Amazon Pesticide Suspensions
Products classed as pesticides and/or FDA approved are being suspended again
Amazon has suspended thousands of random product detail pages since April 2019, including books, kitchen gadgets and toys, due to being PESTICIDES OR PESTICIDE DEVICES
Amazon Sellers selling on Amazon.com (USA) who reside in the USA received this email:
Dear Seller,
As part of our ongoing efforts to protect our customers and enhance the customer experience, we are updating the requirements to offer products that qualify as pesticides or pesticide devices. Pesticides and pesticide devices include a broad set of products, and it can be hard to identify which products qualify and why. You are offering, or have previously offered, products that are affected, including for example:
ASIN XXXXXXXX
To continue your current offers on affected products after June 7, 2019, you will need to complete a brief online training and pass the associated test. You will not be able to create new offers on any affected products until you receive approval. You are required to take the training and pass the test only once, even if you have offers on multiple products. This training will help you understand your obligations under EPA regulations as a seller of pesticides and pesticide devices.
Amazon Sellers selling on Amazon.com (USA) who reside in Australia and other countries, outside the USA, received this email:
Dear Seller,
We would like to remind you that, as per Amazon’s policy, non-US sellers cannot list pesticides or pesticide devices for sale on Amazon.com. Therefore, you will not be able to sell these products on Amazon, and any offers you have for these products will be removed.
If you supply products for sale on Amazon, you must comply with all federal, state, and local laws and Amazon policies applicable to those products and product listings.
For more information on Amazon’s policies for listing pesticides and pesticide devices, please refer to the help page on Pesticides and Pesticide Devices: https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/202115120
Regards,
Amazon Services
If you receive this email, bear in mind that, if you are not selling pesticides, your listing may have been triggered as a false positive. You will need to contact Amazon to get the suspension lifted. Suspensions have been taking from 3 days to 3 months to get lifted, depending on the seller and the process they have taken.
USA sellers are reporting that there isn't any actual training but they get the link to the training, click on it and, once they input their email, they are approved.
International sellers cannot take the training. In Australia, we will need to raise a case and most cases will take time to reinstate listings, including escalations of cases.
Follow these instructions to reinstate your listings FASTER on Amazon USA, if you are located in Australia, and if you have had a false positive with any of your listings classed as pesticides or restricted products
Before you begin, check for any words in your listing such as:
| Pest terms | Protection terms | Exclusions |
| Mites | (1) Annihilate
(2) Bait or bait station (3) Be gone (4) Blocker or Block (5) Control (6) Counteract (7) Curb (8) Decontaminate (9) Destroy (10) Destroy (11) Disinfect (12) Do away with (13) Effective against (14) Eliminate (15) Eradicate (16) Exterminate (17) Extinguish (18) Fend off (19) Halt (20) Hard to kill (21) Hinder (22) Impede (23) Infest or infestation (24) Inhibit (25) Kill (26) Minimize (27) Mitigate (28) Poison (29) Prevent (30) Purify (31) Put an end to (32) Reduce (33) Remove (34) Repel (35) Resist/Resistant (36) Retard (37) Sanitize (38) Slay (39) Stamp Out (40) Sterilize (41) Stop (42) Thwart (43) Ward off (44) Wipe Out |
Media
Digital products and accessories Audible, wine Watch Wireless and accessory
Also, exclude: (1) All consumable products including supplements (this exclusion includes consumable products for both humans and animals) (2) Mouse pads (3) Sprayers, including garden sprayers, that do not contain any substance or are not sold with any substance (4) The following devices unless they state on the detail page or product image that they contain an active pesticidal ingredient, including but not limited to bait or an attractant: • Burlap fabric • Fish Traps • Fishing line • Fly Swatters • Handheld gardening tools • Landscape fabric, tarps and mats • Mouse Traps • Rat Traps • Tillage Equipment for Weed Control (e.g., plows) • Weed barrier fabric, tarps and mats
FDA regulated products should also be excluded: (1) Antiseptic (2) Bandages (3) Bandaids (4) Cream (5) Dressing (6) Hand Sanitizer (7) Lotion (8) Soap |
| Pest terms | Protection terms | Exclusions |
| (1) Algae
(2) Anti-bacterial or antibacterial (protection term is not required) (3) Anti-fouling or antifouling (protection term is not required) (4) Anti-fungal or antifungal (protection term is not required) (5) Anti-microbial or antimicrobial (protection term is not required) (6) Bacteria (7) Blight (8) Fungal (9) Fungi (10) Fungus (11) Microbe (12) Microorganism (13) Mildew (14) Mold (15) Protozoa (16) Spores (17) Vector |
(1) Annihilate
(2) Bait or bait station (3) Be gone (4) Blocker or Block (5) Control (6) Counteract (7) Curb (8) Decontaminate (9) Destroy (10) Destroy (11) Disinfect (12) Do away with (13) Effective against (14) Eliminate (15) Eradicate (16) Exterminate (17) Extinguish (18) Fend off (19) Halt (20) Hard to kill (21) Hinder (22) Impede (23) Infest or infestation (24) Inhibit (25) Kill (26) Minimize (27) Mitigate (28) Poison (29) Prevent (30) Purify (31) Put an end to (32) Reduce (33) Remove (34) Repel (35) Resist/Resistant (36) Retard (37) Sanitize (38) Slay (39) Stamp Out (40) Sterilize (41) Stop (42) Thwart (43) Ward off (44) Wipe Out |
Same as above |
If the product is not a pesticide or a pesticide device but the title or product description consists of keywords like “Botanicals”, “moisture”, “harmful chemicals”, “insects”, “germs”, “preventing”, “destroying”, “repelling”, or “mitigating any pest”, or makes any “antimicrobial”, “antifungal”, “antibacterial”, or “pesticide” claim it is enough for the product to be gated as a pesticide.
