who sell to EU consumers also have protections under Regulation (EU) 2019/1150, the platform-to-business regulation. It requires a platform to give a statement of reasons on a durable medium before or at the time a restriction or suspension takes effect, and to give at least 30 days’ notice with reasons before terminating the whole service. The 30-day notice does not apply where a legal obligation requires termination, where national law allows immediate termination, or where the provider can show repeated infringement of its terms. The regulation also requires an internal complaint-handling system where the seller can clarify the facts, reinstatement without undue delay if the decision is reversed, and the identification of mediators the platform is willing to work with.

The UK kept a domestic version of the same regulation after leaving the EU. UK sellers should read the statement of reasons in the notice closely, because it is the basis for any complaint or mediation request.

Preventing the Next Suspension

Reinstatement is the start of a monitoring routine, not the end of the case. Amazon encourages sellers to view the Account Health page regularly and to address issues as they arise, prioritizing the most severe. We build these checks into the weekly operation.

Weekly Account Health review. Check the AHR, the Product Policy Compliance tab and new performance notifications, and resolve anything open before it ages.
Repeat tracking. Log every violation by policy so you can see when you approach a repeat limit, especially for infringement and restricted products.
Supplier file. Keep unedited invoices and authorization letters for every brand you sell, organized by ASIN, so you can answer a document request the same day.
Listing review. Check new listings against the restricted products and product detail page rules before they go live.
Buyer contact discipline. Keep every customer message inside Buyer-Seller Messaging and limited to order and service needs.
Contact details. Keep the emergency phone number current so you receive the call during any future critical violation window.

Frequently Asked Questions

What should I do first when my Amazon account is suspended?

Read the notice and your Account Health page, list every violation and ASIN involved, check for a three-day critical violation window, and gather the documents Amazon asked for before you submit an appeal.

How fast should I appeal an Amazon suspension?

Promptly and completely. Amazon says to expect a reply within two days and may ask for more information, so one complete appeal is faster than several partial ones. If a critical violation shows a three-day period, submit inside it.

Can I keep selling on another account while suspended?

Amazon allows a second account only with a legitimate business need and only when all accounts are in good standing. If any account is not in good standing, Amazon may deactivate all of your selling accounts.

Will Amazon keep my money if I am suspended?

It depends on the violation. Amazon’s policies allow it to withhold payments for inauthentic goods, fraud or other illegal activity, and to permanently withhold payments for restricted products violations. For other deactivations, the appeal outcome decides what happens to the account.

Can I call Amazon about my suspension?

Professional sellers can click Contact us or Call me now on the Account Health page, enter a phone number, and receive a call from Account Health Support, which is available 7 days a week.

Start With a Clear Plan

The first appeal is your best chance. Submit your case for a free assessment of your notice, or book a consultation before you appeal.

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, Appeal an account deactivation or listing removal
Amazon Seller Central, Complete an appeal questionnaire to reinstate selling privileges
Amazon Seller Central, Account health rating
Amazon Seller Central, Account health support FAQ
Amazon Seller Central, Selling policies and seller code of conduct
Amazon Seller Central, Amazon Anti-Counterfeiting policy
Amazon Seller Central, Restricted products
Amazon Seller Central, Amazon Services Business Solutions Agreement
EUR-Lex, Regulation (EU) 2019/1150 on fairness and transparency for business users of online intermediation services
GOV.UK, The Online Intermediation Services for Business Users (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020

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Appeals & Plan of Action

What to Do First When Your Amazon Account Is Suspended