Overview

Amazon enforces a comprehensive code of conduct that governs how sellers operate on its marketplace. These policies cover everything from how you communicate with customers to how many accounts you can maintain. Violating any of these rules can lead to listing removals, payment holds, or permanent loss of selling privileges — making this one of the most important policy documents every Amazon seller should understand.

Key Points / What Sellers Need to Know

• Honesty is non-negotiable — Amazon requires sellers to provide accurate business information, product details, and category assignments at all times, and to update that information whenever it changes.
• Review manipulation is strictly prohibited — You cannot offer incentives for reviews, solicit only positive feedback, or review your own (or a competitor's) products.
• One account per region is the default — Operating multiple selling accounts without a legitimate business reason is a policy violation that can result in all accounts being deactivated.
• Customer data has strict usage limits — Seller access to customer information like addresses and phone numbers is restricted to order fulfillment only, after which it must be deleted.
• Consequences are severe — Violations can trigger listing cancellations, payment forfeiture, account suspension, or permanent removal from the marketplace.

Fair Dealing and Prohibited Activities

Amazon's fair dealing policy prohibits a broad range of manipulative practices. Sellers may not post misleading product information, create duplicate detail pages for the same item, or display offensive imagery. Artificially inflating sales rank — whether through fake orders, self-purchased orders, or externally refunded transactions — is explicitly banned, as is making sales rank claims in product titles or descriptions. Attempting to manipulate search results through keyword stuffing or incentivizing customer searches to mimic organic behavior will also trigger enforcement action. Additionally, sellers cannot raise the price of a product after an order has already been confirmed, inflate web traffic through bots or paid clicks, or direct anyone else to act on their behalf in ways that violate Amazon's policies.