If the product is not a pesticide product or a pesticide device but the title or product description consists of keywords like “safe”, “non-poisonous”, “non-injurious”, “harmless”, “non-toxic”, or “natural”, “repelling” or “migrating any pest”, or makes any “antimicrobial”, “antifungal”, “natural”, “antibacterial”, or “pesticide” claim it is enough for the products to be gated as a pesticide.
Take the offending words out. Even if you have never had your listings suspended, you might want to ensure that they don’t get suspended in the first place. So, delete the words that may class your products as something that they are not.
At this stage, you will most likely not have access to editing your listing manually, in inventory manager. You will therefore need to edit it by uploading a file.
ALWAYS use Microsoft Excel for Amazon uploads. Other spreadsheet software will not work.
Get a copy of your listing file, delete all offending words, close the listing(s) manually and do a file upload of the clean product listing:
Get a copy of your existing listing
- Go to https://sellercentral.amazon.com/help/hub/support/INTENT_CTI_Inventory_File_Upload_Issue
- Type CATEGORY LISTINGS REPORT in the CONTACT REASON field
- In the PLEASE DESCRIBE YOUR ISSUE field type something like… “Please give me access to a category listings report” and then SEND
- Wait for the email that the case is closed or check if it is closed here after a few hours: https://sellercentral.amazon.com/cu/case-lobby
- Once available to you to to SELLERCENTRAL > INVENTORY > INVENTORY REPORTS > SELECT REPORT TYPE > CATEGORY LISTINGS REPORT > REQUEST REPORT
- Wait a few seconds and DOWNLOAD
- Open the file in Excel
- You now have a copy of your listings in a flat file that is ready to modify and upload. If you have multiple products, delete the rows for the products that have not been affected by the pesticide issue.
- Go here: https://sellercentral.amazon.com/listing/download?ref_=xx_download_tnav_status
- Download an advanced inventory file for your category and copy and paste the correct information in the correct fields from your category listings report. Make sure that you have deleted all instances of any offending keywords. Look in the table above for any keywords that might be triggering the suspension.
- Once you’ve created the file, go here: https://sellercentral.amazon.com/listing/upload?ref_=xx_upload_tnav_status
- Go to STEP 2 – UPLOAD FILE
- FILE TYPE, select Inventory Files for non-Media Categories
- CHOOSE FILE: Select your file and UPLOAD
If the problem is fixed, you should be able to go to your inventory, find the listing that will likely be closed and click on RELIST. If it’s still inactive or out of stock, just call Seller Support and ask them to activate your listings. Explain that you have inventory in FBA. This will sometimes solve the problem. Sometimes, you may need to delete your listings first, then reupload the file. In these cases, you should change the PARTIAL UPDATE field to UPDATE.
In many cases, this alone does not fix the problem. You will most notably be redirected to the training and test for pesticide products again. However, as you are not located in the USA and only USA residents are permitted to sell pesticides, you will not be able to complete the training or test. That’s ok because if you now open a case with Amazon, you will be able to let them know that you have tried to correct the problem and delete the words by uploading a new product file. They will have access to that file in your backend so they will be able to verify and see if there is anything else wrong before they reinstate the listing.
If you don’t have a Trademark or Brand Registry
You will have to go through the normal Seller Central route. This can sometimes be painful and can take longer than expected but you should start there.
Go here: https://sellercentral.amazon.com/help/hub/support/INTENT_CTI_ProductsListingsInventory#
Describe the problem succinctly. Add attachments of screenshots that explain the problem. If your product has a pesticides issue, ensure you use the words “restricted as a false positive for pesticides”. Explain that you are not a USA seller and cannot complete the training and testing required. Make sure you mention that your product is not a pesticide, it is a XXXXX.
If this does not work…
Wait a day and follow up by phone.
- This time go here: https://sellercentral.amazon.com/cu/case-lobby?ref=xx_caselog_cont_home
- Find the case and click on reply. Select the phone option and get a phone call by Amazon.
If this does not work…
Wait a day and follow up by email. Go here: https://sellercentral.amazon.com/cu/case-lobby?ref=xx_caselog_cont_home
Find the case and click on reply. Select the email option. Request that your case is escalated to the relevant restrictions team.
If you have Brand Registry
Follow the instructions above, only use the Brand Registry Support portal instead here: https://brandregistry.amazon.com/home?
In all cases, ensure you keep a note of all Case Numbers for future escalations. The internal escalations' teams WILL NOT look at your case or reply if you have not gone through the proper processes. They need to see that you have opened and escalated cases, and that you have used all the normal processes at your disposal.
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