Latest updates and announcements for Amazon sellers and vendors. Updated daily from verified sources.
At unBoxed on September 29, Amazon Ads renamed its ad platform Amazon Ads Agent and brought three campaign types together there: sponsored ads remain their own type, Full-Funnel Campaigns combine sponsored ads, display, video and streaming TV in one campaign whose delivery the AI optimizes toward new-to-brand customers and long-term sales (available now to all advertisers in the US), and DVA+ merges Sponsored Display, Sponsored TV and programmatic campaigns. According to PPC Land, DVA+ currently runs as a closed beta in the US, an open beta is due in late October and general availability across 35 markets is targeted for Q1 2027; a new chat also applies targeting, bid and budget recommendations for Sponsored Products in one click. Action items: Sponsored Display advertisers should save cost, new-to-brand share and TACoS contribution per campaign now as a baseline for the switch to DVA+, and chat recommendations for Sponsored Products should only be applied after checking them against your own bid limits and target TACoS, not blindly in one click.
On September 28, one day after the deadline for the EU's harmonized legal guarantee notice and commercial guarantee label, Onlinehändler-News tested the major marketplaces: on Amazon it found no label on product detail pages or in checkout, only a subtle reference to the statutory warranty hidden behind “Mehr anzeigen” (see more) in the right-hand sidebar. Otto and Kaufland did not show the required information either, with Kaufland's announced “Garantie-Informationen” section missing, eBay did best with a label in the sidebar below the buy buttons, and mixed results on Etsy point to an ongoing rollout; the report contains no statement from Amazon but warns that the risk of legal complaints grows as long as the platforms do not fix this. Action items: sellers should check their own product pages on every EU marketplace, enter guarantee details in the platform's editor for durability guarantees longer than two years so the label appears once the display works, and keep dated screenshots as evidence of what the platform showed at the time.
According to Onlinemarktplatz.de, the EU Data Act's pre-contractual information duties for connected products such as smart thermostats, robot vacuums, fitness watches, wall boxes or smart TVs have applied since September 12, 2025: before the purchase, the seller must state which data the device generates, in which format and estimated volume, whether the data is generated continuously in real time, where and for how long it is stored, and how buyers can access it, for example via an app, customer account or download. The duty lies with the contracting party, so on marketplaces with the third-party seller rather than the manufacturer, and for vendor goods it can lie with Amazon itself; a mere reference to the manufacturer or a vague more-information link is not enough, violations can have civil and competition law consequences according to Germany's Federal Network Agency, and the September 12, 2026 deadline only concerned the data-accessible design of newly marketed devices. Action items: sellers of connected products should request the six details per ASIN from the manufacturer and add them product-specifically to the listing itself, for example in the product description, since external links are not allowed on Amazon detail pages.
On September 28 Onlinehändler-News bundled the legal deadlines for the final quarter: from November 20 the transposition of the new EU Consumer Credit Directive brings stricter creditworthiness checks and disclosure duties for buy now, pay later and installment purchases, which will then also cover interest-free models and small loans, and from December 9 at the latest the modernized product liability law applies, under which software and AI systems count as products and strict liability also extends to deleted or damaged private data. From December 30 large and medium-sized companies must prove under the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) that raw materials such as wood, cocoa, soy, rubber or coffee do not come from deforested land, with micro and small companies following in June 2027; how Amazon will handle its extended holiday returns this year is still open, according to the report. Action items: sellers with their own web shop should align checkout, terms and financing banners with their payment provider, sellers of smart devices and other products with software should review their update processes and product liability cover before December 9, and anyone selling goods made from EUDR commodities should request origin evidence from suppliers now.
According to the Amazon Shopper Report 2026 by Remazing and Appinio, which surveyed 6,000 people aged 16 to 65 in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the UK and the US in May, only 23 percent of Amazon shoppers recognize the top search results as paid placements; 25 percent take them for the best-matching products, 24 percent for bestsellers, and 74 percent would in principle buy a sponsored product, 71 percent in Germany. At the same time, 63 percent of Amazon shoppers use external AI tools, mainly ChatGPT and Gemini, 43 percent for research and comparisons and another 20 percent to find a direct product link, and 47 percent now know Amazon's assistant Rufus, 19 points more than in 2025; these are survey answers, not measured purchases. Action items: before Prime Big Deal Days on October 6 and 7, check the placement report to confirm that the top-revenue keywords run at the top of search, and write titles, bullet points and A+ content so that AI assistants can pick up use case, dimensions and differences from competitors directly.
After the Trump-Xi summit in Washington, the US and China extended their trade truce, which would have expired on November 10, by two months to January 10, 2027, and on September 27 the White House published the lists for reciprocal tariff cuts on roughly 30 billion dollars of goods each under the new U.S.-China Board of Trade. The US import list names 77 Chinese products, including toys, Christmas decorations, tableware and kitchenware, sporting goods, child car seats and small appliances such as microwaves and toasters; the size and timing of the cuts are still open and will be set under each country's domestic procedures. Action items: US sellers sourcing from China should match their HTS codes against the list, keep costing Q4 at today's rates because no cut has been decided yet, and plan Q1 2027 purchase orders in two scenarios, since the truce now ends on January 10.
Since September 20 sellers on Amazon.co.uk have been reporting unusually many orders stuck in Pending status, mostly for items priced at £100 or more: the quantity is deducted from available stock right away, sellers cannot cancel these orders themselves, and one seller reported 72 of them worth around £25,000 within three days. According to The Register, affected sellers suspect deliberate stock locking through bogus orders, but there is no evidence yet of intent rather than a glitch; Amazon has not commented officially, and a forum post only says the case has been escalated to its partner teams. Action items: anyone selling in the UK should check pending orders on high-priced ASINs daily ahead of Q4 and report anomalies to Seller Support with order IDs and a link to the forum threads, since Support initially claimed no other sellers had reported the issue.
On September 24 Amazon introduced multichannel selling tools in Seller Central: sellers connect their eBay, Shopify, TikTok and Walmart accounts, import their live listings from those channels, see orders and sales from every channel in one place and send off-Amazon orders through Amazon's fulfillment network in a few clicks, with tracking flowing back automatically. A per-channel profitability view that includes ad spend and product copy that is edited once and reformatted for each channel are next; the rollout comes at no additional cost, runs gradually over the coming months and is limited to sellers in the US store for now. Action items: US sellers can switch it on via the multichannel page in the Settings menu and should decide before Q4 how much FBA stock to release for off-Amazon orders so their Amazon availability does not suffer; EU sellers should watch for the expansion.
On September 24 Amazon unveiled new tools for selling internationally: with Global Warehousing and Distribution (GWD), sellers ship one production run to an Amazon facility near their factory, and stock moves into a country only when demand shows up there, flowing straight into local FBA; by year-end GWD adds the UK, Japan, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Canada to the US, with storage costs up to 45 percent below US AWD and FBA replenishment up to five days faster, according to Amazon. Alongside it come one-submission compliance testing that certifies for several countries at once (toys first, electronics and baby products by year-end, with pilot sellers reporting up to 60 percent lower compliance costs), end-to-end shipment tracking with one reconciled unit count, and Seller Assistant agents for aged inventory and inbound planning. Action items: brands that manufacture in Asia and supply several marketplaces should model GWD against today's per-country shipments once European terms are published, and toy sellers should plan the new testing route into their next certification.
On September 24 Amazon Supply Chain Services launched two offers for merchants selling in the US: MCF customers can add Prime delivery to their own web shop at no cost beyond standard MCF fees, the Prime badge shows on product pages, returns and customer service stay with the merchant, and among early adopters more than 40 percent of eligible orders shipped with Prime delivery on average. In parallel, the MCF Preferred Pricing Program cuts fulfillment fees for orders from the merchant's own site, other marketplaces and social channels by 15 to 25 percent for the first six months, tiered by volume, with no contract and one-click enrollment in Seller Central. Action items: US merchants on Shopify can switch on Prime delivery through the “Amazon MCF and Buy with Prime” app and should enroll in the discount program before Q4; the announcement covers the US only.
From September 27 the EU's EmpCo directive applies in Germany through the unfair competition act (UWG): generic green claims such as “eco-friendly”, “sustainable” or “climate-friendly” are only allowed with specific, verifiable details, a claim may not stand for the whole product if it only concerns one part, and “climate neutral” is off-limits if it relies solely on carbon offsetting. Seals are only permitted if a recognised certification scheme with independent third-party verification or a public authority stands behind them, and sellers who copy manufacturer copy or product images carrying seals may be liable themselves; a transitional rule for old stock under discussion in the Bundestag would only cover goods and packaging already placed on the market, not product copy in web shops or on marketplaces. Action items: before the deadline, search the titles, bullet points, A+ content and images of every listing for environmental claims and seals, and remove or substantiate right there anything that cannot be proven.
According to My Amazon Guy, Amazon now shows a label such as “Wilson approved” on third-party offers when the brand has connected that seller in Brand Registry with the Reseller role; only the brand owner assigns the role, can revoke it at any time, and it unlocks brand benefits such as A+ content and Brand Stores on a limited basis, without Brand Analytics access. The approval is a separate process from ungating restricted brands, and Amazon has neither announced removing non-approved sellers nor said that the role or the label affects the Buy Box. Action items for brand owners: check under Manage > Manage selling accounts in Brand Registry which accounts hold the Reseller role, assign it to authorised distributors via their merchant token and remove it from former partners.
Amazon Ads is testing an “Increase Conversions” option in the additional settings of the Sponsored Products campaign builder: when it is checked, Amazon also launches a Sponsored Brands collections campaign on the same keywords, as a separate campaign with its own bids, whose targets, bids and name can still be edited before launch. That explains why some sellers find Sponsored Brands campaigns in their accounts that they never consciously built; it requires Brand Registry and at least three related products, and in Amazon's US tests collection ads at the top of search delivered 44 percent more conversions than the previous format. Action items: review the additional settings deliberately whenever you create new SP campaigns, bring auto-created SB campaigns in line with your naming convention and bidding logic, and judge them by TACoS rather than ACoS alone.
At Accelerate 2026, Amazon expanded Seller Assistant: it now remembers pricing patterns, inventory cycles and growth goals and monitors the account around the clock through automations, such as an alert when a top seller drops below 4 stars; actions only run with the seller's approval. A new Selling Partner plugin connects listings, performance metrics, inventory and sales data to Amazon Quick and Claude, in beta and for now only in Amazon's US stores, and every primary account holder worldwide can claim a free 12-month Amazon Quick Plus subscription through December 31, 2026, with two more users included at no cost. Action items: activate the free subscription before year end so your setup is ready when the plugin reaches Europe, and start automations as alerts only before letting them change prices or budgets.
On September 10, Germany's conference of state finance ministers agreed that from January 1, 2030 importers will no longer pay import VAT to customs but declare it in their VAT return and deduct it as input VAT in the same step, which ends the prefinancing. A summer draft listed a German VAT registration, full input VAT deduction, a business identification number (W-IdNr.) and a permanent filing extension (Dauerfristverlängerung) as conditions, with small businesses excluded; the federal law and the final criteria are still pending. Action items: keep prefinanced import VAT on non-EU imports in your cash flow plan until then, and check now whether you already have the filing extension and a business identification number.
Anyone selling jewellery on Amazon in the EU must provide either a REACH declaration of conformity or a full heavy-metal test report from an accepted lab; after a failed spot test only the test report will do. The checks cover cadmium below 0.01 percent by weight, lead below 0.05 percent and nickel release (0.2 µg/cm² per week for piercing posts, 0.5 for prolonged skin contact). Action items: match every document exactly to the ASIN and variant, upload it as a non-editable PDF in an official EU language and renew it whenever the supplier or material changes.
According to trade press reports, Amazon is reviewing around 20,000 seller accounts under Section 3 of its Business Solutions Agreement ahead of peak season, including long-established ones: listings go inactive and disbursements are held until the legal representative passes a live video verification. Triggers include mismatches between entity, address, owner and bank data, or a representative who cannot explain daily operations. Action items: reconcile account information with company registry and bank records now, keep original documents ready and make sure the named representative is available for a video call at short notice.
