Amazon Seller Agreement and Code of Conduct warnings: identifying conduct deemed a policy violation and corrective steps

You've received a warning citing the "Seller Agreement and Seller Code of Conduct" (出品者利用規約および出品者行動規範), but it gives only the name of the code, and you can't tell which of your actions is the problem. If that sounds like you, this article lays out how the Code of Conduct relates to the specific prohibited activities, where the lines fall for conduct that may be covered, the steps from checking the notice through filing an appeal, and how to write your corrective actions and build systems that keep the problem from recurring.

The big picture: read the Code of Conduct in two layers, "principles" and "detailed rules"

The Code of Conduct can be found in Seller Central Help under "Policies and agreements" (規約、ガイドライン) → "Program policies" (プログラムポリシー). Its opening states that all sellers must comply with it and that violations or listing prohibited content may lead to suspension of your account.

This article reflects information as of September 2026. Policies and on-screen labels can change, so please also check the latest Help pages and what your notice says.

The nine principles in Japan's Code of Conduct

In summary, the principles are as follows.

• Comply with all applicable laws and Amazon's terms and policies
• Keep your account information up to date at all times
• Do not register false information about yourself
• Strive to make sure buyers can shop with confidence
• Do not list products that may cause harm to buyers
• Do not engage in misleading, inappropriate, or offensive conduct (this applies to your account information, listings, and communications alike)
• Always act fairly
• As a rule, maintain only one account per region you sell in
• Do not violate laws on price fixing

The specific prohibited activities are on a separate page

The "Always act fairly" item gives examples such as manipulating customer reviews, manipulating search results or sales rankings, and intentionally harming other sellers or their listings or ratings (and states explicitly that it is not limited to these). Still, it's hard to pinpoint from this alone which of your own actions is at issue. The specific prohibited activities are listed on the page "Prohibited seller activities and actions, and seller obligations" (出品者の禁止活動および行為、ならびに遵守事項; hereafter, the prohibited activities page) under headings such as diverting buyers, misuse of ratings and reviews, and operating multiple selling accounts, and the page states that failure to comply may result in measures such as removal of selling privileges or permanent suspension.

What your contract with Amazon (the BSA) provides

The contract between sellers and Amazon, the "Amazon Services Business Solutions Agreement" (BSA), requires you to keep your registration information accurate and complete at all times and to comply with applicable laws. Section 3 provides that Amazon may suspend an account immediately if a material breach is not cured within, as a rule, 7 days of notice; if the account is being used for deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal activity, or harms the interests of other sellers, customers, or Amazon (in either case, including where there is a risk of this); or if the account's health rating falls below the threshold for suspension. If your notice cites a section number, check the original text of that section as well.

Where to check warnings, and figuring out what's actually happening

The Code of Conduct is one of the policies covered by the Account Health Rating (AHR). The AHR indicates the risk of suspension with a score from 0 to 1,000 and a color (green = healthy, yellow = at risk, red = unhealthy). Each violation normally deducts 2 to 8 points depending on its severity, and a critical violation automatically drops the score to 0. We explain how this works in how to check your Account Health score.

Telling five situations apart with a table

Situation	Main places to check	What happens / deadlines
A violation is displayed (warning)	The violations list on the Account Health (アカウント健全性) page, Performance Notifications (パフォーマンス通知)	Your score may drop. If violations of the same policy reach the limit within 180 days, your account may be suspended
A listing is removed or deactivated	Product Policy Compliance (商品規約の遵守), inactive listings in Manage Inventory	File an appeal, or fix the listing so it complies with the policy
A critical violation, or the repeat-violation limit is reached	Account Health page, email	The rating turns red with a score of 0, and you have a 3-day window to respond before suspension
Your selling account is suspended	Account Health page, email	Your proceeds may be withheld. File an appeal via "Reactivate your account" (出品用アカウントの再開)
Community features on the buyer side are restricted	Your buyer account on Amazon.co.jp	Restrictions on posting reviews and the like. A separate system from actions taken on your selling account

The 3-day response window is described in connection with critical violations and reaching the repeat-violation limit; it doesn't apply to every warning.

Matching a notice that names only the code: a reference table by area

Even if your notice names only the code, the rules to check it against are on separate pages for each area. Search Help for the page names in the table below and read the original text (the division into areas is our own). Use the following as a rough guide for narrowing things down (what your notice says takes precedence).

