Amazon Changed Section 18 in Japan on August 24, 2026. Not in the United States.
For sellers, buyers, lenders, and operators who saw the August 24, 2026 headlines and need to know which Seller Central actually changed.
In the group chats
OMG. Amazon changed the BSA.
Stop selling.
Aggregators are finished.
Freeze the funds.
Are you sure?
We went back to the first ear.
Where's the update? Amazon Seller Central.
Which Seller Central?
Japan.
They found the sentence. They missed the marketplace.
Japan
US
You know the party game. Someone whispers a sentence into the first ear. By the tenth ear it has a plot, a villain, and a deadline. Here's the short version, with the dates.
Late May 2026, Amazon Japan added one line to Section 18 about assigning or pledging rights, effective August 24, 2026. May 29, 2026, a seller blog linked the Japan page and dropped the country from the headline. May 30, 2026, a second site cited that retelling and the same Japan URL. Aggregators and revenue-based financing showed up like ketchup on a white shirt. August 18, 2026, someone compared both pages: the US side was still the March 4, 2026 package. August 20, 2026, another piece said every marketplace would get the same stain anyway. Then the week of August 24, 2026 arrived, and the group chats did what group chats do.
Here's what the pages actually say.
Japan added a new Section 18 sentence on August 24, 2026. The live US BSA does not have it. US assignment still needs Amazon's prior written consent. We found no official worldwide announcement. Open the Japan changes page and the US changes page yourself. Same Help ID (G47071). Different country. Different update.
Japan's official notice
This is the Japan agreement-changes page, copied word for word. Amazon can amend the live page; the live page controls.
Changes to the Amazon Services Business Solutions Agreement
Effective August 24, 2026, we're updating Section 18 of the Amazon Services Business Solutions Agreement to provide clarity that your rights and obligations, including how your sales proceeds are received, cannot be reassigned to another party. This change is to reduce the risk of double payments, payment delays, or payment failures.
Source: Changes to the Amazon Services Business Solutions Agreement (Japan, G47071). Amazon also posted this on the Japan Seller Forums (News_Amazon).
Before and after, as Amazon showed it
The same Japan page then prints the second paragraph of Section 18 before the change, and after.
Currently (before August 24, 2026)
Currently, the second paragraph of Section 18 of the Amazon Services Business Solutions Agreement states the following:
You may not assign this Agreement, by operation of law or otherwise, without our prior written consent. Any attempt to assign or otherwise transfer in violation of this section is void.
Source: Japan G47071.
Effective August 24, 2026
Effective August 24, 2026, the second paragraph of Section 18 of the BSA will be updated to state:
You may not assign this Agreement, by operation of law or otherwise, without our prior written consent. Nor may you assign or pledge all or any part of your rights or obligations under or arising out of this Agreement. Any attempt to assign or otherwise transfer in violation of this section is void.
Your continued use of Selling Services after the effective date constitutes acceptance of this change.
Source: Japan G47071. Amazon's notice then says to view the policy in full at the Amazon Services Business Solutions Agreement, Section 18. Miscellaneous.
Live Japan assignment language
This is the assignment language from Japan Section 18. Miscellaneous after the update, copied word for word. Governing law, notice, halt-transactions, and severability in the same section are not quoted here. Amazon can amend the live page; G1791 controls. If a translation differs, the Japanese version controls.
You may not assign this Agreement, by operation of law or otherwise, without our prior written consent. Nor may you assign or pledge all or any part of your rights or obligations under or arising out of this Agreement. Any attempt to assign or otherwise transfer in violation of this section is void provided, however, that upon notice to Amazon, you may assign or transfer this Agreement, in whole or in part, to any of your Affiliates as long as you remain liable for your obligations that arose prior to the effective date of the assignment or transfer under this Agreement. You agree that we may assign or transfer our rights and obligations under this Agreement: (a) in connection with a merger, consolidation, acquisition or sale of all or substantially all of our assets or similar transaction or (b) to any Affiliate or as part of a corporate reorganization; and effective upon such assignment, the assignee is deemed substituted for Amazon as the party to this Agreement. Subject to that restriction, this Agreement will be binding on, inure to, and be enforceable against the parties and their respective successors and assigns. We may perform any of our obligations or exercise any of our rights under this Agreement through one or more of our Affiliates.