From January 1, 2027, German companies with more than €800,000 in prior-year revenue must issue domestic B2B invoices as structured e-invoices (XRechnung or ZUGFeRD 2.0.1 and later); from 2028 the duty applies across the board. Pure B2C sellers are affected too, for example on Amazon Business orders from German companies or their own invoices to service providers. Action items: check 2026 revenue against the threshold, confirm whether your invoicing tool (e.g. AmaInvoice or Amazon's invoicing service) produces e-invoices for B2B orders and adjust archiving accordingly.
Based on Executive Order 14411 of June 3, 2026, US Customs and Border Protection is scrutinising who acts as importer of record more closely; sellers expect noticeable effects such as container holds from November, in the middle of peak season. Sellers who let a forwarder, supplier or third-party service act as importer are most exposed. Action items: pull your last three CBP Form 7501 entries, get written confirmation of the named importer and its standing, and move Q4 inbound shipments to the US forward.
Since September 17 every Sponsored Products campaign in ten European countries (Germany, the UK, France, Italy, Spain, Ireland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Poland and Sweden) is set to “increase reach outside of Amazon” automatically, with no action taken by the advertiser. Ads therefore also serve on third-party websites and apps such as Pinterest and inside Influencer Program creator content, using the bids and budgets that were calculated for Amazon search. Action items: check the placement report for how much spend and what conversion rate this traffic accounts for, and use a bulk file to switch campaigns without a convincing result back to “limit reach to Amazon” instead of simply letting the default run.
The European Commission is asking third-party sellers whether Amazon penalises them through price-parity mechanisms when they offer lower prices on their own shop or on rival marketplaces. The review runs under the Digital Markets Act and is still at an early stage. Sellers who have documented Buy Box losses or reduced visibility after cheaper offers on other channels should keep that evidence organised now.
Miele is stepping up action against Amazon and eBay sellers who distribute vacuum bags meant for non-EU markets without consent, advertise Chinese goods as a German brand or use invented RRP strike-through prices. Claims range from €3,000 to €4,000. Sellers should review origin statements, flag imagery and reference prices in their listings and source only from verifiably EU-authorised channels.
For shipments arriving at EU fulfillment centers since September 1, Amazon requires non-EU-based sellers to provide the import data of the country where goods were first cleared: the Movement Reference Number (MRN) and the EORI number. This applies to Pan-EU sellers for every EU inbound and to non-Pan-EU sellers shipping directly to France; if the data is still missing after 60 days, Amazon can block new shipments to EU warehouses. Action item: request MRN and EORI per import from your forwarder or customs broker and attach them to the shipment plan so Q4 replenishment does not stall.
According to the Händlerbund warning letter study 2026, published on September 16, 9% of the 335 surveyed merchants received a warning letter in the past year; 48% of cases concern competition law, 23% of which involve incorrect unit price disclosures, while 26% concern copyright (almost always unlicensed images) and around 20% trademark law. Amazon and eBay together account for only a third of cases, and costs ran between 1,001 and 2,000 euros for 41% of those affected and above 3,000 euros for 19%. Action items for marketplace sellers: check unit prices per variation, document image licenses for all listing and A+ images, and match health claims in titles and bullets against the permitted claims.
On August 4 the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit vacated the preliminary injunction a district court had granted in March, which barred Perplexity's Comet AI shopping agent from accessing amazon.com (case 26-1444); PPC Land put the ruling into a retail context on September 16. The decisive question was who accesses Amazon's systems for the purposes of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act: because the requests originate from the logged-in customer's own machine rather than from Perplexity's servers, the user is the one accessing the site, which removes Amazon's hacking argument, while terms of service, rate limiting and technical blocking remain available as tools. What this means for sellers: agent-driven purchases on Amazon cannot be litigated away under US federal computer crime law, the access question moves into contracts and interfaces, and product data should be maintained so that an agent without image access can reliably read size, quantity, material and compatibility from the text alone.
On September 15 Onlinehaendler-News clarified that a PO box does not satisfy the GPSR manufacturer address requirement: what the rule asks for is an address where consumers and authorities can actually serve documents, and a PO box allows this neither by bailiff nor by registered mail. Sellers who do not want their private address shown in the listing and on the product can instead use a registered address or imprint service that provides a genuine, serviceable business address. Action items: for every own-brand ASIN review the manufacturer details in the listing as well as on the product and packaging, and replace any PO box with a serviceable address, because exactly this kind of documentation slip keeps showing up as individual cases in the German warning letter monitor.
Amazon's DSA transparency report to the EU Commission for the first half of 2026 shows monthly active users declining: across the EU from 195.2 to 193.9 million, in Germany to 52.8 million (down 1.7 percent), in France to 38.8 million (down 4.0 percent), in Italy to 38.1 million (down 0.1 percent) and in Spain to 27.9 million (down 1.0 percent), while the Netherlands grew 4.0 percent to 6.6 million. Important context: the figures count everyone using the platform rather than buyers, so a 1.7 percent drop is not a revenue signal but an indication that additional growth in Germany has to come from taking share rather than from a growing market. Action items: the only growing country on the list coincides with the Pan-EU requirement to offer on Amazon.nl that has applied since September 3, so check your Dutch listings for complete translation, images and keywords instead of merely switching them on.
Amazon has officially scheduled Prime Big Deal Days for October 6 and 7, 2026, 48 hours of Prime member deals across 22 countries including Germany, Austria, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Poland and the UK, with dates that may vary by country. Separately, a Seller Central update from September 8 extended the submission window for Best Deals, Lightning Deals, Prime Exclusive Discounts and coupons by 14 days to September 22; fees stay at USD 100 per promotion plus 1.5 percent of promotional sales, and the early submission discount has expired. Action items: submit deal candidates by September 22 at the latest, confirm the deadline for your own marketplace in Seller Central, and raise PPC budgets for October 6 and 7 ahead of time so campaigns do not run dry by midday on the event days.
On September 10 Amazon and OpenAI started a US pilot that lets Amazon DSP buyers run ads inside ChatGPT without Amazon owning or hosting the surface, with Delta Vacations named as the first advertiser testing the conversational ad format. What is missing is exactly what retail budgets depend on: Amazon has so far said nothing about how a conversational impression is measured, how it is deduplicated against other DSP placements or how it is tied to a purchase, and nothing about pricing or eligibility either. Action items: treat this as a watch item and move no budget out of running DSP lines until Amazon evidences attribution, deduplication and pricing, since nothing changes for German accounts for now because the pilot is limited to the US.
On September 10 Onlinehaendler-News set out how the marketplaces are technically implementing the statutory warranty and guarantee label that becomes mandatory on September 27: Amazon shows the statutory warranty notice automatically on all EU product pages and generates the GARAN label only where sellers supply structured data on brand, model and guarantee duration, meaning only for manufacturer guarantees running longer than two years. Kaufland displays the label automatically in the lower part of the product page and pulls the details from the seller portal, CSV, XML or API, Kleinanzeigen generates it through an integrated editor, and eBay had not commented by the time of publication. What matters in practice: despite the platform automation it is the seller who receives the warning letter, so by September 27 write brand, model number and duration cleanly into the listing data for every advertised manufacturer guarantee and then verify on the product page that the notice and the label actually appear.
In a judgment dated August 27, 2026 (docket 5 U 58/25) the Hamburg Higher Regional Court held that the Wish marketplace is liable for counterfeit GHD branded goods as a perpetrator rather than a neutral host: the listings ran in the platform's uniform layout, the individual seller was not recognisable to buyers, and the platform's terms allowed it to adjust prices on its own. The court attributed knowledge of the counterfeits to the platform because it operates its own verification programme and goods worth 200 to 300 euros were offered there for roughly 35 euros; GHD is awarded damages plus disclosure of sellers and sales figures. Action items for brand owners: when your own ASINs are counterfeited, do not chase only the anonymous sellers but name the platform too, and document the page layout, the missing seller identification and the price gap to the original by screenshot while the listing is still live.
On September 8 the German government proposed postponing parts of the EU Packaging Regulation that has applied since August 12, 2026: the duty to register shipping packaging separately in every EU country would only take effect once the EU Commission provides a single unified registration system, at the earliest in mid 2028. It also proposes exempting sellers with less than 10 tonnes of packaging waste per year and per EU country from appointing a separate authorised representative in each country, because at low volumes those fees regularly exceed the value of the goods sold. What matters in practice: this is a proposal and not law, Council and Parliament still have to agree, and until then the legal position established on August 12 stands unchanged, even though the EU Commission has advised member states to hold back on enforcement. Action items: do not cancel running registrations or representative contracts, sign new per-country contracts only where your shipping genuinely forces it, and start documenting your packaging volume per country now so the 10 tonne threshold can be evidenced later.
Amazon has switched on Business Deals, a discount type reserved for registered business customers that runs through the Price Discounts tool in Seller Central and calculates against the Business Price rather than the public list price; it is live in ten marketplaces including Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the UK, reaching what Amazon states are more than 11 million registered business accounts. Only offers with a configured Business Price, new condition and a rating of at least 3.5 stars qualify, the minimum discount is 10 percent and rises to 15 percent during high velocity events such as Prime Big Deal Days, Black Friday and Cyber Monday, with durations from one hour up to 30 days. Action items: before the Q4 season check which ASINs carry a Business Price at all, calculate contribution margin per item against the extra B2B discount instead of assuming the consumer margin, and reserve the additional email and push distribution, which runs without a stated extra cost until December 31, 2026, for items where volume actually covers the margin given away.
On September 8 Amazon Shipping, Amazon's own carrier service for seller-fulfilled parcels, published its peak surcharges for the US market: they run from October 25, 2026 to January 16, 2027, with the highest tier applying from November 22 to December 26. During the peak window the per-package demand surcharge rises from 0.50 to 0.75 US dollars, additional handling from 8.75 to 11.90, the large package fee from 96.25 to 117.50 and the extra heavy package fee from 530 to 590 US dollars, each applied automatically on top of contracted rates and in the US market only, since Amazon Shipping runs separate rate cards for the UK, France, Italy, Spain and India. Action items: these surcharges are separate from the FBA peak fulfilment fee that starts on October 15, so build them into the Q4 costing per parcel class for US seller-fulfilled orders and check bulky or heavy items against the 117.50 and 590 US dollar levels before they ship during the peak window.
On September 7 Wortfilter set out when a marketplace ban in a supplier's terms actually binds a seller: since June 1, 2022 the EU Vertical Block Exemption has permitted such platform bans in principle, as long as neither supplier nor buyer exceeds a 30 percent market share, but being lawful does not automatically make a ban enforceable. A seller who no longer buys from the manufacturer is not captured by newly introduced terms, and remaining stock is covered by trademark exhaustion because the goods leave the manufacturer's control with the first sale; bans are further open to challenge where the manufacturer sells on those platforms itself, applies the rule unevenly, or bans price comparison sites along with marketplaces. Action items: on a takedown demand do not confirm compliance, record in writing that the supply relationship ended and what stock remains, keep the purchase invoices for that stock, and argue exhaustion towards the platform rather than pulling the listing as a precaution.
Effective November 2, 2026 Amazon is removing the sales threshold behind its liability insurance requirement for categories with enhanced safety listing requirements: anyone listing there needs cover from the first sale, not only once monthly sales pass 10,000 US dollars. Required are 1 million US dollars per occurrence and in the annual aggregate, a deductible of no more than 10,000 US dollars and Amazon.com Services LLC named as additional insured, and the policy has to cover the entire Amazon catalogue rather than only the regulated items; trade coverage counts eleven affected categories including children's products, supplements, cosmetics, lithium battery items, small kitchen appliances, mattresses and tyres, while sellers based in Mainland China must place new policies through Amazon's Insurance Accelerator. Action items: reconcile the catalogue including inactive and discontinued ASINs against the category list, check the insurance status in Seller Central and get quotes now, because the premium bites hardest on accounts with only a few items in an affected category and can make individual slow movers unprofitable.
On September 4 Onlinehaendler-News set out that advertising with PPWR compliant, with phrases such as this shop meets the EU packaging regulation, or with self-made eco seals breaches German unfair competition law, because selling a statutory obligation as a special benefit is not permitted; the PPWR has applied directly across the EU since August 12, 2026. What stays allowed is anything that goes beyond the legal minimum and can be evidenced, for example a higher recycled content share than required, while vague claims such as climate friendly packaging or future promises without a published implementation plan are open to attack. Action items: by September 27 review listings, A+ content, packaging print and shipment inserts for sustainability claims, back every remaining claim with a certificate and its scope, and delete anything that merely restates what the law already demands.
