Amazon Fair Pricing Policy

Amazon wants the prices in its store to remain reasonable and competitive for customers. To ensure this, it applies the Fair Pricing Policy. The main target of the policy is prices that are clearly above a product's usual value and harm customers. Selling more cheaply than your competitors is not what this policy is about; the problem is an unjustified, excessively high price.

In this article we explain what the policy targets, which situations can count as a violation, what happens when you receive a warning and how you can reduce the risk.

What does the Fair Pricing Policy target?

Amazon monitors the prices in its store regularly. The basic idea of the policy is this: the price you ask for a product on Amazon should be reasonable compared with the price at which you sell the same product outside Amazon (your own website or other retailers) or recently sold it on Amazon. Amazon does not publish an official percentage for what counts as "too much" of a difference; the percentages circulating online are not official.

Which situations can count as a violation?

• Being much cheaper on other channels: Your Amazon price staying high while the same product is clearly cheaper on your own site or at another retailer.
• A sudden, unexplained price increase: An unjustified jump compared with the price you recently charged.
• Inflated shipping or handling fees: A shipping charge that raises the total amount even though the product price looks reasonable.
• Excessive prices during shortages: Unusual price increases on essential products during periods such as a pandemic or a natural disaster (price gouging).
• Technical errors: Currency mix-ups, decimal errors, a wrongly prepared bulk price file or wrongly configured repricer rules.

In addition, Amazon can deactivate offers entered far below the product's usual price, that is, offers suspected of a pricing error. This is a separate protection mechanism, but in the end it also leads to your offers being taken down.

What happens if you receive a warning?

• The offer is deactivated: The offer or listing whose price is found to be a problem can be taken down.
• The featured offer (Buy Box) is lost: If Amazon considers your price unreasonable, your sales drop quickly.
• Account Health is affected: Pricing warnings can be reflected in your account's health metrics.
• Account risk with repeated violations: The same problem recurring can lead to selling privileges being restricted, or even to the account being suspended.

Steps you can take when you receive a pricing warning

1. Review the notification. Note which ASINs have been flagged and which price they were compared with.
2. Find the cause. Was it a pricing error, a cost increase, a discount on another channel, or a repricer rule?
3. Correct the price. If necessary, bring the price down to a reasonable level and reactivate the offer.
4. Write down the root cause and the safeguard. If an appeal is needed, explain clearly the problem, the correction and the concrete steps that prevent it from recurring. Our guide How to write a Plan of Action explains these three sections in detail.
5. Set up a control mechanism. Immediately put in place price limits and checks that will prevent the same error from happening again.

Preventive checklist

• Define a minimum and maximum price for each product in your repricing tools.
• Test bulk price files with a few products before uploading them; check the currency and decimal places.
• Compare your Amazon prices periodically with your own website and your other sales channels.
• Keep shipping and handling fees reasonable.
• When exchange rates or costs change, update prices gradually rather than with sudden jumps.
• Monitor your Account Health page and pricing warnings weekly.

Frequently asked questions

Do I have to sell more cheaply than my competitors?

No. The policy does not force you to be the cheapest; its aim is to prevent excessively high, unjustified prices.

Can a very low price also be a problem?

The Fair Pricing Policy targets high prices. However, an offer entered far below the usual price can be deactivated on suspicion of a pricing error. Also, a low price does not remove the need to follow the rules set by the brand owner and other policies.

What percentage is the price difference threshold?

Amazon does not publish an official threshold. So rather than relying on a particular percentage, it is healthier to keep your prices reasonable and consistent.

Does a warning mean my account will be suspended?

One-off issues that are fixed quickly usually stay at the offer level. Repeated violations, however, increase the account risk; that is why it is important to take every warning seriously and fix the root cause.

If you have received a pricing warning or want to have your account's status checked, see our Fair Pricing Policy Violation service or book a one-to-one meeting with Orçun Uyar. For the general framework of your selling behavior, see our article on the Seller Code of Conduct, and for the overall picture of why accounts are closed, Why does Amazon suspend accounts?