Amazon and Etsy Account Suspensions: What the Seller Terms Say and How to Appeal

Why accounts get suspended

Both platforms list the reasons in their own policies. The common ones are:

• Authenticity and IP complaints: counterfeit or inauthentic product claims, and trademark, copyright or patent notices from rights owners.
• Performance: order defects, late shipments and cancellations on Amazon, or missing Etsy's Seller Service Level Standards.
• Identity and verification: information that does not match documents, or a bank account or payment method that cannot be verified.
• Related or multiple accounts: Amazon allows one Seller Central account per region unless there is a legitimate business need; Etsy may suspend accounts it determines are related to a violating account.
• Prohibited products, and on Etsy, items that are not made, designed, handpicked or sourced by the seller (dropshipping and reselling are not allowed except in narrow cases).
• Manipulation: paid or incentivised reviews, search manipulation, off-platform transactions and misuse of buyer data.

What Amazon's Business Solutions Agreement allows

Every seller in Amazon's U.S. store accepts the Amazon Services Business Solutions Agreement (BSA) with Amazon.com Services LLC. Three sections matter most.

Amazon's Account Health Rating

The Account Health Rating (AHR) is a score from 0 to 1,000 based on compliance with selling policies over the last 180 days. New sellers start at 200.

• 200 to 1,000 (Healthy): not at risk of deactivation under the policies in the score.
• 100 to 199 (At risk): the account is at risk of deactivation.
• 99 or lower (Unhealthy): eligible for deactivation, or already deactivated.

How violations affect the score

Violations are rated critical, high, medium or low, and repeat violations of the same policy cost more points each time. Reaching the maximum number of repeat violations for one policy within 180 days, which can be as low as two, can lead to deactivation.

Amazon can still deactivate an account immediately for suspected fraudulent, deceptive or illegal activity, whatever its score.

How to appeal on Amazon

1. Open Account Health in Seller Central and choose Reactivate your account. For a removed listing, look under Product Policy Compliance or your inactive inventory.
2. Find the root cause. Amazon may ask you to answer a questionnaire, acknowledge the violation, complete a quiz or upload documents. Sellers often call the written part a plan of action.
3. Explain what caused the problem, what you have already fixed and what you have changed so it does not happen again, with evidence for each point.
4. Attach documents that meet Amazon's rules (next section) and submit.
5. Watch your email. Amazon says to expect a reply within two days. If it asks for more, answer through View Appeal in Account Health.

Do not open a second account to keep selling. Running more than one account without a legitimate business need is a violation in its own right.

Evidence for authenticity and IP appeals

Amazon's invoice requirements for appeals are specific:

• Invoices issued directly by the supplier, showing the supplier's name, phone number, address and website.
• An issue date within the 365 days before the performance notification.
• Quantities that cover your sales and stock of each cited ASIN over the past 365 days, with matching product identifiers (UPC, EAN, ISBN or model number).
• PDF or image files (.pdf, .jpg, .png or .gif) of up to 10 MB, uploaded through Seller Central. You may hide prices, but nothing else.
• Not accepted: pro forma invoices, quotes, or invoices sent by email or through third-party links.

Trademark, copyright and patent notices

If you have a licence from the rights owner, ask the owner to send Amazon a retraction. If the notice concerns a product detail page, edit the page and appeal.

For copyright, you can file a counter-notice under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. A seller outside the U.S. must consent to the jurisdiction of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.

For a patent notice, reply with your reasons, or with a court order finding no infringement or an invalid patent.

Etsy: what its Terms and policies say

• Grounds: Etsy may suspend or terminate an account, and any accounts it determines are related, if it believes you, your content or your use of the services violate its Terms or Seller Policy.
• Notice: Etsy generally tells you about a suspension, unless you have repeatedly violated its Terms or legal reasons prevent it.
• Payment limits: for unusual order activity, missed service standards or fraud and chargeback risk, Etsy may limit visibility or put restrictions or reserves on your payment account.
• What you sell: items must be made, designed, handpicked or sourced by you. Production partners and items created with AI must be disclosed, and orders to the U.S. must ship Delivery Duty Paid.
• Buyer cases: once a buyer reports a problem, you have 48 hours to resolve it before the buyer can open a case.
• IP complaints: Etsy removes material on a compliant report and terminates repeat infringers. It accepts DMCA counter-notices only for U.S.-based copyright reports, and removed material may be restored 10 business days after the counter-notice is processed unless the complainant goes to court or the Copyright Claims Board.

Where disputes are decided

• Amazon (U.S. store): Washington law and individual AAA arbitration, wherever the seller is based.
• Etsy, sellers in North or South America: the contract is with Etsy, Inc. Arbitration with the AAA follows a 60-day informal resolution period that starts with a Notice of Dispute to disputeresolution@etsy.com. Business claims above $75,000 use the AAA commercial rules.
• Etsy, sellers in Europe, Asia or Africa (including Turkey and China): the contract is with Etsy Ireland UC, and Irish law and Irish courts apply, except where local law prohibits it. Sellers based in Australia are governed by Australian law and courts.

Arbitration or a lawsuit is a last step. Most suspensions are resolved, or not, inside the platform's appeal process, so the appeal itself deserves the most care.

Prevention: protect the account before a problem

• Register your brand. Amazon Brand Registry needs a pending or registered trademark from the office of a country with an Amazon store, and a logo with the brand name on the product or packaging. See U.S. trademark registration.
• File supplier invoices, letters of authorisation and licences by ASIN or listing.
• Keep account details identical across the marketplace, the bank and your company records; see U.S. company formation.
• Check Account Health, or your Etsy shop's standing, every week, and act on warnings before they repeat.
• Do not share devices, logins or payment methods with other sellers' accounts.