In a judgment dated March 27, 2025 (docket 327 O 222/24) the Hamburg Regional Court classified electric toothbrushes as hygiene products: once the sealed packaging is opened after delivery, the right of withdrawal lapses. What matters, the court held, is not an objective health hazard but direct contact with body areas that transmit germs plus whether the buying public would still use a device returned in opened condition; the reasoning should carry over to electric razors, epilators and shaver heads, though no ruling covers those items yet. Action items: check the affected ASINs for a genuinely recognisable seal, because plain outer packaging is not enough for the court, and put the exclusion notice visibly on the seal and into your withdrawal terms before the Q4 return wave arrives.
The warning letter monitor of September 4 lists three cases that bear directly on marketplace sellers: Ledlenser is pursuing a seller who gave a wrong manufacturer website under the GPSR, stated deviating delivery times and used third-party product photos and copy; the Verband Sozialer Wettbewerb is claiming 416.50 euros over missing biocide warnings, missing hazard labelling and missing unit prices; and Lauterer Wettbewerb is claiming 357 euros over contradictory energy efficiency classes on light bulbs. What stands out is that there is no broad GPSR crackdown, only individual documentation errors being enforced, and those are exactly the errors created by building listings from templates and unchecked supplier data. Action items: reconcile the GPSR fields per ASIN against official manufacturer sources, spot check unit prices and mandatory notices in sensitive categories such as biocides and lighting, and use only your own or contractually licensed product images.
Since September 3, 2026 Amazon has been part of the YouTube Shopping affiliate programme: creators can tag Amazon products directly in videos, Shorts and livestreams, either manually from a still limited product selection or through auto-tagging, where YouTube identifies eligible items itself. For brands this removes the detour through the link in the video description, but early feedback from affiliates tempers expectations: the taggable selection is small, conversion through YouTube tags has been low so far, and creators need full channel monetisation plus enrolment in several programmes. Action items: check whether your own ASINs are taggable at all, move existing creator partnerships onto the new format, and keep YouTube traffic cleanly separated from your other off-Amazon traffic before you move budget into this channel.
On September 2 Amazon DSP switched on support for VAST 4.0 through 4.3 on third-party publisher inventory in 34 countries, among them the US, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, 17 European markets, seven Middle Eastern countries and six in Asia Pacific. The bidder reads per impression which version the publisher's video player handles and serves the highest compatible one; publishers still on VAST 2 or 3 keep receiving those versions, and there is no migration, no deadline and no change to campaign setup. What this opens up is premium video inventory from publishers that require VAST 4, but Amazon's own properties such as Stores and Fire TV stay on VAST 2/3, so events from the two inventory types land in different technical schemas. Action items: change nothing, but on video campaigns spanning both inventory types read the metrics separately, so that a pure reach gain is not mistaken for a performance effect.
Since September 1, 2026 the French fast fashion act of July 8, 2026 has been in force, modulating EPR eco-contributions on textiles by catalogue breadth, offer frequency and repairability: the 2026 penalty runs from 0.25 to 12 euros per item and rises to between 2 and 20 euros by 2030. It captures anyone selling clothing, footwear or home textiles into France regardless of where the company sits, and it adds a duty to state manufacturing locations right next to the price in the same font size, a requirement to appoint a representative established in France for EPR handling, and from January 1, 2027 an advertising ban on ultra fast fashion including a ban on promoting such items as free, which also binds influencers. Action items: list your textile ASINs on Amazon.fr, check with your EPR provider whether the new modulation hits your own costing, get the French representative confirmed in writing and plan the manufacturing-location statement into your product pages, because the concrete thresholds only arrive with the implementing decrees.
From September 11, 2026 the EU Cyber Resilience Act requires a three-stage notification for actively exploited vulnerabilities and severe security incidents: an early warning within 24 hours of discovery, a detailed report within 72 hours and a final report once the issue is fixed, with penalties of up to 15 million euros or 2.5 percent of worldwide annual turnover. What decides the exposure for marketplace sellers is the role, not the country of production: selling a connected product under your own brand or substantially modifying it makes you the manufacturer with the full reporting duty, while reselling unmodified third-party brands triggers the lighter distributor or importer duties, and the obligation covers products that have long been on the market. Action items: filter your catalogue for items with digital functions (Bluetooth, WiFi, app connection, USB data transfer), record your role for each one, set up a reporting path with a named owner and contractually bind suppliers to security updates, before full conformity assessment follows on December 11, 2027.
From September 3, 2026 Amazon requires an active offer on Amazon.nl for Pan-EU FBA, now covering every product in the programme rather than only those added since mid 2025; Belgium follows on February 26, 2027, there for new registrations only. You do not need stock in the Netherlands, only the live listing counts, and exemptions apply to products that may not legally be sold there, that miss local labelling requirements, or that have no product detail page at all. Action items: before September 3, reconcile your Pan-EU ASINs against the .nl catalogue and create the missing offers, because without an active NL offer the affected product drops out of Pan-EU pricing and is billed cross-border through the European Fulfilment Network, which noticeably raises per-unit fulfilment costs.
The classic Sponsored Brands product collection format with brand logo, custom headline and lifestyle image is being retired: since the rollout on January 28, 2026 new campaigns run as Sponsored Brands collections with three to ten ASINs, no lifestyle image and an optional logo, either as a manual collection with keyword and product targeting or as an automatic collection where Amazon's AI picks the products and only keyword targeting remains. According to My Amazon Guy, from September 2026 newly created product collections convert automatically into manual collections and the Ad Optimizer stops building product collections, with the old format shut down entirely in January 2027; existing campaigns keep running until then. Action items: review your live Sponsored Brands campaigns for product collections, pull the current bulk templates because the columns change for the new format, and decide per product line whether to run manual or automatic selection before the switch is forced on you.
On August 31 the FTC and 22 state attorneys general sued Amazon in federal court in Seattle (case 2:26-cv-03097): the complaint alleges that since 2019 Amazon has quietly added a markup its own documents call a soft reserve price to its ad auctions, overcharging some 1.2 million advertising customers by roughly 20 billion dollars while publicly describing the auction as a second-price mechanism. According to the filing, the share of clicks billed at the advertiser's full own bid rose from 4 percent in late 2020 to 79.1 percent in 2024, and by 2024 Sponsored Brands winners paid exactly their own bid half the time; Amazon rejects the claims and points to inflation-adjusted cost per click staying flat. The case formally covers US accounts only, but the bidding logic behind it is the same everywhere. Action items: stop modelling bids as a pure second-price auction, measure the CPC actually paid per campaign against the maximum bid you set, and cap automated bid adjustments with hard ceilings.
In a judgment dated July 17, 2026 (docket 38 O 219/25) the Duesseldorf Regional Court held that a struck-through recommended retail price must not create the impression of a genuine price cut; the case concerned a bathroom mirror advertised as 55 percent off against the higher manufacturer price. Comparing your price to the RRP stays permissible, but it has to be recognisable as a comparison rather than a reduction, because once you advertise a cut, German price indication rules make the lowest price of the past 30 days the reference; case law is inconsistent here, with the Cologne appeals court siding with a retailer in May 2026. Action items: review deals, coupons, listing images and A+ content for percentage claims and savings wording next to struck-through prices, and either tie them properly to the 30-day low or present the RRP neutrally as a comparison figure.
Under the GPSR the manufacturer is whoever produces goods themselves or has them produced under their own name or brand, and according to Onlinehaendler-News that captures print-on-demand too: if your name is on the garment label, you carry the full manufacturer obligations. Those include the risk assessment and its documentation plus your name, address and a contact channel on or with the product and additionally in the listing; there is no blanket answer, because labelling depends on the individual service provider. Action items: get written clarification from your print or fulfilment provider on who acts as manufacturer and who runs the risk assessment, and ask the same question for every private label you have made externally, because the rule applies there in exactly the same way.
A UK seller has documented a two-week attack through buyer accounts in the Seller Central forums, involving fake orders, refund requests, one-star ratings and counterfeit complaints; the suspended ASIN was reinstated once invoices were filed, and three days later Amazon deactivated the entire selling account on the same grounds. An Amazon moderator named the mechanism in the forum: invoices prove a product is authentic but not that you are authorised to sell it, and as long as a brand requires prior written authorisation the account stays under review even though the listing is back online. This is not a one-off but a recognised pattern, and no protective status exists for accounts under demonstrated attack. Action items: keep written distribution authorisation from the rights owner on file for every third-party brand you carry, not just purchase invoices, log unusual ordering and review patterns continuously, and treat an ASIN reinstatement as no all-clear, following up on the account review as a separate case with complete supply chain documentation.
A one-person shop in The Hague has shown the European Commission what cross-border packaging compliance actually costs a micro-business: roughly 4,300 euros in total outlay against 130 euros of genuine eco-fees across nine member states, Germany, France, Spain and Austria among them. The cost driver is not the volume-based licence fee but the flat fee for an authorised representative, 150 to 1,000 euros per country per year, entirely insensitive to volume and accounting for 70 to 90 percent of the bill in every country that requires one. Nothing changes legally for now, as the filing asks for a consistent de minimis threshold, recognition of a single registration for small cross-border volumes, an exemption for micro-enterprises and one EU-level registration point instead of 27 national portals. Action items: split your own EPR costs per country into representative flat fees and volume-based licensing, then check every low-volume country against whether its revenue even carries the fixed cost alone, because that calculation is what decides between staying on a marketplace country and withdrawing from it in an orderly way.
Amazon is opening its Sub Same Day network, which delivers within two to five hours around some 2,300 US metro areas, to additional products for a surcharge: sellers place a per-unit bid and pay only for units that actually ship through SSD. The existing free placement based on Amazon's own demand signals stays in place, so the bid only buys room for products Amazon would not add by itself, and Amazon points to roughly 12 percent higher sales as the argument, which consultants consider unproven once bid costs are netted out. This does not apply to German accounts yet, but the pattern does, because delivery speed shifts from being the result of your own logistics to being a paid placement. Action items: if you sell in the US, test the bid on a handful of high-margin fast movers and measure against a control group to see whether the sales are genuinely incremental or merely migrating out of standard fulfilment at a higher cost.
On June 30, 2026 the Düsseldorf Regional Court barred Amazon by injunction from suspending a self-publisher's Kindle Direct Publishing account in the form it had used (docket 36 O 77/26 Kart): a blanket reference to policy violations is not enough when Amazon names neither the affected title nor the specific rule and gives no real opportunity to respond. The competition law reasoning is what carries the case, because the court treats Amazon as dominant in self-publishing and reads the suspension practice in that form as an abuse, a line of argument that transfers to seller accounts. Action items: on any suspension or deactivation, first check whether the notice names concrete ASINs and rule violations, document the full correspondence including screenshots and lost revenue, and file one structured plan of action instead of several quick appeals.
The August 28 Abmahnmonitor carries a case that concerns any seller handling returns or demo units: an iPhone listed as "new" had already been activated, and Handy Deutschland GmbH sent a warning letter through the Scholz law firm claiming 1,202.61 euros. New means unused, and listing opened, activated or returned goods as new without a condition note invites the warning letter, on Amazon just as much as on eBay. Action items: check returns for activation and signs of use before relisting them and, when in doubt, list them with an explicit condition description; the monitor's second case, again animal feed with health claims at 1,372.78 euros, is a reason to search your own catalogue for wording such as pain-relieving.
Two phrases from everyday shipping copy now count as warning letter candidates under German unfair competition law, according to Onlinehändler-News: "certified environmentally friendly" for shipping packaging without naming who certified what, and "GDPR-compliant shipping", because it sells a legal obligation as a customer benefit. From September the EU rules on environmental claims tighten further, so every green statement needs concrete evidence, and it is the same reform that brings the guarantee label on September 27. Action items: search listings, A+ content and packaging print for eco claims and statements of the obvious, back every remaining environmental claim with a certificate and its scope, and delete anything that merely restates what the law already requires.
After the US imposed 50 percent tariffs on Canadian goods on August 22, Canada's dollar-for-dollar counter-tariffs follow on September 8, covering electronics, appliances, steel and paper among others. Internal documents show Amazon is already moving its Canadian direct-import sourcing from the US to China, a route third-party sellers cannot copy. Anyone serving Canada through Remote Fulfillment from US warehouses now pays duty per order instead of once on inbound: before September 8, screen the affected SKUs by country of origin and HS code, recalculate per-unit economics and book duty separately rather than burying it in COGS, otherwise the margin drop will look like a PPC problem weeks later.
