Stop selling and withhold payment? Amazon is serious this time Be cautious when receiving this type of email!

Amazon warns to be cautious of emails that instruct to stop selling and withhold payment as they are serious this time

New countdown! The “Consumer Notification Act” will take effect in the United States on June 27, 2023. The bill stipulates that high-volume sellers have an obligation to provide their business information, and Amazon has an obligation to collect, verify, and disclose this information.

In response, Amazon has also quickly responded, not only early announcement to start verification, but also a wave of indiscriminate warnings before this, and the back end will prompt “Your account is at risk of being suspended”, which scares sellers.

Which sellers are within the jurisdiction of the “Consumer Notification Act”?

It is reported that the bill applies to third-party sellers who sell goods on the Amazon Marketplace and meet the following conditions: in the past 24 months, the total sales of new (or unused) goods for 12 consecutive months ≥ 200 pieces, and the total transaction amount exceeds 5,000 US dollars. According to this condition, almost all sellers will need to be verified.

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The sellers who meet the conditions will face one or more of the following verifications:

– Seller identity verification

– Bank account verification

– Enterprise address verification

– Phone number verification

– Tax information verification

Sellers need to ensure that they have provided the above information/documents to Amazon and maintain the timeliness and accuracy of this information/documents. Otherwise, Amazon may suspend your sales authorization and withhold funds until the seller provides the necessary information and successfully completes the verification.

How to complete verification?

Sellers who generally need to be verified will receive email notifications and display verification banners on their account information pages, which may be single verification or multiple verifications.

Seller identity verification

1. Log in to the Amazon Seller Platform, click “Settings > Seller Account Information > Begin Re-verification”, and find the verification entrance;

2. Submit the required information following these steps. The necessary documents are the legal representative’s ID card (front and back), business license, bank statement, or credit card statement (Note: the legal representative’s address and billing address must be consistent. The credit card used for payment does not have to belong to the legal representative, but the credit card statement for verification must be the legal representative’s! Jite has collected an application tutorial for billing, please leave a message if needed);

3. If the verification is successful, your seller account information page will display “Verification Successful”; if the verification fails, the seller can click “Start Verification Again” in the same location to restart the verification process.

How does an individual seller account get verified?

Amazon has opened a link for individual seller verification. When entering the verification page, select “No, I am an individual seller” and submit your ID card (front and back) and bank/credit card statement to complete the verification.

What should I do if my business license has been cancelled or changed?

According to sellers’ sharing, you can update your company and address in the background first, and then submit new materials for verification.

What should I do if the legal representative has changed?

Some sellers have stated that you can directly verify by submitting new legal representative information.

Bank account verification

Scenario 1: Verify the current/receiving payment tool

1. Log in to the Amazon seller platform, click “Settings>Account Information>Payment Information>Deposit Method>Manage Deposit Methods”, and find the verification entrance.

2. After submitting the required information, your seller account information page will display “Your account is being verified”.

3. If the verification is successful, your seller account information page will display “Verification Successful”. At this time, you can click the “Allocate” button on the right side of the “Deposit Information” page, enter the “Allocate Deposit Method” page, and click the “Set Deposit Method” button at the bottom to assign the verified bank account to receive payments for your store on the US site.

Scenario 2: Add a new bank account

1. Log in to the Amazon Seller Platform and click “Settings > Account Info > Payment Info > Deposit Method > Add New Deposit Method” to find the operation entry.

2. Add and provide the corresponding bank account information. After successfully adding, return to the previous page and click “Manage Deposit Methods” to verify.

3. If the verification is successful, your seller account information page will prompt “Verification Successful”. At this time, you can click the “Allocate” button on the right side of the “Deposit Information” page to enter the “Allocate Deposit Method” page. Click the “Set Deposit Method” button at the bottom to designate the verified bank account to receive payments for your store on the US site.

Note: After the bank account is submitted for verification, there is a mandatory security retention period of 3 days. After 3 days, you can start transferring funds from the account.

Company Address or Phone Number Verification

Generally, there are three situations after receiving the verification email: ① only need to verify the address; ② only need to verify the phone number; ③ both the address and the phone number need to be verified.

1. Log in to the Amazon Seller Platform, click “Settings > Account Info > Business Info > Company Address and Phone Number”, and find the verification entry.

2. Click “Add New Address” or “Add New Company Phone Number” to enter the information filling page.

3. After submitting the required information, the page will be redirected to a new page, and specific verifications will be triggered based on the changes. For example, it may be necessary to receive a postcard from Amazon for one-time verification.

Note: The international area code “+86” for China needs to be added before the verified phone number, otherwise the verification code may not be received.

There are only three chances for phone verification. What should you do if you have used up all the chances? A seller friend shared the following solution:

Add a new address that is exactly the same as the verified address (otherwise it will trigger postcard verification) and add “+86” before the phone number. After selecting this new address, it will also be verified successfully. Then you can choose to verify the phone number, and you will receive the PIN code from Amazon on your mobile phone. At this time, you will find that there are 3 more verification chances! If you still can’t receive it, try selecting English as the language.

Taxpayer Identity Verification

1. Log in to the Amazon Seller Platform and click “Settings > Account Info > Tax Info > Tax Info” to find the verification entry.

2. You will see the previously provided tax information pre-filled on this page. If necessary, you can click “Edit” to update the information.

3. Click “Continue”, provide an electronic signature and submit it for Amazon to complete the verification process.

The above is the operation process for various verifications. If you have received an audit notice, you can refer to the above methods for verification. It should be noted that the “Consumer Notice Act” will take effect on June 27th. Sellers must pay attention to this time point and not miss it.

If you have not yet received a verification email, especially if your account was purchased or there are issues with your business license and other materials, be sure to prepare in advance and take preventive measures to avoid encountering situations where you cannot provide valid information during the audit.

In addition, JiTe has also collected audit guidance and successful account verification case studies to share. If you need or have other questions to consult, you can leave a message for consultation~

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