Amazon Restricted Items | Staying Compliant & Within the Law

Before you list a product on Amazon, you should be sure that it isn’t on the Amazon restricted product list. Lots of folks identify goods with little competition on the marketplace and then list them without doing their research. This kind of oversight can potentially cost you a lot of money! 

What are Amazon restricted products? Any item that Amazon prohibits sellers to list for sale no matter what, or a product that the seller needs to acquire approval for prior to selling. As you might expect, these restrictions vary based on specific geographic zones, such as with gambling or alcohol products. In other instances, Amazon’s restrictions are related to safety protocols, like with food products and automotive goods. 

The reason behind these restrictions? Amazon needs to protect itself against any liability. The platform is not the Wild West! You can’t just sell anything. That could open up Amazon or sellers to legal issues. Amazon restricted products exist so that the platform can maintain a safe and legally compliant marketplace. Anyone who lists a product that’s restricted by Amazon might negatively affect their right to further sell products on the platform. Perhaps you are curious about intention. Unfortunately, regardless of whether or not you did so knowingly, the listing of a restricted product can have negative consequences! 

How to Determine if a Product is Restricted on Amazon…

How do you find out if a product is restricted for sale on Amazon? Review the following list of everything that’s restricted, as described on the Amazon restricted products page: 

• Alcohol
• Animals & Animal-Related Products
• Art – Fine Art
• Art – Home Decor
• Automotive and powersports
• Composite Wood Products
• Cosmetics and Skin and hair care
• CPAP Cleaning and Disinfecting Devices
• Currency, Coins, Cash Equivalents, and Gift Cards
• Dietary supplements
• Drugs and drug paraphernalia
• Electronics
• Explosives, weapons, and related items
• Export Controls
• Food & Beverage
• Gambling & Lottery
• Hazardous and prohibited items
• Human Parts & Burial Artifacts
• Jewelry & Precious Gems
• Laser products
• Lighting
• Lock Picking & Theft Devices
• Medical devices and accessories
• Offensive and Controversial Materials
• Other restricted products
• Pest control products and pesticides
• Plant and Seed Products
• Postage meters and stamps
• Prohibited Product Claims
• Recalled products
• Recycling electronics
• Refrigerants: Ozone-Depleting Substances and Substitutes
• Strike anywhere matches
• Surveillance Equipment
• Tobacco & Tobacco-Related Products
• Warranties, Service Plans, Contracts, and Guarantees
• Upholstered Furniture, Bedding, & Other Quilted Products
• Federal Emissions – Products requiring EPA Certificate of Conformity
• Children’s footwear
• Children’s apparel
• Automotive tires, wheels, and rims

Understanding Amazon Restricted Item Categories

Are these restricted product categories easy to understand? A number of them are. Others are slightly confusing or complicated because of things like packaging or labeling rules. There’s also the category called “Other restricted products,” which encompasses prohibited listings ranging from Confederate flag merchandise to products containing asbestos to the Magic Wine Decanter. 

We would assume that most Amazon sellers don’t wish to violate the rules. Combing through the Amazon restricted product list can be quite exhausting. We know! Even if you read each and every restricted product and the details related to them, you may not be able to distill what you can or can’t list for sale. In order to maintain compliance with Amazon and the legal side of selling, you may want to familiarize yourself with a selection of the restricted products, specifically those categories that apply to your offerings. 

Familiarize Yourself With Restrictions Related to Your Products

Whatever products you sell on Amazon, you should carefully examine any restrictions that are relevant to those goods. This is especially crucial for any goods in a category that have requirements that are regulatory, like cosmetics or food. You’ll want to avoid breaking any laws, intentionally or not, so as to maintain your standing on Amazon and be able to continue selling products. If you need to obtain permission from Amazon to sell a product, do that! Of course, any goods that are illegal can’t be sold on the platform. But, you should also take into consideration those products that you can sell, if you first get Amazon approval. Do this before you list the goods for sale! 

To get Amazon’s approval to sell a restricted product that’s in their database, you simply take three steps. 1) After you’ve logged into your Seller Central account, click Catalog, followed by Add Products. 2) Search for whatever goods you intend to sell and click the link that reads Show Limitations. 3) Lastly, click Apply to Sell and go through the necessary steps. What about restricted goods that aren’t in Amazon’s database? For those products, you can apply for approval based on the relevant category. 

Yet another proactive step Amazon sellers can take is to maintain an awareness of any product recalls. Recalled products should be removed from your listings as soon as possible. Also, sometimes sellers list products that are restricted by accident. Once you identify this kind of mistake, you should remove that listing immediately! 

Legal Counsel Can Protect Your Business

Want to use an extremely effective method for protecting your business from Amazon restricted product complications? Use the power of legal counsel! The law that applies today may not be that which applies tomorrow. Laws, frankly, change. Amazon sellers should keep themselves informed of whatever laws and legal regulations apply to the products they are selling. Having an attorney can overwhelmingly streamline your online selling operation. Not only that, lawyers can prevent you from doing something on Amazon that you shouldn’t, which will ultimately save you money. 

Our team at Stockman & Poropat, PLLC can be the legal counsel you need to achieve great success as an Amazon seller! Have any confusion about how to stay compliant when it comes to Amazon restricted products? Contact us today for a free consultation! We can both help clear up any issues you’ve already faced and/or prevent you from making a costly mistake in the future. 

Up next we will be discussing Amazon Brand Protection.