From September 7, 2026 Amazon tightens its Prime policies in Germany: for standard-size and low-price products 15 percent of deliveries instead of 10 must arrive within one day and 50 percent instead of 45 within two days, while the 80 percent mark for four days stays unchanged. It applies to Amazon Retail, FBA users and self-shipping sellers alike, and that is exactly where it bites, because late FBA shipments count against the seller's Prime metrics even though the seller has no control over Amazon's own fulfilment. Action items: measure your delivery performance per fulfilment channel against the new thresholds now, tighten cut-off times and carrier transit times on self-shipped orders, and review inventory placement in FBA so the one-day rate does not hang on a single warehouse.
On August 24 the Bamberg Higher Regional Court ruled in a case brought by the Bavarian consumer association (docket 3 UKl 13/25 e) that three Amazon functions breach the Digital Services Act: the explanation of how search results are sorted under Article 27, because Amazon merely lists the criteria instead of disclosing how they are weighted, the "Report a problem with this product" link under Article 16, because it reads as a route for quality complaints rather than illegal content, and the forced login for such a report, which has to be possible anonymously. The classification matters more than the three individual points: the court expressly treats the DSA rules as consumer protection law, which opens the door to collective actions against large platforms, and an appeal to the Federal Court of Justice remains open, so the judgment is not yet final. Action items: nothing changes on your Amazon account for now, but if you also run your own shop, check its ranking transparency and reporting routes against the same DSA articles, and on the brand protection side watch whether Amazon reworks its illegal content reporting flow.
Since August 12, 2026 extended producer responsibility for shipping packaging under the PPWR no longer depends on who fills the box but on when the packaging takes its final form: for plain standard cartons the carton manufacturer carries the registration duty, not the seller, and according to the EU Commission that holds even when the cartons arrive flat and are only folded up at the seller's warehouse. Only printed or custom cartons turn the seller into the producer, yet supplier karton.eu keeps telling its customers the old packaging law logic that whoever first fills the packaging must register it, which drives sellers into duplicate filings and unnecessary licensing costs. Action items: obtain written confirmation from every carton supplier that they are registered as the manufacturer, document plain and printed cartons separately, and keep up your scheme participation until the national authorities have settled their final reading.
The August 21 Abmahnmonitor lists three cases that hit marketplace sellers directly: a promotional email sent without prior consent, settled at 380 euros, a demand by manufacturer Mepal that sellers delete their Amazon and OTTO listings on the basis of claimed exclusive distribution rights, and a 416.50 euro claim from the Verband Sozialer Wettbewerb over missing biocide warnings and prohibited health claims such as pain-relieving on animal feed. The second case is the one worth pausing on, because a brand asserting a marketplace ban has not thereby made it enforceable, and delisting too quickly gives away revenue with no legal need. Action items: keep documented double opt-in evidence for every promotional email flow, have the legal basis checked before you deactivate anything in response to a delisting demand, and review listings in sensitive categories such as biocides, animal feed and supplements for mandatory warnings and disease-related claims.
Amazon's shopping app is starting to show a "price history" link next to the price that opens a Rufus-powered chart over one month, three months or a year, moving the feature out of the AI assistant and onto the surface every shopper actually sees. The rollout does not yet cover every product or every channel, which points to an A/B test ahead of a full launch, and Rufus additionally flags artificially inflated prices and cheaper alternatives to customers. Action items: review your promotion logic per ASIN, base strikethrough prices and coupons on a genuine, defensible reference price, and drop short-term price increases ahead of deal windows, because from now on they sit visibly in the chart for every buyer.
From September 27, 2026 the EU requires two standardised notices in B2C sales: a general reference to the statutory warranty and a product-specific guarantee label for voluntary durability guarantees that are free of charge, cover the whole product, run longer than two years and are actively promoted. The legal basis is Directive (EU) 2024/825 together with Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/1960; the label has to appear in colour, prominently and before the contract is concluded, and must state the duration, the geographic scope and the fact that statutory rights remain untouched. The workload is easy to underestimate, because the details have to be collected from the manufacturer per item and turned into a dedicated graphic, and anyone promoting a guarantee in a listing without the label risks a warning letter over pre-contractual information duties. Action items: pull the list of items whose manufacturer guarantee you advertise, request the guarantee details from your supplier, and check which marketplaces will generate the label themselves, as Kaufland has already announced it will.
On August 20 Amazon switched on Warehousing and Distribution (AWD) in Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the UK: a storage tier upstream of FBA that holds pallet stock long-term at a flat rate and replenishes the European FBA network automatically, which also sidesteps restock limits during peak. Unlike the US version, European AWD inventory may only supply Amazon itself, and there is still no European rate card at launch, with seller forums reporting that the help pages continue to show US rates only; in the US, AWD fees rose by roughly 19 percent in January 2026. Action items: model AWD for slow-moving buffer stock first and weigh the total cost of storage, handling, transport and prep against your current FBA setup instead of looking at the storage flat rate alone, because without published EU rates every calculation stays provisional.
This year's annual recertification under the US INFORM Consumers Act is running noticeably rougher: consultants report suspensions triggered by small technical glitches and mismatched documents, statuses stuck on "In Progress" for weeks, and cases where Amazon asks for a residential rather than a business address. It applies to every seller on the US marketplace above 200 transactions and 5,000 dollars in revenue over twelve months, and missing the ten business day response window means an automatic suspension with payouts on hold. Action items: actively monitor Seller Central notifications and the mailbox on file instead of waiting to be prompted, reconcile your legal entity name, address, tax ID and bank details character by character against your commercial register and bank paperwork, and keep clean scans ready so the ten days are not spent chasing documents.
Fraudsters list branded goods on eBay 10 to 20 percent below market price, buy the same item from the Amazon seller once an order comes in and have it dropshipped to the eBay buyer; they then open a return with Amazon and manipulate the label so the parcel is rerouted to a different address while the tracking flips to delivered. The seller refunds, never gets the goods back and absorbs the full loss, with at least one brand reporting damages in the six figures, and tests show the gap exists at both DHL and Hermes. To-do: actively screen returns for mismatched recipient addresses or names, unusually fast refunds and parcels marked delivered that never reach the warehouse, document affected cases with the full tracking history, report them to Amazon and the carrier, and file a police report where the amounts justify it.
Shoppers have been reporting for weeks that Amazon shows only a fraction of the reviews on a product page, in some cases as few as eight, and anyone asking to see more is told to wait up to five business days for approval; Amazon says the restriction targets unauthorised data scraping for AI tools and describes the reports as isolated cases it has already worked on. This is not a side issue for sellers, because when only a handful of reviews are visible every negative one carries more weight, and tracking review trends or reporting abusive reviews becomes markedly harder. Action items: check your top ASINs in an incognito window to see how many reviews actually render, measure conversion on the affected pages for two weeks against an unaffected control set, and secure your key purchase arguments through the main image, A+ and bullets instead of leaving them to the reviews.
Amazon changed its Conditions of Use effective August 14, putting US customers back into individual arbitration at JAMS and adding a class action waiver; there is no opt-out window, disputes require a 60-day good-faith negotiation period first, and batching rules kick in once 25 coordinated demands arise within six months. A second change matters just as much: personal injury and property damage claims are now judged under the law of the state where the damage occurred instead of Washington state law across the board. Action items: this governs Amazon's relationship with shoppers rather than the seller contract, but anyone selling in the US should re-read the dispute clauses in their own Business Solutions Agreement and keep order, fee and refund records per SKU in order, because product liability cases will now follow local state law.
On August 13 the US Court of International Trade ruled that scrapping the $800 duty-free de minimis threshold for low-value parcels was lawful: the court drew a line between withdrawing an existing trade privilege and creating new tariff obligations, and found only the former covered by the statute invoked. Sub-$800 shipments therefore stay fully dutiable, refunds through this case are off the table, and an appeal to the Federal Circuit is still possible; for scale, around 1.36 billion such parcels entered the US in 2024, roughly three quarters of them from China. Action items: if you ship into the US, take any refund assumption out of your margin model, recalculate landed cost per unit at current duty rates, and confirm in writing which party is importer of record.
Since the weekend several sellers have reported products vanishing from their Seller Central catalogue without warning; the agency My Amazon Guy says it is receiving many reports of a bug that deletes listings from accounts en masse. Amazon has issued no official statement and given no numbers, though it confirmed a technical fault after a similar incident in the past. Action items: first establish whether the ASIN was actually deleted or merely suppressed, because suppression usually has a content cause such as health claims, image defects or a wrong category; where listings are genuinely gone, open a case with a concrete ASIN list and evidence, and export a copy of your current catalogue while the data is still retrievable.
Alongside the PPWR obligations in force since August 12, the national registration deadlines are now concrete: in Germany, newly liable sellers must complete initial registration by September 12, 2026, and existing registrations must be revised by November 12, 2026. One point matters for shippers: since August 12 shipping boxes count as transport packaging rather than sales packaging, so sellers sourcing them domestically are exempt from registering and licensing them; per-country costs run at roughly 247 to 877 euros a year for authorised representatives, with France the most expensive market at 18 separate EPR categories. Action items: correct your LUCID declaration for the new classification of shipping boxes instead of continuing to license them, and check per destination country whether a registration is missing, because Amazon, eBay and Kaufland are ramping up automated checks on this.
On August 10 Amazon retired the multi-step delegation of the old invite process and moved agencies and tool vendors onto an authorisation flow through the Solution Provider Portal, where sellers can only grant the Seller Central roles approved for that specific service. From September 3 only the approved role set counts: roles a provider uses today without formal approval drop out at reauthorisation, and sellers who ignore Amazon's September prompt let all existing access lapse. Action items: as a seller, review the list of active provider permissions and do not let Amazon's September email sit unread; as an agency, check in the Solution Provider Portal whether the approved role set actually covers your daily work, and request any missing roles through the service registration form before the cut-off.
On August 10 Amazon added a „Publisher-hosted“ option for third-party display and video creatives inside the DSP: buyers can now access Google Ad Manager programmatic guaranteed deals where the publisher serves the creative itself, inventory that was previously closed to DSP buyers. It covers 33 countries including Germany, Austria and Switzerland; China is missing compared with the 34-market structure announced on July 30, and Amazon gives neither a rollout schedule nor any statement on managed-service accounts. Action items: only DSP budgets are affected, Sponsored Products and Brands stay untouched. Anyone who has been buying premium environments through a second DSP should check whether that inventory can move into Amazon DSP, and measure it against the existing buy instead of switching blind.
Amazon has brought its fourth Rhineland-Palatinate fulfillment center online in Zweibrücken, in time for the 2026 Christmas season. The 51,000 square metre site runs 2,500 transport robots across 32,000 mobile shelves, ships more than 400,000 individual items a day, and is one of only three German locations with „Made to fit“ stations that cut boxes to size; around 1,500 jobs are planned and 800 are filled. Action items: for sellers holding FBA stock in the south-west, extra capacity this close to peak mainly means more headroom on restock limits and shorter distances to the customer. Re-check your own Q4 FBA capacity limits now, before the inbound windows tighten.
On August 7 Amazon published an FAQ on its new title rule: the 75-character limit on the item name has been enforced since August 3 (it was originally announced for July 26), alongside 125 characters in the item highlights field, for 200 characters in total. From August 10 the highlights field is rendered beneath the item name on desktop and mobile, both fields remain search inputs according to Amazon, and titles already under 75 characters and compliant with the policy will not be rewritten by AI; more than 984 million titles have been updated since the June announcement, and the rule explicitly covers Amazon's own retail listings too. Action items: check per account which ASINs still exceed 75 characters and are therefore exposed to an automatic AI rewrite, fill the item highlights yourself instead of letting Amazon decide, and use the 14-day window in which brand owners can review the AI recommendations before they go live.
