On January 21st, we listed a product before purchasing it. After 1 or 2 days, we received a violation notification stating that the product is in the ‘Restricted Products’ category, which impacted our account health by 4 points. The listing was removed from Amazon catalog, and the product was also removed from our inventory. We need to prove that the product we listed is compliant with Amazon’s policies (see attached Notification).

Here are some interesting facts to note:

1. The product was already selling well on Amazon.
2. The product was only sold via FBM.
3. We listed the product as an FBA seller.

I believe the compliance notification mainly arose due to FBA. On the Account Health page, it mentions an issue with ‘UK_Chemicals_REACH_Annex_XVII_28_Policy,’ and something about an SDS sheet is mentioned in the corner. However, we read the compliance policy but couldn’t find the exact information. As a result, we called Account Health and explained that we just listed the product and received this notification. They advised us to reply to Amazon, stating that we listed the product in question but are not intending to sell it. However, we received the following response:

We had two options: either leave the issue as is or work on it, such as obtaining the SDS for a product we never shipped or sold. We decided to work on it and began looking into the SDS. We discovered that Amazon might require the SDS sheet to confirm that the chemical-related product we submitted does not contain hazardous levels of chemicals. The product did contain hazardous material, but after reviewing the SDS, we found that it was in a safe form overall.

We decided to take our time until we were fully confident, and then we planned to submit the SDS sheet with an explanation. Interestingly, after some time, the violation was automatically removed, our Account Health ranking improved, and the listing went live again. As a result, our account health recovered and started improving quickly.

What we concluded is that other sellers who were already selling the product had submitted the compliance documents, which led to their listings being reinstated. It seems that if another seller’s listing gets reinstated, the violation is removed from your account as well, and it has a positive impact—or vice versa.

Key Lessons:

1. Even if you never shipped or sold the product, but you listed it, you can still receive a violation notification.
2. Avoid listing products you are not confident about regarding compliance.
3. Work promptly to understand the compliance requirements and obtain the necessary documents, so you can appeal effectively.
4. If there are only FBM sellers on the listing, there might be a compliance issue with it. If you can solve this issue, you might be able to list it as FBA as well, so work on it to avoid missing the opportunity.
5. For FBM sellers who think they can avoid FBA compliance issues by just listing FBM: this is not a good strategy. If another seller lists it as FBA, your listing may get removed and a violation can appear on your account, which could impact your account health. Therefore, ensure you have the proper compliance documents and understanding, even if you’re selling as FBM.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask.