Overview

Amazon is making significant changes to its inbound defect fee structure for FBA shipments, with a simplified but substantially higher fee schedule taking effect on April 15, 2026. These fees are charged when sellers send inventory that doesn't comply with FBA shipment requirements, and the upcoming changes could have a meaningful impact on sellers who frequently encounter shipping plan issues.

Key Points / What Sellers Need to Know

• Fees are increasing dramatically — Starting April 15, 2026, inbound defect fees will rise by as much as 8x or more compared to current rates, depending on product size and weight.
• Fee categories are being consolidated — Amazon is merging previously separate fee types (misrouted vs. deleted/abandoned) into a single unified fee per defect, simplifying the structure but removing the lower-tier pricing.
• Multiple defect types trigger fees — Misrouted shipments, deleted or abandoned shipments, incomplete shipments, and shipments that arrive late can all result in per-unit charges.
• Larger and heavier items face the steepest costs — Oversize products could see fees exceeding $5 per unit under the new schedule, making compliance especially important for sellers with bulky inventory.
• Timing deadlines are strict — Domestic shipments must arrive within 45 days, international within 75 days, and additional shipments in multi-destination plans within 30 days of the first arrival.

How Inbound Defect Fees Work

When you create a shipping plan in Seller Central and send inventory to Amazon's fulfillment centers, your shipment must match that plan precisely. If your inventory arrives at the wrong fulfillment center, if you cancel or delete a shipping plan after approval, or if the quantities you send differ significantly from what was planned, Amazon considers these inbound defects. Rather than simply refusing the shipment, Amazon may accept the non-compliant inventory but charge you per-unit fees to cover the additional cost of redirecting, receiving, and processing it. These fees are applied at the unit level, meaning a large shipment with compliance issues can quickly add up.