On August 6 TikTok Shop published a reference guide consolidating how TikTok orders can be routed into Amazon's Multi-Channel Fulfillment: nine middleware apps are approved, among them Pipe17, Rithum, WebBee, CedCommerce, ChannelEngine, Order Desk, Lingxing, 4Seller ERP and GeekSeller. This is not a new product but documentation of a path that already existed, it currently covers US sellers only, and it matters because TikTok shut down independent seller shipping on February 25, 2026; sellers already on FBA need no Amazon-side setup and only have to authorise the app for both accounts. Action items: if multichannel is on the roadmap, price the app subscription against the per-unit MCF fee before opening the channel, and keep in mind that MCF orders draw on the same FBA stock as your Amazon revenue and can eat into your own availability in Q4.
Amazon has extended the Seller Assistant with a diagnostic function that, on request, explains why an offer is not winning the Featured Offer. It checks four areas: availability and offer restrictions, your price against the current winner, the delivery promise, and regional coverage; up to ten ASINs can be reviewed in a single conversation, which makes patterns across listings visible. Action items: test it by asking about the Featured Offer for a specific ASIN, but treat the answer as a pointer and verify it against your own data, because it only surfaces the factors Amazon discloses and not the weighting behind them.
From September 1, 2026, the voluntary 30-day return window disappears in 16 categories and only the statutory 14-day withdrawal right remains; affected categories include baby, beauty, groceries, furniture, musical instruments, tyres, wine, luggage, pet supplies and garden, regardless of fulfilment method. Orders delivered up to October 1, 2026 stay under the old window during the transition, and Amazon displays the correct period per category automatically on the detail page. Action items: review your own withdrawal-right legal texts against the new period before September 1, since outdated texts carry an immediate warning-letter risk, and decide per category whether a voluntarily longer return window is worth it as a differentiator.
Since August 2, 2026, Article 50 of the EU AI Act applies to product imagery, and the label must sit inside the image itself rather than in the description text. It is mandatory for photorealistic visuals that reproduce real people, places or objects and read as genuine photography; infographics, technical drawings and comic-style graphics are exempt, as are basic edits such as cropping, background removal, retouching and colour correction. The main image must show real product photography, AI lifestyle scenes belong in the gallery, and images published before August 2 are grandfathered but lose that status once re-uploaded. Action items: walk through the gallery per ASIN, add a clearly legible label in the top right corner that no overlay covers, and avoid re-uploading legacy assets unchanged during the next image refresh.
On August 4 Amazon updated its help page on off-Amazon placements: from August 10, Sponsored Products ads can also appear inside content from Amazon Influencer Program creators, such as reviews and guides, and existing campaigns are enrolled automatically at their current bids and budgets. Campaign settings for ads served off Amazon offer two options, increase reach (the default) and limit off-Amazon spend, plus deny lists for individual creators; the rollout covers the US, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, India, Turkey, the Middle East, North Africa and selected EU countries, with the UK excluded. Action items: before August 10, check per account whether the placement is live at all, deliberately confirm the default or switch to the limited setting, and afterwards compare the placement report and conversion rate against the prior week, because this traffic carries no search intent.
The EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation applies from August 12, 2026 with no transition period: every packaging type needs a signed EU declaration of conformity backed by technical documentation, plus an identification mark (batch or serial number), the name and address of the manufacturer or importer, and compliance with new PFAS limits for food-contact packaging (25 ppb per substance, 250 ppb in total). German LUCID registration and system participation under the VerpackG stay in place, but liability shifts: anyone importing directly or selling under their own brand counts as the producer and carries conformity responsibility, even when the packaging was made in China. Action items: collect supplier data per packaging type, issue and file the declaration before the deadline, because goods without one may no longer be placed on the EU market after that date.
The Business Solutions Agreement change Amazon announced on May 29 takes effect on August 24: transferring rights or obligations under the agreement, and pledging those rights as collateral, both become expressly prohibited. The exposure sits mainly with sellers on revenue-based financing or merchant cash advances secured against future Amazon disbursements, and with informal account transfers that bypass Amazon's documented process. Action items: review financing contracts for assignment and pledge clauses before August 24, work with the lender to move security onto inventory or general business assets, and rebuild Q4 financing early enough to clear the deadline.
The fifth annual DHL eCommerce trends report (29,000 shoppers across 29 countries, 5,800 merchants across 28) quantifies the gap between what sellers assume and what shoppers do: 67% of shoppers have abandoned a purchase over shipping or returns options, while only 52% of merchants see that as a reason at all. Free shipping is the strongest single completion driver at 41%, whereas paid advertising influences just 37% of shoppers even though 67% of merchants put budget there. Action items: for FBM and own-shop revenue, fix the delivery promise, shipping cost and returns options at checkout before adding budget to creative or discounts.
On July 31 Amazon launched a Report a Violation tool inside Brand Registry that merges the previously separate paths for intellectual property infringement, store policy violations and regulatory compliance concerns into a single guided experience. Free-text submissions are replaced by structured forms, and a Submission History tab shows the status and outcome of every report in real time; any Brand Registry user attached to an enrolled brand can file store policy reports, so the Rights Owner role is no longer required for those. Action items: review who holds Brand Registry access on your accounts, re-check open legacy cases through the new tool, and file all future reports there so the audit trail stays complete.
On the July 30 Q2 earnings call Amazon disclosed the first performance figures for sponsored prompts, which became billable on a cost-per-click basis on March 25: according to Andy Jassy, shoppers who click a sponsored prompt convert 48% more often and spend 21% more on average. The prompts run through Alexa for Shopping across the app, the website and Echo Show devices and are available for both Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands; Amazon separately reported 8% lower cost per impression and 6% lower cost per acquisition for campaigns using Ads Agent targeting. Action items: treat these as Amazon's own numbers rather than an audited benchmark, first confirm whether prompt placements are actually serving in your German account, and test Ads Agent on a separate budget measured against your existing manual structure.
On July 30 Amazon restructured Amazon DSP accounts: existing advertiser accounts are upgraded automatically to a unified structure that manages 34 countries from a single login, including Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and the UK. Each account additionally receives a Global Account ID plus regional identifiers, legacy CFIDs keep working, and the migration is additive at the API layer rather than breaking existing integrations; it also brings multi-country buying, unified billing and permissions, and provisioned access to Amazon Marketing Cloud. Action items: do not file this away as a pure admin convenience but review the permissions, because one login spanning 34 markets means a wrongly assigned role now reaches considerably further than it used to.
On July 29 PayPal and Amazon confirmed that PayPal installment payments will roll out gradually into the amazon.de and amazon.at checkout from early August, covering order values between 30 and 10,000 euros. Standard terms are 3, 6, 12 and 24 months, with 36 and 48 months available exclusively on Amazon, the effective annual rate is 11.49 percent, and 0 percent financing is planned for selected products; neither company has said whether sellers carry any share of the financing cost. Action items: flag every ASIN priced above 30 euros, measure conversion and average order value there against the July baseline for the first four weeks after rollout, and only feed the result into bundle and pricing decisions once it is measured rather than assumed.
Since late July several sellers report that invoices uploaded to Seller Central are no longer displayed or processed correctly. In at least one case the invoice defect rate rose above the allowed threshold as a result, and Amazon issued a policy warning that explicitly referenced possible account deactivation; the exposure is bigger now that the invoice requirement also covers consumer orders and not only business orders. Action items: check the invoice defect rate in Account Health daily, document every upload with a screenshot and timestamp, and open a case with that evidence immediately if a warning lands instead of waiting for Amazon to fix it quietly.
ID-Precise segments from Berlin-based Adsquare went live in Amazon DSP's 3P Audience Hub on July 23 across the US, UK, Germany, France, Spain and Italy. The segments are built on real place visits, brand affinity and shopping patterns, are automatically matched to Amazon IDs and can be activated for mobile, display and video without manual provisioning; Amazon has not disclosed pricing. Only DSP is affected, Sponsored Products and Brands are unchanged. Action items: before buying, check whether third-party location data actually adds anything on top of Amazon's own shopping signals, measure it in a clean A/B test against a pure Amazon-audience setup, and keep an eye on the privacy side after New Jersey banned the sale of precise location data on July 8.
USPS is holding off on applying the hazmat fees that took effect on July 12 to parcels moving through its commercial return-label programs; for prepaid return labels the USD 7.50 handling fee and the USD 50 noncompliance fee only start on February 1, 2027. Nothing changes on outbound shipments, where every undeclared hazmat parcel still costs USD 50, and the most common trigger is an old hazmat sticker on a reused box. Action items: use the reprieve to get return flows for perfume, nail polish, aerosols and lithium-battery devices properly declared before year end, and instruct the warehouse to fully remove or cover legacy markings.
India's Ministry of Commerce now allows foreign platforms to hold Indian-sourced inventory inside the country and ship it directly to buyers abroad; the domestic Indian market stays closed to that model. For sellers in Europe and the US it creates a credible second source alongside China, particularly in textiles, home, kitchen, wellness and accessories, with consolidated freight instead of one-off shipments. Action items: screen your top 30 ASINs for India-viable categories, request quotes from two Indian suppliers per candidate SKU, and compare landed cost against the current China calculation; anything within 5 percent is a usable hedge against tariff and duty risk.
Amazon rolled out customizable columns, role-based saved views and one-click actions (resolve stranded inventory, trigger replenishment, edit listing attributes) across the product, shipment and inventory pages in Seller Central. It affects all Seller Central users, especially teams juggling several roles. Action items: create one saved view per role (operations, category, leadership), but keep margin, cohort and PPC analysis in a purpose-built analytics layer that Seller Central still does not provide.
Amazon now requires third-party sellers to label any product image, video, A+ module or Brand Story asset that features an AI-generated person; the trigger is New York statute S.8420-A (effective June 9, 2026), which Amazon applies marketplace-wide rather than by region. Non-compliant images can be suppressed or removed, hitting sessions and conversion directly. Action items: audit every image asset by ASIN and flag anything generated in the past 18 months, label the affected assets, and measure conversion for two weeks against a control group, reworking the main images first if labeled conversions drop by more than 5 percent.
Amazon Ads shipped ten new capabilities for Brand+ and Performance+ on July 22: advertisers can feed their own audience signals into the AI optimisation at no extra cost (open beta), audio is generally available for Brand+ across 16 locales including Germany and in open beta for Performance+, and Prime Video signals, brand outcome optimisation plus asynchronous remarketing round out the release. It affects the AI-driven Amazon DSP campaign types only; Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands are unchanged. Action items: attach your own audience lists as signals wherever Brand+ or Performance+ budget is already running, and test audio on a separate budget measured against display instead of quietly folding it into existing campaigns.
Amazon is holding holiday fees at last cycle's levels, meaning the USD 100 promotion fee plus 1.5% of promotional sales and the peak surcharge averaging USD 0.32 per unit, but it has pulled every inbound deadline forward. For Prime Big Deal Days, stock must land by September 2 (AWD), September 9 (FBA with minimal shipment splits) or September 16 (Amazon-optimised splits), and for Black Friday Week and Cyber Monday by October 14, 21 and 28 respectively; anything arriving later loses the Prime badge for those events and with it search and detail-page visibility. Action items: plan the top ASINs backwards from their applicable cut-off, book replenishment ahead of the AWD date, and budget extra PPC to compensate for the lost badge visibility on any stock that misses the window.
Nine months after the US launch, Amazon extended its location-based interactive video format to Canada, Mexico and Brazil: a single Prime Video creative can now swap store address, local offer and clickthrough destination by state, province or postal code. It is bookable through Amazon DSP only and requires 1PAS video creatives, accounts restricted to Amazon audiences without demographic signals are excluded, and Europe is not included so far. Action items: brands with store networks or regional pricing in those three markets should confirm creative eligibility before commissioning regional variants; for pure FBA sellers without geographic variance nothing changes.
Amazon is permanently closing its Port St. Lucie fulfillment center (PBI3) in Florida on September 17, cutting 494 jobs; the WARN filing classifies the closure as permanent. Inventory is being rerouted to nodes in Georgia (ATL) and Alabama (BHM6), lengthening the distance to South Florida customers. It affects FBA sellers with meaningful Florida demand, especially fast-moving SKUs whose Prime promise can slip from two days to three. Action items: pull the Florida share per ASIN from order reports, watch delivery promises for slippage from September 10, and re-evaluate the revised placement recommendations and inbound placement fees on upcoming shipments.
