The first thing you need to know is this:

Amazon follows U.S. First Sale Doctrine.

That means once someone legally buys your product – even from your own distributor, retail store, or a liquidator – they are allowed to resell it. Including on Amazon.

It doesn’t matter if they’re not an authorized reseller. It doesn’t matter if you told them not to sell on marketplaces. In Amazon’s view, as long as:

• The product is authentic

• It’s in new condition

• It matches the listing

…that seller has the right to sell it.

If that sounds insane from a brand control perspective, you’re not alone. But Amazon didn’t invent this policy. It’s backed by U.S. law, and Amazon strictly adheres to it.

Think of it this way: Amazon is a trillion-dollar company with lawyers on speed dial. It doesn’t want your hot-selling garlic press – or a faulty phone charger – creating legal firestorms. So Amazon transfers the liability back where it belongs: to the seller.

Picture this: a simple Bluetooth speaker malfunctions and starts a fire. A customer complains. Without proper insurance, Amazon can hold you accountable for damages, medical bills, and brand trust fallout. If you’re not protected, your profits – and your account – are on the line.

In short: if you sell it, you own it. And you’re expected to carry the liability too.

This new policy stems from increasing pressure on Amazon to combat counterfeit and stolen goods. Laws like the INFORM Consumers Act require Amazon to take a more aggressive stance on verifying seller legitimacy, but the way the policy is written and enforced introduces widespread collateral damage.

Amazon now expects all sellers of branded products (i.e., not private label) to provide:

• Invoices or receipts showing purchase source and quantity

• Supplier and manufacturer contact information

• Documentation aligned with your sales volume

• A complete chain of custody back to the original manufacturer – even if you bought from a distributor

Importantly, Amazon reserves the right to contact your suppliers directly. If the supplier is unreachable, slow to respond, or declines to verify your claims, you may lose the listing.

Amazon doesn’t just follow marketplace rules – it mirrors federal Canadian law. That means if you sell in Canada, your products must meet the bilingual packaging and labeling standards set by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), the Food and Drugs Act (FDA), and the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations (SFCR).

Here’s a direct quote from one of Amazon’s enforcement letters to sellers:

“Food products must be labelled with all the information required by applicable Canadian law in both French and English.”

So, what exactly does that mean for you?

These messages typically follow a specific structure:

“I will not provide proof. I will escalate this to Amazon’s Safety Team. I expect a full refund immediately, no conditions. This is your only chance to avoid escalation.”

Sellers often receive identical messages from different buyer names, sometimes just days apart. Many of these come from the same delivery region or share the same billing country. Some even link back to the same IP range.

They all have the same demands:

• No return
  
• No evidence
  
• Full refund now
  

And the result? If Amazon sees multiple unresolved complaints that mention safety or product condition issues, their system flags the ASIN – or the account – automatically.

You’re sipping coffee. Orders are rolling in. Then – out of nowhere – it lands: a Performance Notification from Amazon. “Live verification call required.” No real explanation. No appeal option. Just a link, a date, and a blunt warning.

Your heart jumps. Because you’ve heard the stories. The rep will be cold. Abrupt. Almost aggressive. They’ll ask questions like they already think you’re lying. And if you mess up – even slightly – you risk losing your entire business.

But here’s the part no one tells you: the call is a performance. A psychological pressure test. Amazon wants to see if your story holds when you’re uncomfortable. The tone is intentional. The goal is consistency under stress.

And if you walk in prepared – with documents in order, answers aligned, and zero panic – you’ll walk out with your account intact.

Let’s walk through what’s actually happening, why sellers fail, and how to beat the system without getting flustered.

These calls are not random. They’re triggered by specific compliance, behavioral, or risk signals inside Amazon’s internal systems. Sellers often think they’re being singled out. The truth is, you’re just one of thousands flagged for one of the following reasons:

Annual compliance re-checks. If you’re a high-volume U.S. seller, Amazon must re-confirm your identity, banking, and contact info annually under the INFORM Consumers Act. Miss one form update – or change your address – and you may land in the call queue.

DAC7 tax validation. European sellers get flagged for documentation mismatches under DAC7, especially if your marketplace region, business entity, and bank info don’t all align. A small typo in your VAT ID could be enough to trigger a video call.

Behavioral triggers. Amazon watches behavior patterns constantly. Updating your bank account days before a large disbursement? Suspicious. Logging in from multiple locations? That looks like a related account. Changing business names or uploading documents that don’t match past ones? That can all result in a manual check.

Supply chain audits. If you sell in high-risk categories – like dietary supplements, cosmetics, electronics, lithium battery devices, fire safety tools, ingestibles, or even pet products – Amazon’s systems often force a deeper verification. Especially if you’ve changed suppliers, listings, or documentation recently.

Post-appeal audits. Sometimes, the call isn’t the first step – it’s the second. You submit an appeal, Amazon flags a gap, and instead of rejecting the paperwork, they escalate to a live call to probe the consistency of your explanation.

We’ve even seen cases triggered by sudden seller performance improvements. You clean up your metrics, start scaling up fast, and Amazon wants to check if you’re really the same business they reviewed a year ago.

You’ve listed a small electronic device on Amazon. It’s tested, functional, and compliant (or so you think). You’ve been selling it steadily for months.

Then – without warning – Amazon takes the listing down.

