Updated: Amazon Compliance Reference Tool To Ensure Products Meet Requirements

12/06/2021 UPDATE : In their latest news announcement, Amazon says that at this point, the Compliance Reference Tool doesn’t include dangerous goods, food products, or chemical products. That explains the zero results for chemical substances-related keywords I’ve mentioned in the article below. Though, Amazon says they will add more products or new categories in the next six months, they didn’t say what exactly, so we’ll keep our eye out for future updates.

Amazon has recently released a new Compliance Reference Tool to aid sellers in understanding their import or export compliance obligations in the country they want to ship from or sell in.

It also provides information on whether a product (e.g., baby products, toys, or those that contain lithium batteries) is subject to certain Product Assurance requirements. This tool will also keep them in the loop about any changes in the requirements associated with their products.

This should be a welcome addition to many sellers who have, in the past, felt blindsided by out-of-compliance issues and suspensions. The new Compliance Tool may help them to better navigate the complexities of selling within certain categories.

How It Works

1. Look up compliance content that’s relevant to your product using a keyword or product type. Then, read the associated help content to gain a better understanding of your compliance obligations.
2. Connect with service providers who can assist you with meeting your compliance requirements.

The Caveat

A fair warning, though; while this tool aims to be useful, what happens when it doesn’t return results for certain keywords?

Some sellers have reported receiving zero results when they used keywords related to pesticides (e.g., microbial and anti-bacterial), hazardous materials, arsenic, and lead. Although on the tool’s help page, it says you should try a new keyword from the dropdown list if you receive a “no related product type found” error message. But that would make things quite difficult for sellers who don’t know what other keywords or product types they should use to get to the compliance content they need?

This limitation also makes some sellers wonder if the tool is actually working or is still under beta testing to help Amazon see how many users will use it, and maybe from the searches made by those users, build out a list of products or materials they should include in their database.

Feel free to test it yourself here: Compliance Reference Tool.

Related: Mistakes to Avoid When Shipping to Amazon FBA