• If there's an order number: start with the buyer communications and buyer information areas
• If there's only an ASIN: start with the reviews/rankings and pricing areas
• If there's neither: start with the registration information/account and conduct toward other sellers areas

Area	Pages to check against	Records to gather
Buyer communications	"Communication guidelines" (コミュニケーションに関するガイドライン), "Request a review from a buyer" (購入者にレビューをリクエストする)	Sent message history, templates, settings of automated messaging tools
Reviews and feedback	"Customer product reviews policy" (カスタマーレビューポリシー), the prohibited activities page	Samples of package inserts, correspondence with promotion agencies and contractors
Rankings and search	The prohibited activities page	Order history, keyword settings, records of promotional codes issued
Diverting buyers off Amazon and buyer information	The prohibited activities page	Text of listings and messages, records of buyer data deletion
Registration information and accounts	The text of the Code of Conduct, the prohibited activities page	Screens showing your business name and Specified Commercial Transactions Act disclosures, a list of the accounts you're involved with
Pricing and shipping fees	"Amazon Fair Pricing Policy" (Amazonストアにおける適正な価格設定に関するポリシー)	Repricing tool settings, change history for prices and shipping fees

Key conduct related to the Code of Conduct, and where the official rules draw the line

Messages to buyers

Sellers may send messages only when a buyer has contacted them or to buyers of their own products, and the content is limited to what is necessary to complete the order or provide customer service. Messages sent for marketing purposes are prohibited.

Category	Details
Permitted messages	Replies to inquiries and messages necessary to complete an order. If you initiate the message, send it within 30 days of order completion, include the 17-digit order number, and write in the language the buyer has selected
Content that isn't allowed	Order or shipping confirmations, messages that only say thank you, promotions including coupons, wording that encourages positive reviews, requests to remove or update a review
Elements you can't include	External links (except secure links necessary to complete the order and links to Amazon), email addresses, phone numbers other than those for warranties, carriers, or manufacturers, emoji, and so on

Violations can lead to restrictions on using templates or a temporary suspension of selling privileges. Amazon's systems request reviews automatically, so if you want to make an additional request, use the "Request a Review" (レビューをリクエストする) function on the order details page, no more than once per order, between 5 and 30 days after the delivery date.

Reviews and feedback

Examples of violations include posting reviews of your own or competitors' products, asking for reviews in exchange for compensation, issuing refunds or reimbursements after a review is posted, reviews posted by family members or employees, and including review requests or incentives in packages (reviews of products provided free of charge through programs run by Amazon, such as Amazon Vine and Amazon Brand Mission, are exceptions). If deliberate manipulation is detected, measures may include immediate and permanent withdrawal of selling privileges and withholding of payouts. For seller feedback as well, forcing buyers to leave feedback and offering money or other rewards in exchange for posting or removing it are prohibited. For how to review your practices, see responding to product review warnings.

Sales rankings and search results

Fake orders or orders placed by yourself, offering compensation or promotional codes to boost rankings, and stating sales rankings in product titles or descriptions are prohibited. On the search side, examples of prohibited conduct include inflating page views, putting irrelevant information into product titles or keywords, and including other companies' brand names or ASINs in hidden keywords.

Diverting buyers off Amazon, and buyer information

Including URLs in messages or product detail pages to divert buyers to another site, and displaying or asking for email addresses other than those assigned by Amazon, are prohibited. Buyer phone numbers that Professional sellers can see for seller-fulfilled orders may be used only to fill in the designated field on shipping labels. Delete them after shipment, and do not use them to call buyers or share them with third parties. We explain how to go about this check in how to review your handling of buyer information.

Registration information, business name, and multiple accounts

Your business name must accurately identify you as the seller and be a name you have the right to use, and it can't include trademarks such as "Amazon." Professional sellers, corporate sellers, and others are required to display, as disclosures under the Specified Commercial Transactions Act and related laws, information such as a phone number actually in use and the address where they actually do business (P.O. boxes are not allowed). As a rule, you may have only one account per region you sell in; the only exception is when you have a legitimate reason and all of the accounts are in good standing. If one account has a problem, all of your accounts may be suspended, so if this is raised with you, see responding to account linking.

Pricing, shipping fees, and free gifts

Raising prices after a transaction is complete and charging excessive shipping fees are prohibited, and misleading reference prices and prices significantly higher than recent selling prices are also treated as prices that harm buyer trust. If you include free gifts, you must stay within the limits of the Act against Unjustifiable Premiums and Misleading Representations (for premiums given to all purchasers: 200 yen when the transaction value is under 1,000 yen, and two-tenths of the transaction value when it is 1,000 yen or more). If you're unsure, check with a professional.