The European Commission fined AliExpress 550 million euros for failing to consistently remove unsafe products from its EU platform. It is the first ruling to establish that a cross-border marketplace is financially liable for the safety of individual listings, which raises the pressure on Temu and Shein and should push them toward stricter listing vetting and higher per-unit costs. For compliant sellers in categories such as toys, beauty, phone accessories and novelty apparel, that opens pricing room for the first time in years. Action items: check your own product-safety and GPSR documentation for completeness, rebuild the competitive scan in the affected categories, and test whether a 5 to 8 percent price increase holds.
Ahead of the fifth Amazon Business Reshape conference in Nashville this October, Amazon is opening core B2B features to a much wider set of third-party sellers: quantity-tier pricing, business-only prices, purchase-order acceptance and quote workflows. Amazon Business is running at roughly USD 35 billion annualised and growing faster than the consumer marketplace, so the upside for sellers with B2B demand is material. Action items: identify the SKUs where more than 10% of units go to business buyers, switch on quantity discounts for 5-10 test SKUs after modelling the margin impact, and track B2C and B2B contribution margin separately so the tiers do not quietly cannibalise retail sales.
Triton Digital added Amazon DSP as a demand partner on its programmatic marketplace on July 15. Advertisers can now buy digital audio, podcast and streaming inventory across more than 80 countries directly through Amazon DSP, applying Amazon's authenticated first-party shopping signals to planning, targeting and measurement without setting up a separate buying relationship. It affects Amazon DSP only; Sponsored Products, Brands and Display are unaffected. Action items: brands already running DSP budget can test audio as an upper-funnel layer and measure it against display and video inside existing DSP reporting, instead of continuing to buy audio blind.
Amazon is turning the previously informational Business Hour Delivery Rate into an enforced metric: from September 30, professional sellers must hit at least 90% on merchant-fulfilled Amazon Business orders, or they are first flagged with improvement recommendations and then, from October 30, have their Business offers deactivated. It affects FBM sellers with Amazon Business demand in the US, UK and Germany; FBA offers and standard retail offers are unaffected. Action items: pull the rate per SKU segmented by carrier and region, route Business orders to business-hour carriers with an earlier cut-off, and migrate borderline ASINs to FBA before September 30.
UK tax authority HMRC wants to extend the deemed-supplier rule, under which the marketplace withholds and remits VAT, to UK-established sellers as an anti-avoidance measure whenever the goods sit physically in the UK at the point of sale; today it only applies to overseas sellers. The consultation opened June 23 and closes August 18, 2026, and would cover VAT-registered UK sellers holding Amazon FBA UK inventory, while own shops and wholesale stay outside it. If enacted, payouts on standard-rated SKUs drop by roughly 16.7% because the 20% VAT no longer flows through the seller's own account. Action items: model UK cash flow without VAT passing through, and consider filing a response before August 18.
On July 1 the EU scrapped the 150-euro duty-free threshold for low-value parcels from outside the bloc and replaced it with a flat 3-euro handling fee on direct parcels under 150 euros; consolidated shipments above 150 euros still clear via standard customs. Shein and Temu, however, pre-positioned inventory in EU warehouses and now ship domestically, avoiding the fee entirely, so the rule meant to level the field mainly disadvantages smaller Amazon sellers importing from China in small lots. Action items: add the 3-euro line to per-SKU landed cost, consolidate shipments above 150 euros where feasible, and do not assume the rule actually levels competition.
Separate from the July 12 Ground Advantage rate restructuring, USPS now charges a noncompliance fee whenever the label bought does not match the parcel actually scanned: wrong weight, wrong dimensions, wrong service class, or a reused label. The charge does not appear at purchase but shows up later as a line item on the carrier statement, so sellers only notice it after the margin is gone; FBM sellers with sub-pound SKUs are hit hardest, where a single charge can wipe out profit across several orders. Action items: calibrate scales (a 2-4 oz drift is the main culprit), audit default service classes in shipping profiles, and reconcile carrier statements specifically for label-versus-actual variance.
Effective July 12, USPS eliminates the 4-oz and 8-oz pricing tiers on Ground Advantage Commercial and applies the former 12-15.999-oz rate to all sub-pound parcels; it also rounds every dimension up to the next whole inch and cuts the dimensional divisor from 166 to 139 for shipments over one cubic foot. The net effect is an average Commercial price increase of roughly 11.8%, with sub-one-pound parcels hit hardest (8-15% of line items rerating upward depending on zone). It affects Amazon FBM and merchant-fulfilled sellers buying USPS labels directly or via Stamps, Pirate Ship, ShipStation or Shippo, only negotiated commercial rates are spared. Action items: reprice Buy Shipping and shipping-template costs for sub-1lb SKUs, and decide before Q4 whether light FBM items should shift to FBA or another carrier.
Amazon expanded its DSP Omnichannel Metrics so that offline purchases influenced by a DSP campaign are now attributed to named retailers, rather than lumped together as "outside Amazon" or shown only by category. Attribution still relies on exposure data from the Amazon Shopper Panel plus third-party signals and is, for now, US-only and limited to Amazon DSP campaigns (Sponsored Products, Brands and Display are excluded). Action items: US DSP advertisers should test the breakdown against their retail-partner mix and steer budget toward the retailers where ad exposure demonstrably converts into offline sales.
Amazon opened Q4 deal submissions on July 8, this year with markedly earlier deadlines: Prime Big Deal Days run through September 8, Black Friday Week and Cyber Monday through October 20; submitting Prime Big Deal Days deals by August 5 or Black Friday deals by September 5 saves USD 50 on the upfront promotion fee. In parallel, the holiday peak fulfillment fee applies October 15 to January 14 (averaging +USD 0.32 per unit over standard rates) with a 3.5% fuel-and-logistics surcharge stacked on top. Action items: lock in Q4 deal candidates per ASIN now and submit before the Aug 5 / Sep 5 dates to secure the discount and slots, and price the peak fee into deal margins and PPC bids for the October-to-January window.
The US Trade Representative (USTR) is proposing additional Section 301 duties of 10% or 12.5% on goods from roughly 60 countries with weak forced-labor enforcement, including China, Vietnam, Bangladesh, India and Turkey; public hearings ran July 7-9 and a final decision is expected within 60 days. The surcharges stack on top of existing Section 301/232/MFN rates and hit the landed cost of many Amazon sellers directly. Action items: map every SKU to its HTS country of origin, model landed cost under three scenarios (none, +10%, +12.5%), and reset Q4 price floors per SKU before the cost shock lands.
Effective July 6, Amazon raised the minimum delivery-speed bar for Seller Fulfilled Prime and switched from regional to nationwide coverage: standard-size offers must now show a one-day date on 40% of Prime page views (up from 30%) and a two-day date on 75% (up from 70%), which for single-warehouse sellers effectively means more locations or pricier carriers. A roughly four-week grace period from June 8 pauses Prime-badge suppression; after that, offers below the threshold lose the Prime badge and exit the Prime Buy Box pool. Action items: check real two-day ZIP coverage from 90 days of shipment data, re-price SFP offers for the higher carrier cost, and decide SFP-versus-FBA per ASIN before Prime Day.
Starting July 2026, Amazon is gradually removing the upfront seller eligibility screen for the Featured Offer: offers used to be filtered by performance metrics before ranking, now all offers go straight into consideration. The selection criteria themselves (competitive price, delivery speed, seller performance) stay the same, and the rollout is global and completes by the end of 2026. Action items: nothing is technically required, but sharpen price, delivery speed and account health now, since more offers will compete directly for the Buy Box once the entry barrier is gone.
When the new FBA New Selection Program starts on July 30, ASINs enrolled under the old program keep their existing benefits, but only until the hard cutoff of October 31, 2026. Three categories are affected: referral-fee reductions stop accruing after Oct 31, coupon and Vine credits expire if unused, and storage and returns waivers also end at the deadline; any branded ASIN listed on or after July 30 automatically falls under the 2026 rate schedule from first inbound. Action items for the next 90 days: audit active legacy benefits per ASIN, front-load coupon/Vine spend before Oct 31 (Prime Big Deal Days, Q4 launches), list any August launch before July 30 to lock in legacy rates, and re-forecast Q4 margins and PPC bids before the waivers drop off.
On July 1, Amazon discontinued prep and labelling services for Canadian FBA shipments: every unit must now arrive at the fulfillment center fully prepped and labeled. The critical part is the loss of protection: unprepped units are still processed, but there is no reimbursement claim if that inventory is lost or damaged. Options are in-house prep, third-party prep centers (roughly CAD 0.50-2.00 per unit, with Ontario/Quebec capacity filling fast), or SIPP for eligible standard-size ASINs. Action items: freeze new Canada inbound until prep is decided, contract prep capacity immediately, add the new cost line to per-SKU contribution margins, and monitor received-quantity variance and unfulfillable rate daily during the transition.
On July 2, Amazon opened Seller University to the public: the full on-demand library of 125+ topics (listings, pricing, fulfillment, advertising) is now accessible without an active selling account or login. Nothing changes functionally for existing sellers, but the open access makes the content ideal onboarding material for new team members, VAs, or support staff. Action items: fold the relevant courses into your own team onboarding and point new hires straight to the right modules instead of having to share account access.
On August 1, Amazon migrates a directly contacted group of advertisers who currently pay ad costs by credit card to proceeds deduction: advertising spend is netted against the seller balance before disbursement, ending the credit-card float some sellers used for cash flow. Anyone who does not pick a preference before August 1 is auto-switched to balance deduction, with the card kept only as a backup. Action items: in the Ads Console Billing section, actively choose 'Pay by Invoice' (Net 30) if you want to keep the cash-flow buffer, and plan around Amazon's $2,500 monthly click credits (August through December), which can temporarily distort CPCs.
Amazon now auto-assembles product videos from your existing images for Sponsored Products and switches the option on by default; separately, system-generated Virtual Multipacks are appearing in campaigns without sellers explicitly adding them. The model has flipped from opt-in to opt-out, putting both creative control and budget at risk. Action items: turn off 'Automate assembled videos' in campaign settings if you want to control your own creative, and audit your inventory and Ads Console for newly created Virtual Multipacks that may quietly drain spend.
At the Prime Day kickoff on June 23, Amazon Ads rolled out 'Alexa+ Agentic Ads' on Echo Show devices: customers complete a purchase via voice conversation directly inside the ad, with no product detail page, cart, or external checkout. This removes the classic conversion path (no PDP visit, no add-to-cart event, no post-click retargeting), so A+ content and PDP optimization lose leverage. Action items: tighten the structured product data (bullets, dimensions, Q&A) of your top ASINs since it becomes the ad copy in conversations, segment Echo Show conversions separately in PPC reporting, and re-model contribution margins against the lower in-ad average order value.
On June 23, UK supermarket Asda became the first retailer outside the US to deploy Amazon's 'Retail Ad Service': from H2 2026, brands manage Asda campaigns through the same interface as their Amazon Sponsored Products. For UK sellers this means more reach through one workflow, but adding Asda inventory to the bidding system can raise competition and push UK Sponsored Products CPCs higher. Action items: map Amazon UK ASINs to Asda GTINs, calculate margins per channel separately (Asda's economics differ), and watch UK CPC trends for auction pressure.
On June 18, Amazon announced the 2026 version of the FBA New Selection Program, going live July 30: a larger inbound-placement fee credit, 90 days of free monthly storage on the first 100 units of a qualifying parent ASIN, and reduced referral fees on the first $25,000 of revenue per new branded ASIN for 365 days. Sellers already enrolled migrate to the new terms automatically on July 30, but new ASINs only qualify if they launch after that date. Action items: review planned Q3 launches and consider holding them until after July 30, get Brand Registry and listing data for new SKUs in order now, and re-model contribution margins against the new fee structure.
Since June 12, Amazon automatically reconciles FBA inbound shipping fees against the actual package size: if dimensions, weight, or freight class measured in transit differ from what was declared, the system adjusts the charge: over-declared dimensions trigger a refund, under-declared ones an extra charge. Early reports show sellers being charged even after careful measurement, with some adjustments approaching the original shipping cost. Action items: document the dimensions and weight of every shipment precisely and monitor adjustments in the Inbound Performance dashboard so you can dispute incorrect charges.
On June 10, Amazon announced that from July 27, 2026, product titles in every category except media will be capped at 75 characters including spaces, down from the previous 200. A new searchable 'Item Highlights' field (up to 125 characters) launches alongside for secondary details, and over-length titles will then be gradually rewritten by Amazon's AI. Brand Registry owners get a 14-day review window, other sellers do not. Action items: trim titles yourself now, keep the brand plus the primary keyword inside the 75 characters, move materials and comparison terms into Item Highlights, and avoid editing during Prime Day (June 23-26).