This product causes a safety risk. We will not be reviewing any documents for this ASIN.”

The email offers no path for appeal. Your inventory becomes stranded. Your compliance folder sits untouched. You’re locked out with no explanation, and no amount of support tickets will get it reopened.

This is the new reality for any Amazon seller whose product includes a CR2032 coin cell battery – and who isn’t prepared for the complex web of safety regulations Amazon now enforces.

A CR2032 is a 3-volt lithium manganese dioxide coin cell battery. It’s roughly the size of a nickel: 20mm in diameter and 3.2mm thick. You’ll find it in thousands of common consumer devices – key fobs, pet trackers, glucose meters, kitchen thermometers, laser pointers, scales, and wearable tech.
It’s small, cheap, reliable – and also dangerous. Not because of what it does, but because of what can happen if a child swallows one.
When swallowed, a CR2032 can become lodged in the esophagus and cause internal tissue burns, bleeding, or death in under 2 hours. This risk isn’t hypothetical. It has been documented repeatedly by emergency medicine departments around the world.
That’s why the U.S. Congress passed Reese’s Law in 2022, which required the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to adopt stricter regulations for products containing button or coin cell batteries.
As of March 2024, those rules – codified under 16 CFR Part 1263 – are in full effect. Amazon is now enforcing them at scale. If your product listing has been flagged or removed due to these regulations, you may need to file an Amazon product safety complaint appeal to have your listing reinstated. Understanding how to navigate the product safety issue Amazon appeal process is crucial for sellers whose products contain CR2032 batteries or similar components, as compliance with these safety standards is now mandatory for marketplace participation.

Imagine this: It’s a regular morning and your supplement brand is humming along. You’ve invested in quality. Your sales are steady. Maybe you’ve even started to relax a little.

Then – out of nowhere – Amazon drops the hammer.

“Your listing has been suppressed due to a food safety investigation. Please respond within one business day or risk permanent deactivation.”

If you’ve never been through this before, it feels like being called to the principal’s office for a crime you didn’t even know was committed.

Welcome to the Amazon supplement seller’s stress test – a world where a single customer complaint, no matter how rare or unproven, can send your business into DEFCON 1.

Let’s tell the truth: These cases are not always fair, but they’re rarely random. Amazon’s food safety team is a fortress built to protect customers first, and the rules of engagement are set up for zero-tolerance, instant response.

Here’s how it usually unfolds (details changed for privacy):

• A customer buys your product – a botanical supplement, let’s say.

• They leave a review or file a ticket: “Developed a cough, had to visit the ER. Could it be this supplement?”

• Amazon’s bots and risk teams flag the listing. Within hours, your entire SKU is suppressed.

You wake up, check your Seller Central, and your best-seller has vanished. All because one customer – out of thousands – had an adverse reaction, or even just suspected one.

That’s when you realize: Compliance on Amazon isn’t just about the science or the certificates. It’s about your ability to tell a credible, documented story when the pressure is on.

You’ve probably seen the advice in Facebook groups, or maybe from that friend who “crushed it” last Q4:
Add a little thank-you card in your packaging. Maybe offer a coupon. Maybe ask for a review. It’s what everyone does, right?

That’s exactly what Jacob – a private label seller in home & kitchen – thought when he launched his best-selling cutting board on Amazon last year.

He designed a beautifully printed insert:

• On one side, a warm thank you and a care guide for the board.

• On the other, a polite invitation:
  “If you love your new board, we’d really appreciate your honest review on Amazon! If there’s any issue, please contact us at [email] and we’ll make it right.”

• And, just below that? A 10% off code for the customer’s next order.

It felt helpful, even generous. It felt personal. And, for a while, it worked.

Until Amazon noticed.

Jacob’s story is so common it’s almost a meme among experienced Amazon sellers. The root of the problem wasn’t that he asked for a review, or that he included a coupon code. It was that he did both, together, on the same insert – and, even more importantly, he told happy buyers to review but told unhappy ones to reach out to him privately.

This is called review gating.

If you’ve ever written:
“If you loved it, please leave an honest review. If you have any problems, contact us directly.”
 – you’ve set a review gate.

To Amazon, this isn’t just a friendly customer service gesture. It’s a way to funnel happy buyers into public reviews while quietly solving negative experiences off-platform, keeping negative feedback out of sight. And when you combine that with any sort of coupon, discount, or incentive – even if you don’t explicitly tie it to leaving a review – it’s considered review manipulation.

If Amazon flags your listing or seller account for Intellectual Property (IP) misuse – whether that’s use of a trademark, design patent, or brand name – and you’re not the rights owner, they’ll typically ask for one document: a Letter of Authorization (LOA). This is their preferred method of verifying that you’re not infringing and that you’ve obtained official permission to represent the brand.

What follows is not a guide to creating or fabricating an LOA – that would violate Amazon’s policies. Instead, this guide explains what must be present in any LOA you obtain from a brand or rights holder to be accepted by Amazon’s internal review teams.

A Letter of Authorization is a legal document from an IP rights holder (the Licensor) to a business (the Licensee) granting permission to use their protected content – typically trademarks, logos, or copyrighted images – in the context of selling or listing products.

This document serves as Amazon’s verification that your use of the brand is not only authorized, but also clearly defined and revocable by the rights owner if misused.