Source: Amazon Services Business Solutions Agreement (Japan, G1791, English locale), Section 18. Miscellaneous (assignment language). Do not treat this excerpt as the full contract. Re-check the live Japan G1791 page.
Live US assignment language (no matching August 24, 2026 addition)
Sellers call this clause Section 18. On the US BSA it lives in Miscellaneous. This is the same assignment excerpt as in the migration guide, copied word for word. The pledge sentence is not in it.
You may not assign this Agreement, by operation of law or otherwise, without our prior written consent. Any attempt to assign or otherwise transfer in violation of this section is void; provided, however, that upon notice to Amazon, you may assign or transfer this Agreement, in whole or in part, to any of your Affiliates as long as you remain liable for your obligations that arose prior to the effective date of the assignment or transfer under this Agreement. You agree that we may assign or transfer our rights and obligations under this Agreement: (a) in connection with a merger, consolidation, acquisition or sale of all or substantially all of our assets or similar transaction; or (b) to any Affiliate or as part of a corporate reorganization; and effective upon such assignment, the assignee is deemed substituted for Amazon as the party to this Agreement. Subject to that restriction, this Agreement will be binding on, inure to, and be enforceable against the parties and their respective successors and assigns. We may perform any of our obligations or exercise any of our rights under this Agreement through one or more of our Affiliates.
Source: Amazon Services Business Solutions Agreement (US, G1791), Miscellaneous (assignment language). Re-check the live G1791 page for the full section.
| United States | Japan | |
|---|---|---|
| Live BSA | G1791 (US) | G1791 (Japan) |
| Changes page | G47071 (US) | G47071 (Japan) |
| August 24, 2026 | No matching assign-or-pledge sentence | New sentence in the second paragraph of Section 18 |
Same Help ID, two pages
Amazon’s agreement-changes page is titled “Changes to the Amazon Services Business Solutions Agreement.” US and Japan both file it under G47071. Same number. Not the same update.
US G47071 currently shows the March 4, 2026 package (Mexico’s standalone agreement, AI and agent restrictions, dispute language). Section 18 is mentioned there because Amazon renamed “Developer Site” and moved dispute language into Section 20. It does not announce the August 24, 2026 assign-or-pledge sentence.
Japan G47071 is the notice quoted above, also posted on the Japan Seller Forums (News_Amazon). Look at the domain, not just the Help ID.
What Japan added (and didn't)
The old second paragraph already required Amazon’s prior written consent to assign the Agreement. The new sentence sits in the middle: it reaches all or part of the rights under the Agreement, and it names pledging.
Amazon’s published reason is how sales proceeds are received, and reducing double payments, delays, or failures. That is not “every loan tied to Amazon sales is now illegal.” A repayment formula based on revenue is not automatically a pledge of Amazon receivables. Read the loan, the collateral, who controls the money, and which BSA governs the account.
The Japan notice does not say every business sale is prohibited, aggregators can no longer buy brands, every revenue-based loan is banned worldwide, the amendment applies to every marketplace, or that Amazon will auto-suspend or freeze funds. Those were the ketchup. Useful for a headline. Not in the amendment. Do not pause a deal on a screenshot.
How the whisper got louder
Heard about it everywhere? That's because A led to B led to C. The story is at the top of this page. By August 2026 it felt like independent coverage. It was still one regional notice wearing several headlines. If you are going to pass it on, open the regional page first. The amendment is real. The original whisper is still Japan.
US accounts still aren't a handoff
This is not a hall pass. The Japan notice did not create the US restriction. It was already there.
Amazon's public account-transfer guidance (G200506000) says seller accounts generally are not transferable, and that when business ownership changes, the new owner must establish a new seller account.
The US BSA, quoted above, still requires prior written consent to assign the Agreement. A prohibited attempt is void. Neither page blesses emailing the login to the buyer.
Selling the company, selling the shares, selling the assets, changing the legal entity, moving countries, and handing over Seller Central credentials are not the same transaction.
If you're in a deal
If the deal changes who operates the account, who owns it, Country of Establishment, tax, or the bank account, don't start editing Seller Central to “get ahead of it.”
- Which entity is on the BSA now?
- Which entity will operate after the deal?
- Is the Agreement being assigned?
- Is Amazon's prior written consent required under the published assignment rule?
- What identity work has to follow, and in which region?
Amazon publishes an assignment rule and separately verifies seller identity. It does not publish a product called “two gates.” Consent answers “may we assign.” It does not itself change the Seller Central entity, unlock Country of Establishment, verify the buyer, or finish the migration. Country of Establishment is not something the Tax Interview quietly rewrites. In our work we sequence those as two stages. Amazon’s instructions in the specific case control the final route.
The full process is in the Amazon Seller Account Migration Guide, including the US assignment quote and how we sequence consent and identity.
About to change entity, ownership, country, tax, or bank details? Don't treat a Japan headline as a US field-edit plan. Get my migration strategy with the current entity snapshot and the target structure.
In this case, one regional suffix, .co.jp, changed the entire conclusion.
Need the transaction mapped against the actual regional BSA, not a headline? We classify the deal, determine whether assignment consent applies, and sequence Seller Central identity changes so US, Japan, and other regions are not treated as one page.
Read the complete migration guide or Get my migration strategy with your current entity snapshot and target structure. No payment is required to start. We review first and only recommend next steps if we believe there is a real path. Related: contact · who we help.
FAQ
Did Amazon change Section 18 in the United States on August 24, 2026?
Not on the live US pages we checked on August 26, 2026. The US G1791 BSA still uses the prior-written-consent assignment sentence quoted above. The US G47071 changes page does not list a matching August 24, 2026 assignment-and-pledge addition.
What did Amazon Japan add to Section 18?
Amazon added this sentence to the second paragraph of Japan Section 18, effective August 24, 2026: “Nor may you assign or pledge all or any part of your rights or obligations under or arising out of this Agreement.” The official notice is on Japan G47071. The live clause is in Japan G1791, Section 18. Miscellaneous. Both are quoted above.
Why do the US and Japan pages share Help ID G47071?
Amazon reuses Help numbers across regional Seller Central sites. The domain tells you which version you're reading. Open US G47071 and Japan G47071 side by side.
Did Amazon ban all seller account transfers worldwide?
The Japan notice doesn't say that, and we found no official worldwide announcement. US accounts still sit under the existing account-transfer guidance and the existing US BSA consent rule, not under Japan's new pledge sentence.
Does this mean US seller accounts can be transferred casually?
No. Amazon's account-transfer guidance says seller accounts generally are not transferable. The US BSA still requires prior written consent to assign the Agreement. In our experience, handing over the login is a common path into Seller Identity Verification. See the migration guide.
Did Amazon prohibit every revenue-based loan?
Not in those words, and not worldwide. Japan's new sentence names pledging of rights or obligations under the Agreement. A repayment formula based on sales can be different from a security interest in Amazon receivables. Japan sellers and lenders should read the loan against the Japan BSA.
Why did I hear this everywhere if it is only Japan?
Because it was a telephone game. The story is at the top of this page: A dropped the country, B cited A, C said every marketplace. Open the Seller Central domain on the source page before you treat it as a US or worldwide rule.
Does this end aggregator acquisitions?
The Japan notice doesn't say aggregators can no longer buy brands. An acquisition can be a share sale, an asset sale, a regional operating-company change, or something else. Classify the deal against the BSA that actually governs the account. Start with the migration guide.
Is this legal advice?
No. This is general information, not legal advice. ASA Compliance Group is not a law firm. The entity, the regional agreement, the deal documents, and the governing law still have to be reviewed for each transaction.