Amazon Seller Code of Conduct Explained: The 7 Violations (2026)#

TL;DR: Amazon's Seller Code of Conduct defines seven violation categories — from accurate-information duties to review manipulation and account-limitation circumvention. Enforcement lands as Plan-of-Action demands, listing removals, or account deactivation. Two violations end more accounts than the rest combined: review manipulation and multiple-account circumvention. This guide explains each category, how Amazon actually detects them, and where each one is covered in depth elsewhere on this site.

Every Amazon seller agrees to the Seller Code of Conduct at registration — and most never read it until an email cites it. The Code is short; its enforcement is not. This explainer unpacks each violation in operational terms: what Amazon is actually detecting, and what a citation means for your account.

The Seven Violations#

1. Providing accurate information. Your seller profile, business details, tax information, and product data must be accurate and current. Detection: registration cross-checks, tax ID validation, catalog data consistency. Citations usually ride along with bigger violations — rarely the sole cause of deactivation, but it compounds every other case.

2. Acting with integrity / not harming the marketplace. The umbrella clause covering anything that damages seller trust or the buying experience. It's the citation Amazon reaches for when behavior is clearly abusive but doesn't fit a named policy — treat it as the "catch-all" in POA responses.

3. Not circumventing the sales process. Diverting transactions away from Amazon's flow: inserting inserts that route buyers off-platform, offering incentives to buy elsewhere, alternate payment arrangements. Detection: insert-scanning at fulfillment centers, buyer reports, listing copy analysis.

4. Not sending inappropriate email communications. Marketing to buyers outside Amazon Buyer-Seller Messaging rules. The permitted-use boundaries are narrow (order-related communication only, no marketing unless through Amazon's own tools). Detection: message-content analysis and buyer complaints. This violation family is heavily automated.

5. Not attempting to circumvent Amazon's fee structure. Diverting sales to avoid referral fees — same mechanics as #3 but aimed at fees rather than the sales process broadly.

6. Reasonable care in operating the account. Not letting others misuse your account, securing credentials, supervising employee access. This is the citation that lands on sellers whose agency or VAs ran risky operations — "I didn't know what my contractor did" is precisely what this clause forecloses.

7. No rating/buying/selling manipulation. The heaviest enforcement category: incentivized reviews, review swaps, buying your own products, operating "review services," externally-driven fake reviews. Detection spans review-graph analysis (reviewer account relationships), insert recovery at warehouses, and buyer-side disclosures. Also in this bucket: operating multiple accounts without Amazon's permission — the legitimate-reasons standard is narrow and application-based, not self-declared.

Which Violations End Accounts#

Severity is about pattern and category, not the email's tone:

Code of Conduct vs Section 3: The Relationship#

Sellers often see both cited and wonder which "really" matters. The Code of Conduct defines the behaviors; Section 3 of the Business Services Agreement is the termination mechanism Amazon invokes to close the account. Deactivation emails frequently cite both — the Code violation as the reason, Section 3 as the consequence. Our Amazon Section 3 violation appeal guide covers that mechanism specifically.

If You're Cited#

The POA structure Amazon expects is the same three parts in every Code-of-Conduct case: root cause (which violation, and the operational truth of how it happened — including contractors and tools by name), immediate correction (what was removed/changed, with evidence), prevention (the system change that makes recurrence impossible). Our Amazon Plan of Action template walks the structure, and the denied-appeal next steps guide covers the second-round dynamics when the first POA fails.

FAQ#

Is the Code of Conduct the same as Amazon's policies for specific abuse?#

No — the Code is the umbrella. Specific policies (review policies, communication guidelines, Fair Pricing) detail named violations, and enforcement emails usually cite both the specific policy and the Code section.

My agency ran my account. Am I responsible under "reasonable care"?#

Yes — that's exactly what clause 6 allocates. The POA should own the supervision failure and show the new vendor-management controls; blaming the contractor without showing your control change reads as non-ownership.

Can one Code violation end a five-year-old account?#

Review manipulation and multi-account citations can, on first confirmed instance. Most other categories escalate: listing removal → POA → deactivation across repeat offenses.

Does Amazon warn before enforcing the Code?#

There's no universal warning ladder. Some violations start with listing removals; serious categories (reviews, multi-account) often arrive as deactivation. The Account Health dashboard is the warning system — check it weekly.

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Cited under the Code of Conduct? UnBanAI drafts your POA around the specific violation Amazon cited.