On June 8 the European Commission published guidance and the legal text: from July 1, 2026 the €150 customs-duty exemption for non-EU imports is abolished and replaced by a temporary flat €3 duty per item (not per parcel), in force until July 1, 2028. For sellers importing low-value goods from China and similar origins into the EU, landed costs rise noticeably, since a single parcel with several tariff lines can trigger the €3 fee multiple times. Action items: re-model import costs and retail prices before July 1, prepare suppliers and logistics partners for the new declaration, and assess whether holding stock inside the EU now pays off.
Amazon has revamped the Seller News section inside the Amazon Seller app: featured and recent updates now sit together on one homepage, articles can be filtered by date and topic, important posts can be bookmarked, and a 'Join the Conversation' link ties each article to the Seller Forums. It lives under the new 'Stay informed' tab at the top of the app homepage. Action items: open the app, set topic filters that match your account, and bookmark deadline-critical announcements so policy and fee changes don't slip past you on mobile.
Amazon has rolled out 'Brand Gallery', a new Sponsored Brands creative that replaces individual product listings with lifestyle imagery, custom copy, and a carousel of three to five Brand Store categories, sending shoppers to the Brand Store rather than a product detail page. It is live in 19 markets including Germany, self-service via the Ads Console and Ads API, and is aimed especially at Reserved Share of Voice (RSOV) buys on a brand's own keywords. Action items for brands: ensure an active, well-organized Brand Store, prepare lifestyle assets (not standard product photos), and reserve branded terms before launch. Once a deal hits 'proposed' status it can no longer be edited.
Amazon DSP has opened a new Studies interface that lets advertisers discover, configure, fund, and retrieve results from 50+ third-party measurement studies themselves, without the managed-service step that previously added weeks of delay. Partners include NCS (offline sales lift), DISQO and Kantar (brand lift), and Integral Ad Science (viewability, invalid traffic); it has been rolling out since May 15, 2026 across 30+ countries including Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Action items for DSP advertisers: review region-specific options on the Studies page, pick study types matching the campaign goal, and choose between Amazon-managed billing or vendor billing for existing relationships. Brand and sales lift can now be measured without an account manager.
On May 21, Amazon raised the minimum delivery-speed thresholds for Seller Fulfilled Prime, effective July 6, 2026. Standard-size items must now show one-day delivery on 40% of Prime page views (up from 30%), two-day on 75% (up from 70%), and five-day on 90%. Oversize moves from 10% to 15% for one-day and adds an 80% five-day requirement; Extra Large jumps from 15% to 25% for two-day with a 60% five-day floor. The existing performance gates (93.5% OTDR, 0.5% pre-fulfillment cancel, 99% VTR) stay the same. In September 2026 Amazon will add a new tool letting SFP sellers publish shipping times, weekend availability, and cut-off times at the individual ZIP-code level, feeding more precise customer-facing delivery promises. Action items: audit carrier coverage by region, tighten weekend operations and cut-off times, or rerun the FBM/FBA-mix math without the Prime badge on slow-moving ASINs.
On May 22, Amazon announced several changes to the Customer Service by Amazon program. Return-less refunds are now restricted to three defined scenarios (undelivered packages, damaged/defective non-returnable items, and items unsafe to return), cutting unnecessary SAFE-T claim work. SAFE-T claims on 'claims protected' labels via Amazon Buy Shipping or Veeqo are now covered automatically by Amazon, and Goodwill refunds are reimbursed without seller action. On free access, Amazon dropped the 95% valid tracking rate requirement and added automatic free eligibility for low-volume sellers with fewer than 30 orders per quarter; the 90-day free period and the 3% contacts-per-unit threshold remain. Action items: verify shipping label provider enrollment for automatic claims coverage, review the new contacts-per-unit dashboard and AI-categorized contact reasons in the insights dashboard, and watch Buyer-Seller Messages for follow-up notifications instead of email.
Amazon DSP turned on 'Automatic Deal Selection', an ML feature that curates Streaming TV deals throughout a campaign without manual intervention, adding high-performing deals and removing underperforming ones across the entire flight. The launch is U.S.-only for self-service advertisers via the ADSP Self Service console or the Amazon Ads Public API, and only for Streaming TV campaigns configured with an Awareness goal and Reach KPI; curation source type is 'AMAZON_CURATED_AGENT', with performance exposed via the DealPerformance and DealPlanningMetrics entities. For DSP brands the takeaway: Awareness setups get materially leaner (no more manual deal hygiene), with expansion to other goals and formats announced but undated; EU rollout is open, but the U.S. pilot is worth running now to inform Q3 awareness budgets.
A day after sellers reported blocked EUR balances, Amazon issued an official statement: a small subset of EU sellers were not technically migrated to DD+7 as planned, the issue is fixed, and the affected accounts have been moved to the standard policy. Practical detail: Amazon says 95% of sellers are already on the 7-day window, and 'Disburse on Demand' remains active, but only funds whose delivery date is more than seven days back are withdrawable. That corrects yesterday's 'working as designed' framing into a confirmed bug for a subset of accounts. Action items: check inbox for Amazon's mail with the updated migration timeline, verify release dates under 'Deferred Transactions' in Seller Central, and adjust cash-flow planning to the 7-day hold.
Two weeks after Amazon activated DD+7 daily payouts (Payout on Request), sellers report a hidden catch: payout requests routinely return 'EUR 0 available' despite substantial visible balances, in one documented case EUR 38,000 was displayed but nothing could be withdrawn. According to Wortfilter, the basis for the payout is not the displayed balance but only the portion whose delivery date is more than seven days back, a detail Amazon's original seller email omitted. Amazon support has so far framed the behaviour as 'working as designed'. Sellers should recalibrate liquidity planning: recent sales proceeds stay locked for seven days post-delivery, so the first days after migration deliver effectively no cash.
In May 2026 Amazon Ads moved four data infrastructure pieces into production: the Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM) API hit general availability on May 1 across 14 markets (incl. DE, FR, IT, ES, UK) with six new brand-group management endpoints; the Geographic Insights & Activation (GIA) API reached GA on May 4 with a simplified workflow (postal-code data inline at creation, no more multi-step process); on May 18 Benchmarks Reporting goes globally GA across 18 marketplaces (adding Netherlands, Sweden, Turkey, and Egypt) with eight metrics including CTR, CPC, and new-to-brand purchases. A new NationalAsinEngagement data file (in the MMM feed since May 7) adds daily/weekly add-to-cart signals at the ASIN level by country. For brands and agencies: multi-market reporting, postal-code-level bid adjustments, and retail engagement signals can now be standardized programmatically across all major DSP markets. Update media-buying setups and BI dashboards accordingly.
On May 15 Amazon released an independent study on EPR registration under the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR): registering in 10 EU countries requires 64 distinct data fields (11 in Belgium/Spain, 20+ in Sweden, 16 on average), 55% are country-specific, and 73% exceed what the PPWR Implementation Act actually mandates, with processing times of 2 to 6 weeks per market. Amazon argues for interoperable digital infrastructure: standardized fields, API-enabled national registers, single registration with automated cross-border distribution, and online marketplaces acting as 'EPR intermediaries' (citing its 'Pay on Behalf' program, already live in five countries supporting 300,000+ sellers). Practical takeaway for SME sellers: no relief rollout is in sight short-term, so EPR compliance stays a market-by-market job; medium-term it's worth tracking the lobbying position, since marketplaces are actively pushing Brussels for a unified solution.
On May 14, Phil Christer, Managing Director of Amazon Ads UK, confirmed that advertisers can overlay Amazon Audiences onto Netflix ad inventory bought through Amazon DSP across the UK, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain starting May 18, the EMEA activation of an integration first disclosed in March 2026 and launched in the US on April 13. Buyers apply the shopping-behavior segments (searches, purchases, browsing) at line-item or campaign level via managed or self-service workflows, allowing Netflix to be combined with other CTV inventory in a single data-driven DSP buy for the first time. For Amazon brands running DSP, the takeaway: premium streaming reach plus Amazon retail signals without fragmented media buys. Set up pilot learnings now, before Q3 budgets are locked.
On May 13, Amazon retired the standalone Rufus chatbot and merged Rufus with Alexa+ into 'Alexa for Shopping', an agentic AI assistant embedded directly in Amazon's search bar, available to all U.S. customers (no Prime membership required) on the app, website, and Echo Show devices. New capabilities include side-by-side product comparisons, dynamic shopping guides, a full year of price history, automated price-triggered purchases, and seamless context transfer between app, web, and devices. Implication for sellers: industry research already showed Rufus compressing the traditional 50-result page down to roughly five recommended products. With the US-wide rollout completing within a week, Sponsored Prompts (billable since March 25) and AI-ready listing content (bullets, A+ content, reviews) become essential to stay in the recommendation set. EU rollout not yet announced.
On May 12, Amazon notified solution providers by email that the SP-API fees announced in November 2025 (annual base fee + usage-based charges) are permanently scrapped, after industry pushback and a March postponement. The fee-preview dashboard will be removed and stored payment methods can be deleted via the Solution Provider Portal. For sellers, the upshot: tool vendors (ERPs, repricers, JTL, Helium10, Amalyze, etc.) who justified price hikes by citing SP-API costs now have to defend those increases on the merits, a good moment to renegotiate vendor terms and archive any usage dashboards before they go offline.
At its May 11 Upfront 2026, Amazon Ads launched Dynamic TV Creative for Interactive Video Ads (IVA) on Prime Video. From a single base asset the system auto-personalizes four elements per viewer: product imagery, CTA ('Add to Cart', 'Send to Phone', 'Save to Cart', 'Visit Brand Store'), headline (awareness vs. consideration), and detail layer (rating, Prime benefit, price), depending on the viewer's funnel stage and prior exposure. Pilot is U.S. only and limited to select advertisers in CPG, fashion, and electronics; broader access plus live sports and Prime Video Channels is slated for Q3 2026. The takeaway for Amazon brands running DSP: one strong master creative is enough. Sequencing and funnel logic run on Amazon's authenticated graph (claimed 90% U.S. household reach). EU rollout not yet confirmed, but it's worth banking U.S. pilot learnings now.
German inflation rose to 2.9% in April, with diesel up 6.1% month-on-month and fuel costs +26.2% year-on-year. The big carriers (DHL, DPD, GLS, Hermes) are passing the increase through via fuel surcharges, meaning meaningfully higher per-shipment cost for FBM and Pan-EU sellers. Consumer sentiment stays cautious, so fully passing costs to customers risks conversion drops. Short-term moves: review free-shipping thresholds, rerun the FBA vs FBM math for heavy/bulky ASINs, consolidate restock shipments, and tighten inventory planning to avoid double-shipping cycles.
At its May 11 Upfront at the Beacon Theatre, Amazon Ads shifted its pitch from inventory to AI-driven, outcomes-led full-funnel advertising. Headline items for advertisers and sellers: Full-Funnel Campaigns (launched Q1 2026) with natural-language setup and AI-assisted creative, audience strategy, and continuous optimization across streaming TV, audio, display, online video, and sponsored ads in a single buy; Prime Video Insights (beta) as a measurement layer linking first-party data with viewing behavior to identify which genres, shows, or audiences drove sales; and interactive ad formats expanding to a third-party streaming environment for the first time (Samsung TV Plus). Alan Moss: 'Agentic shopping is not a new frontier. It's happening now.' Amazon's Authenticated Graph claims 90% US household reach. For Amazon brands the takeaway: pilot full-funnel campaign workflows now and start treating AI agents as the next checkout layer.
On May 8, the Higher Administrative Court of North Rhine-Westphalia (OVG NRW) dismissed IDO's appeal and permanently blocked its registration as a qualified business association under the German UWG (Case 4 A 3451/25). The court found that the association failed to prove it does not primarily pursue profit through cease-and-desist activity. For Amazon, eBay, and webshop sellers, this is meaningful relief: one of Germany's most active senders of warning letters is now permanently barred from sending UWG-based cease-and-desist notices or collecting contractual penalties. IDO may file a constitutional complaint, but that only delays the outcome. Sellers with open IDO cases should have counsel review whether outstanding claims remain enforceable.