Conduct toward other sellers

"Actions intended to harm or harass other sellers" (他の出品者に損害を与え、または嫌がらせを意図する行為) is an example of the "Critical" (重大) severity level, a category where even a single violation can lead to suspension and the score drops to 0. Reporting infringement as a brand's agent in order to get competitors' listings removed can even result in termination of your selling account. Writing reviews of competing products from a personal buyer account is also prohibited under the Customer Product Reviews Policy and the Amazon.co.jp Community Guidelines, and can lead to restrictions on community features. If you have a grievance, check the latest reporting channel on the Help page "Report a violation of guidelines and policies" (ガイドラインおよび規約違反の報告), and report it through an official channel such as "Report abuse or violation" (不正または違反を報告), attaching the ASIN and supporting documents. We cover how to keep records in recording and reporting suspected harassment.

Steps to take: from checking the notice to filing an appeal

If a 3-day response window has been indicated, work through STEPS 1–4 in parallel and plan so that you can finish filing your appeal within the window.

STEP 1. Record exactly what the notice says

Open the Account Health page, Performance Notifications, and your email, and write down the following items in the exact words used.

STEP 2. Take stock of your own actions and those of related parties

The Customer Product Reviews Policy states explicitly that violations by business partners, employees, and third-party agencies can lead to action even without the seller's knowledge or consent. Identify everything, including tasks you delegated and how your tools operate, and arrange it all in chronological order.

STEP 3. Choose between a "dispute" and an "appeal"

Item	Dispute (異議申し立て)	Appeal (申し立て)
When to choose it	When you believe the determination is wrong	When you accept that a violation occurred (including when it was not intentional)
What to show	Evidence that the violation was detected in error	The root cause, the actions you took, and measures to prevent recurrence
Points to note	This process is for presenting evidence of a false detection, so if a violation did occur, choose "Appeal"	Even if the appeal is accepted and the violation is removed, it may still count toward the 180-day repeat-violation limit

STEP 4. Take corrective action and keep evidence

Stop the conduct that caused the problem, and check that no other listings or messages with the same cause remain. Simply changing a listing's status, such as closing the listing, does not remove the violation. Save materials that show what you did and when, such as screenshots taken after changing settings and your revised internal procedures.

STEP 5. Prepare and submit your appeal

Before a suspension (when a violation is displayed, a listing has been removed, or during a 3-day response window), select the relevant violation on the Account Health page or in Product Policy Compliance, and follow the on-screen instructions to submit a dispute or an appeal. During the response window, you may also get a phone call from an Account Health Specialist (アカウント健全性スペシャリスト).

If your account has already been suspended, click "Reactivate your account" at the top of the Account Health page, follow the on-screen instructions to prepare your appeal, and click "Submit" (送信). If the reply asks for additional documents or information, submit them from "View request" (要請を見る) on the Account Health page. Responses are said to take up to about 2 days. Professional sellers can consult a specialist via "Contact us / Call me now" (お問い合わせ／今すぐ電話がほしい). For preparation, see preparing before contacting Account Health Support.

Supplementary note: Japanese law and public consultation services

The Act on Improving Transparency and Fairness of Specified Digital Platforms (取引DPF透明化法) requires operators of designated online marketplaces and similar platforms to, among other things, disclose their reasons, as a rule at least 30 days in advance, when they refuse to provide services entirely to a seller who uses the platform on an ongoing basis, although there are exceptions. Check with a lawyer or another professional about how it applies to your specific situation. You can also get free advice from the Digital Platform Transaction Consultation Desk (デジタルプラットフォーム取引相談窓口), operated on commission from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, but it is not a substitute for an appeal.

Writing your corrective actions: trace the cause down to a "gap in your systems"

Help recommends explaining clearly and concisely based on facts; presenting the root cause and the actions you took along with details, dates, and related documents; and providing evidence for every product and ASIN under review. Leave out emotional language and information about other cases, and point out the important parts of your documents, for example by circling them. If you stop at "we didn't know" or "our contractor did it," you won't convey why it won't happen again.

Shallow explanation	Example of a root cause traced deeper
The person in charge didn't know the rules	There was no procedure for checking new message text against the guidelines before sending it; it was left to the judgment of the person in charge
The contractor acted on its own	Policy compliance wasn't included in the terms of the engagement, and there was no opportunity to check the work being done
We set the wrong price by mistake	The repricing tool had no upper limit, and no change history was kept

Sample text: when your messages included your own website and email address

Below is sample text for this situation. The submission format differs depending on the type of violation; in some cases it's a multiple-choice questionnaire, or a free-text plan of action isn't accepted, so follow the on-screen instructions for the format. This is a hypothetical example, not a real case, so replace it with your own facts and dates.

In the signature section of our messages to buyers, we included our own website URL and email address. The root cause was that we had no procedure for checking templates against the guidelines when creating them, and we continued using them without confirming what was prohibited.
As corrective action, on Month X, 20XX, we revised all of the affected templates, and on the same day confirmed that the same content did not remain in any of our other templates or in our automated messaging tool (the revised templates and the record of our check are attached).
To prevent recurrence, effective Month X, 20XX, we have specified in our internal procedures manual that communications with buyers are limited to what is necessary to complete orders and provide customer service, and we have changed our process so that the creation of or any change to a template must be checked against the guidelines and approved by a manager.

