Amazon's new rules are here! Do all Amazon stores need to be reviewed?

A large number of Amazon sellers have received account re-verification notices, which require "high-sales" sellers to verify relevant information. The wide coverage of "high-sales" has almost made Amazon sellers feel insecure. In the future, seller accounts may face audits by everyone and every year, and those who bought accounts should be trembling with fear!

The platform requires sellers to complete relevant verification within a specified time limit, otherwise the sales account will be blocked. Currently, some sellers have been affected and their sales service access is restricted. Immediately, an old seller shared the clearance method, and after the peers submitted relevant information based on it, the store has been restored.

A large number of sellers' accounts were reviewed.

On May 11, a large number of sellers received account re-verification emails from Amazon.

The general content of the email is: The Consumer Notification Act will take effect in the United States on June 27, 2023. The law stipulates that high-volume third-party sellers are obliged to provide their business information, and Amazon is obliged to collect, verify and disclose this information.

The new law requires Amazon to verify the information of high-selling sellers. In addition, sellers must prove that their information is up to date every year. Amazon also requires sellers to complete the verification within a specified time limit , otherwise their accounts will be blocked. If sellers have already completed the verification of the required information , they do not need to submit it again.

An industry insider said that the company's account received an Amazon account re-verification email on May 11. According to feedback from other sellers, a large number of sellers received verification emails on May 11, and peers speculated that it was a mass email from the Amazon system. Other peers have similar feedback as follows:

“——Several old stores received notifications today and are preparing materials;

——I received an email as soon as I logged into my account today;

——The company’s two main accounts may have to be explained, so I’ll go talk to the boss first to give him a heads-up;

——We also received one today, it was registered by a personal account, and it was difficult to find the person;

—I received it, too;

——Everything that is supposed to come will come, and no one will be left behind. There were so many visitors setting up account information this morning that the app crashed.”

From yesterday to today, sellers have received review emails one after another. However, some sellers have not received them yet. An industry insider said that Amazon wants to re-verify all seller accounts this time , but the platform has limited manpower and can only do it in batches, so some sellers have received relevant information in advance, and the rest will be reviewed one after another.

An informed source revealed that Amazon will issue a notice to conduct a second verification for accounts before 2022 (mainly on the US site), and all Amazon stores before 2022 will be reviewed again.

At present, this news has been confirmed by a person claiming to be an Amazon investment manager in the seller group. Yien.com contacted Amazon officials for confirmation and received the following reply: "We are also paying attention to how to synchronize any information in the first place."

Amazon has issued new rules, seller accounts will be reviewed annually

Before Amazon sent the verification email to the seller, it had already issued an announcement with the same content as the email. This made the sellers furious. Among them, the following issues are the most concerned.

1. Audit scope. The audit scope includes two elements: first, in the past 24 months, the seller's sales volume has reached (or exceeded) 200 units for 12 consecutive months; second, the seller's total transaction amount exceeds US$5,000. This scope covers a wide range.

One seller said that Amazon's definition of high sales volume is 200 units sold per year. It turns out that I am also a big seller. Thanks to the official "big seller" certification. According to this standard, almost all sellers will be audited.

2. Review the information. The information Amazon requires to be submitted includes: seller identity information, government-issued identification documents, company address, bank account information, work email address, work phone number, and taxpayer identification number. The above information must be the seller's business name or the seller's legally authorized personal representative.

Many sellers are troubled by the problems of business license change, verification of legal person, inconsistency between account submission address and actual office address. Many peers think: the purchased account is in trouble now !

3. Audit time node. Amazon requires sellers to conduct verification every year, which means that seller accounts will face audits every year in the future .

An old seller analyzed that according to the new regulations, Amazon seller accounts face the following problems: everyone must review, review every year, and if they fail the review, they will be blocked. The basis for this is the Consumer Notification Law. However, there should be fewer people buying and selling accounts in the future, which has a certain positive significance in this respect.

When facing an audit, how should sellers pass it?

After Amazon issued the announcement and email notification, some sellers did receive notifications that their access to Amazon sales services was restricted.

The notice prompts sellers to provide information about their business, their identity information, a government-issued photo ID, bank account or credit card statements, business licenses, and other information within 60 days.

How to deal with the new round of audits? Seller "Amazon Wuye" provides solutions according to different situations as follows:

1. The company information corresponding to the account is normal and complete . If the Amazon account is registered in the name of the company, the business license has not been cancelled, the legal person is willing to cooperate, and the information is submitted as required, it will pass the review quickly.

2. The company address or legal person has changed, and the information is complete . When filling in the information, fill in the latest address and legal person information, and submit the new business license picture and legal person information.

3. The company has been cancelled and the legal person can be contacted.

4. The legal representative cannot be contacted, and the purchased account information is incomplete

Replace the old documents with the new business license and documents, and use a completely different set of documents to pass the audit. Method: First, update the company and address in the tax information section, and then submit the new documents as in case 1. (It should be OK if the steps in the tax information section are not changed, but it is recommended to modify them first)

5. Personal account sellers. Solution: ( 1) Open a case and tell customer service that it is a personal account. Ask customer service to provide a link for personal information review. Submit your ID card and credit card bill. (2) Register for a business license first, and then fill in the form again according to the process in situation 1.

Are there any alternatives to account verification?

What is the Consumer Notification Act that triggered the current Amazon seller account verification? What are the requirements for the platform and third-party sellers?

It is understood that the U.S. Notify Consumers Act was passed on December 29, 2022, and it imposes responsibilities on online platforms. It aims to "prevent anonymous sellers from selling counterfeit goods online and prevent organized retail crime gangs from stealing goods from stores and reselling them in bulk online."

According to the information in the bill, the platform needs to verify the sellers, and Amazon’s requirements have been made clear. The information in the bill is:

There are exceptions and alternatives if the seller cannot provide audit information.

If the seller has a separate return address, the platform does not need to ask the seller to provide the actual business address;

If the seller does not have an office address, or has both a residential and business address, the platform only needs to disclose the seller’s country or state of residence and suggest that consumers contact the seller through other means provided by the platform;

——If the seller does not have a separate business phone number, the platform does not need to disclose the seller's phone number and can notify consumers to contact the seller through other means, such as through the platform's messaging system.

But these exceptions have some limitations. If the platform finds that a large number of sellers have misrepresented information, and the sellers fail to correct the information within 10 days of receiving the platform's notice and fail to respond to consumer inquiries within a reasonable time frame, the sellers' sales activities must be suspended until they resolve these issues.

Whether these exceptions are effective depends on the specific practices of the platform. In addition, the bill also stipulates that states may not enact regulations that contradict the provisions of the bill, but it does not explicitly prohibit the establishment of additional requirements. The bill will impose a fine of $46,517 for each violation of the regulations. So the platform will also take this matter seriously.

It is worth noting that the bill affects not only Amazon, but also multiple online platforms such as Walmart and eBay and numerous third-party sellers. Cross-border sellers need to be prepared accordingly in the future.

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