On May 7, Amazon launched Alexa+ in Germany and Austria via a free Early Access program; invitations roll out over the coming weeks. Alexa+ is now live in nine markets (U.S., Canada, Mexico, UK, Italy, Spain, Germany, Austria, Ireland). The assistant can complete tasks end-to-end ('order a present for mom', reservations, smart-home actions) and was tuned for German language nuance and humor. Voice shopping is not explicitly confirmed at the Germany launch and the named integrations (OpenTable, Spotify, Philips, Bosch/Siemens, Ring) are non-commerce, but the agentic architecture and proximity to Rufus point clearly in that direction. For Amazon.de sellers: listings, bullets, A+ content, and reviews become the knowledge base AI assistants draw on. Clear, benefit-led copy without keyword stuffing matters more than ever in 2026. Post-Early-Access pricing: included with Prime, otherwise €22.99/month.
Amazon Seller Central staff clarified compliance guidance in late April: sellers must check approval requirements before listing, obtain a Letter of Authorization (LOA) from the brand owner when reselling branded products, and source exclusively from manufacturers or authorized distributors with invoices dated within the last 180 days. The post effectively codifies existing practice, but the enforcement signal is clear: liquidators, retail arbitrage, and gray-market sources become high-risk. Resellers without direct manufacturer or distributor relationships should audit sourcing documents now, secure LOA templates, and rethink sourcing strategy; the pressure follows the end of FBA commingling and the UPC barcode tightening (both March 31).
Amazon Ads and LinkedIn announced on May 7 that advertisers can now buy LinkedIn CTV Ads directly through Amazon DSP, initially only in the U.S. The deal-based integration brings LinkedIn first-party signals from 1B+ member profiles (job title, industry, seniority) onto streaming-TV inventory (via Microsoft Monetize) and lets buyers combine them with Amazon audiences in a single DSP campaign, eliminating fragmented media buys. For B2B brands selling on Amazon (office, pro, industrial), this is a meaningful upper-funnel upgrade for decision-maker targeting; the launch lands four days before Amazon's Upfront 2026 (May 11). EU rollout not yet announced. Brands should pilot in the U.S. now to bank learnings before a likely EU expansion.
Amazon activated 'Payout on Request' for all sellers already migrated to the DD+7 payout schedule, enabling daily withdrawals instead of waiting for the standard billing cycle. Three conditions apply: a positive available balance, an active bank account in Seller Central, and a 24-hour gap between requests. The move noticeably eases the liquidity squeeze from the DD+7 transition. Sellers still facing forced migration should prepare proactively to avoid being stuck in an extended payout backlog during peak season.
On May 5, Amazon announced its largest-ever investment in France: over €15B between 2026 and 2028 and 7,000+ permanent jobs across four new fulfillment centers in Illiers-Combray, Beauvais, Colombier-Saugnieu (all 2026), and Ensisheim (late 2027). The build-out densifies Amazon's logistics footprint in southeast and northern France, bringing FBA inventory closer to shoppers: expect faster delivery promise times and potentially better Pan-EU routing over time. EU sellers should monitor the impact on FBA and Pan-EU placement strategy starting Q3 2026.
On May 4, Amazon launched Amazon Supply Chain Services (ASCS), unifying freight (ocean, air, ground, rail), distribution & fulfillment, parcel shipping (2-5 day), and AI forecasting under one portal at supplychain.amazon.com, available to any business, not just Amazon sellers. Initial enterprise customers include Procter & Gamble, 3M, Lands' End, and American Eagle. For FBA and MCF sellers, the move signals Amazon stepping into direct UPS/FedEx competition: expect broader MCF-style options for off-Amazon channels over time, but note the optical contrast with the 3.5% fuel surcharge that just took effect for existing marketplace sellers (FBA April 17, MCF/Buy with Prime May 2).
Amazon made Rufus significantly more agentic: the AI shopping assistant now shows 365 days of price history (up from 30/90) for 50M+ shoppers in the U.S., UK, and India, and customers can set auto-buy and price-alert tasks like 'buy this sweater when it drops under $30'. Orders stay active for six months and save shoppers ~20% on average. Amazon also launched Scheduled Actions for recurring purchases and a cross-merchant 'Shop Direct' capability. Implication for sellers: those who inflate list prices before promotions and then 'discount' will be exposed by the longer reference window. Stable pricing and honest promo cadence become a competitive edge, and ad and listing strategy should increasingly optimize for Rufus conversations rather than keyword search alone.
Amazon launched Canvas inside Seller Central, an AI-powered visual workspace where sellers ask a question (or pick a suggested prompt) and get personalized dashboards with performance insights, trends, and recommended actions. Built on Amazon Bedrock and Claude, Canvas combines seller data with Amazon's 25 years of marketplace expertise; use cases span inventory decisions, marketing optimization, and product launch planning. The feature is live today at no cost for all sellers in the U.S. and U.K., with more countries and languages planned for 2026. EU sellers should track the rollout and start auditing data hygiene so they can act on AI insights when Canvas arrives in their market.
Amazon Ads booked $17.2B in Q1 2026, up 22% year-over-year, with trailing 12-month revenue topping $70B. CEO Andy Jassy highlighted three growth drivers: Creative Agent (Amazon's AI ad-creation tool) is now available in seven additional countries, Rufus brand integrations are keeping over 20% of shoppers in continued brand conversations, and new partnerships with Netflix and Comcast expand the premium streaming inventory. Jassy framed agentic commerce as a structural ad opportunity: multi-turn shopping conversations create multiple surfaces for organic and sponsored product placements. Brands should pilot Creative Agent now and optimize listings for AI conversations.
Amazon released its 2025 Small Business Empowerment Report: more than 75,000 independent sellers surpassed $1M in sales in 2025, a 36% increase year-over-year, while U.S. sellers averaged over $375K in annual sales. Generative AI tools produced 12 million sales-ready listings, and the agentic Seller Assistant reached 230,000 monthly users with sellers accepting over 90% of its recommendations. Sellers not yet using AI for listing optimization and account management should evaluate the tooling now: adoption is mainstream and Amazon is investing heavily in agentic seller workflows.
Amazon officially confirmed that Prime Day 2026 will run in June, pulling the event forward from its traditional July window. The simultaneous launch covers 26 markets including Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, UK, US, and Canada, with Australia, Brazil, India, and Japan participating later in the summer. EU and US sellers should rebudget ad spend and FBA inventory for June rather than July, hit the April 30 early-bird deal submission deadline, and prepare listings for traffic spikes four to six weeks earlier than prior planning.
Amazon expanded its "Hear the highlights" AI audio feature with "Join the chat": U.S. shoppers can interrupt the audio summary on product detail pages to ask text or voice questions and get real-time answers. The AI draws on listing content, customer reviews, and publicly available web information. For sellers, this means bullets, A+ content, and reviews are now the knowledge base behind purchase decisions. Listings should read clearly, lead with benefits, and avoid keyword stuffing so the AI surfaces the right answers. Rolling out today on iOS and Android in the U.S.
Amazon reports that 100,000+ EU SMEs surpassed €40B in sales on Amazon in 2025, with cross-border exports reaching €17B (up €2B year-over-year). On the policy side, Amazon is calling on the EU to extend the Deemed Supplier rule to all marketplace sales, so the platform collects VAT regardless of where the seller is based. The change would cut compliance burden across 27 national VAT regimes for EU sellers and close the gap with non-EU sellers who already benefit from simplified collection. Relevant for EU seller planning; actual implementation depends on EU legislation.
Amazon Prime Day 2026 is expected in late June. Sellers submitting Best Deals or Lightning Deals by April 30 save $50 on the $100 upfront fee per promotion. The final deal submission window closes May 26, with FBA inventory cutoffs of May 27 (minimal shipment splits) and June 5 (Amazon-optimized splits). Missing the early bird date means paying the full fee.
Amazon launched the Summer Beauty Event 2026 running April 27 through May 10, featuring deals on makeup, skincare, sunscreen, and lip care. Sellers with beauty and personal-care products should quickly set up coupons, Lightning Deals, and Brand Promotions in Seller Central to capture the elevated traffic and promotional visibility during the 14-day window. Adjust inventory and ad budgets accordingly.
Effective April 26, 2026, USPS imposes a temporary 8% surcharge on Priority Mail Express, Priority Mail, USPS Ground Advantage, and Parcel Select, running through January 17, 2027. First-Class stamps are unchanged. Amazon FBM sellers shipping via USPS should review shipping templates in Seller Central, recalculate Buy Shipping pricing, and factor the increase on top of the 3.5% FBA fuel surcharge when modeling Q2 promotional margins.
Starting April 23, 2026, a submitted List Price must be substantiated by real transactions: either actual Featured Offer purchases on Amazon at that price, or recent pricing at another retailer. Without valid proof, the strike-through display and savings percentage disappear entirely from the listing. Sellers should audit all ASINs now and ensure their List Prices reflect genuine, verifiable market prices before the change takes effect.
Amazon has announced Pet Days 2026 running May 11-15, expanding the event to five full days for the first time (previously two days). Sellers with pet products should create deals, coupons, and promotions in Seller Central now to capture the increased buyer traffic. The event targets Prime members during National Pet Month and covers pet food, toys, grooming, apparel, and health care products.
Amazon has expanded several FBA programs specifically for sellers with products priced above $50: automatic reimbursements for missing inbound units without manual claims, Amazon Product Support allowing up to 50% partial refunds to cut costly returns, and FBA Grade & Resell for professional inspection and relisting of returned items. Sellers in this segment should also leverage FBA New Selection benefits (a 10% sales rebate and three months of free storage) to reduce launch risk.
Hundreds of high-revenue Amazon sellers paused their ad campaigns for 24 hours on April 15. Organized by Million Dollar Sellers (700+ members, ~$14B collective revenue), the boycott targeted three simultaneous changes: the DD+7 payout rule, automatic ad cost deductions from proceeds, and the 3.5% fuel surcharge. Amazon responded immediately by deferring the ad billing change to August 1, 2026, a rare public concession.
Amazon has paused its planned switch to automatic deduction of advertising costs from seller account balances, pushing the change to August 1, 2026. The decision followed significant seller backlash: many cited the concurrent FBA fuel surcharge and fee increases as making the timing especially burdensome, with some organizing a one-day ad boycott on April 15. Sellers now have additional time to set up their payment method via account balance or Pay by Invoice.
Starting April 15, 2026, Amazon automatically deducts advertising costs from retail proceeds for a subset of advertisers instead of charging credit cards. Affected sellers are those still paying via credit card, the majority are already on this model. 'Pay by Invoice' with Net 30 payment terms is available as an alternative; credit cards remain a backup option.
Amazon announced the acquisition of Globalstar to expand its Project Kuiper satellite network. Relevant for sellers: Kuiper aims to improve logistics and delivery to remote areas long-term.
Amazon published an updated guide on how sellers can maximize their chances of winning the Featured Offer (formerly Buy Box). Key factors remain price, availability, and seller performance.
Amazon is adding a 3.5% surcharge on FBA fulfillment fees in the US and Canada starting April 17, 2026. On average, this adds $0.17 per unit. Reason: elevated fuel and logistics costs. Starting May 2, the surcharge also applies to Multi-Channel Fulfillment and Buy with Prime.
From May 1, 2026, Amazon charges FBA remission and disposal fees per unit at the time of remission instead of as a lump sum after completion. Sellers should adapt their accounting systems as more individual transactions will occur.
From June 1, 2026, Amazon calculates VAT at shipment level instead of per unit to comply with EU e-invoicing requirements. Invoice amounts may differ slightly for multi-unit purchases. Sellers with custom accounting systems should review the transition.
Since March 26, 2026, qualifying sellers in the EU receive credits up to EUR 47,250 within one week instead of the previous month-long timeline. EU stores (DE, FR, IT, ES) are now treated separately from the UK store, allowing independent bonus qualification.
Amazon testified before the New York City Council on the proposed Delivery Protection Act. The legislation could introduce new regulations for delivery services and last-mile logistics that would also affect FBA deliveries in NYC.
Heat-sensitive FBA products (chocolate, candles, etc.) must be removed from Amazon warehouses by April 20, 2026. Starting May 1, Amazon will dispose of remaining units at a fee. Sellers with seasonal meltable products should create removal orders immediately.