We go into more detail on how to put one together in how to structure a plan of action.

What not to do

• Opening a new account and continuing to sell: Opening an account to get around a suspension violates the policies, and your existing accounts may also be suspended.
• Altering documents or giving explanations that don't match the facts: Deceptive conduct can be grounds for suspension regardless of your score.
• Asking buyers to change or remove product reviews, or offering something in return for removing feedback: For reviews, making the request at all is prohibited; for feedback, requests that come with a reward, among other things, are prohibited.
• Retaliating against competitors: Harassment is listed as an example of "Critical," and infringement reports made to get competitors' listings removed can lead to termination of your selling account.
• Letting deadlines slide: If a 3-day response window has been indicated and you don't respond within it, your account will be suspended until you complete an appeal.

Preventing recurrence: put rules and records in place together

Rules only work once they're built into daily operations and you keep records showing they were followed. The table below can also serve as a draft of the prevention measures in your appeal.

Area	Operating rule	Records to keep
Messages	Use only templates and the "Request a Review" function; new message text must be approved by a manager	A list of templates and their approval dates
Inserts and promotions	Check the text before packing, and share the policies with contractors too	Samples of inserts, records of what was shared
Pricing and shipping fees	Set an upper limit in the repricing tool and record the reason for each change	Change history
Buyer information	Delete phone numbers after shipment and limit who can handle them	Deletion records, a list of authorized staff
Registration information	Periodically check your business name and Specified Commercial Transactions Act disclosures	Check dates and what was changed

In addition, check the Account Health page and Performance Notifications regularly, and confirm in Notification Preferences (通知設定) that your emergency contact phone number is up to date. Professional sellers who meet certain conditions, such as keeping their AHR at 250 or higher for at least 6 months, become eligible for Account Health Assurance (アカウント健全性アシュアランス). As long as they get in touch within 72 hours of being contacted to resolve an issue and continue to cooperate, they won't be suspended, except in cases such as fraud.

Frequently asked questions

Q. My notice only names the Code of Conduct, and I don't know what the problem is.

A. Narrow down the conduct using the ASINs, order numbers, and dates, and check it against the pages in the reference table by area. If you still can't identify it, Professional sellers can ask an Account Health Specialist, and other sellers can use Help, Seller University (Amazon出品大学), and materials on the Seller Forums.

Q. Will my account be shut down right away even if I've received only one warning?

A. It depends on the situation. A violation that falls under the "Critical" examples drops your score to 0, and if you don't respond within the 3-day window, your account will be suspended. If harmful conduct such as fraud, deception, or illegal activity is suspected, your account may be suspended immediately regardless of your score. Even in other cases, repeated violations of the same policy can reach the limit and lead to suspension.

Q. It was something my contractor did, and I didn't know about it.

A. As noted in STEP 2, the Customer Product Reviews Policy states explicitly that action can be taken even if the seller didn't know. In other areas too, treat what your contractors do as an issue of your own oversight, and show specifically the cause and how you've revised your contract terms and checking procedures.

Q. If I take down the listing, will the violation disappear?

A. Changing the listing status alone won't remove it. Violations are removed when, for example, a dispute confirms that the determination was wrong, you take corrective action, or 180 days have passed since the violation was added. However, for accounts suspended based on the Account Health Rating, violations remain on the page even after 180 days have passed.

Q. I can no longer write reviews from my buyer account. Does this affect my selling account too?

A. Restrictions on community features are a separate system from actions on your selling account, and Amazon has not officially explained whether the two are linked, so we can't say for certain. Check whether there are any new violations or notices on your selling account, and for the buyer-account side, see what to check when you can't use your buyer account.

Summary

Here's a recap of the key points.

• Distinguish between a displayed violation, a removed listing, a 3-day response window, an account suspension, and buyer-side restrictions
• Check against the original text of the prohibited activities page and each guideline, take stock of everything down to your contractors and tools, and trace the cause down to gaps in your systems
• If the determination is wrong, file a dispute; if you accept the violation, file an appeal with the cause, the actions taken, the dates, and evidence
• Design your prevention measures as a set of rules and records, and review them regularly

If you're unsure how to proceed, consider gathering your notices and records and consulting a professional early.

*This article provides a general explanation. The appropriate response in individual cases depends on the circumstances.

Further reading

When Amazon flags product-review practices: reviewing requests and buyer communications Read article → Building an Amazon Plan of Action: root causes, corrective steps and prevention Read article → Contacting Amazon Account Health Support: preparation and questions for the call Read article →