For many ecommerce and enterprise brands, MAP policies are a crucial tool for maintaining competitive pricing, profitability, and brand integrity.
But for brands that sell on Amazon, enforcing MAP pricing can feel like a never-ending game of whack-a-mole. Unauthorized resellers just keep popping up, automated repricing tools can interfere, and Amazon doesn’t offer much in terms of support.
Yet, despite the challenges, there are steps every brand can take to protect and enforce MAP pricing.
What is MAP pricing (and why does it matter)?
A minimum advertised price (MAP) is the lowest price that a brand allows retailers to show for a product in advertising. The process of setting these prices and enforcing the limitation is called MAP pricing.
MAP pricing is a way to maintain brand equity and image, suggesting that products have a certain level of quality, prestige, or cachet. For this reason, it’s especially important for premium brands with high resale value. MAP pricing can also help protect profitability and keep competition fair across sales channels.
It’s worth noting that MAP pricing doesn’t apply to the actual sale price but to the advertised price. An item with a $9.99 MAP can be sold for $7.99, but retailers that advertise that sale price could find themselves in hot water.
Also noteworthy: a minimum advertised price policy is legally enforceable in the U.S., but there’s no government agency or watchdog group doing the watching. It’s on the brand to enforce its MAP policies by restricting or stopping supply to an offending retailer.
The risks of MAP violations on Amazon
MAP violations are especially tricky on marketplace sites, of which Amazon is the largest in the U.S. by far. When unauthorized sellers (or even just aggressive price competition from authorized sellers) push advertised prices below your MAP, it can lead to:
- Brand devaluation: Without pricing consistency, premium brands might start to look like value brands. Brand reputation can take a hit as well.
- Retailer conflicts: Distributors and authorized sellers may stop carrying products they can’t sell, which is a likely outcome if they can’t compete when playing by the rules.
- Profit erosion: MAP protects profits and margins, but price erosion can force brands into pricing wars.
- Loss of Featured Offer control: Brands that sell directly need to control the Featured Offer (formerly called the Buy Box) — a tough task if they’re being undercut by unauthorized sellers.
Since Amazon Standard Identification Numbers (ASINs) apply to products, not listings, brands end up competing with multiple third-party sellers for sales of the same product.
Amazon doesn’t enforce MAP pricing on its own, either. As a result, a third party could list and sell your products below your MAP — on your very own product page — without your approval.
Challenges sellers face when enforcing MAP pricing on Amazon
Let’s dive a little deeper into what makes MAP pricing so challenging on Amazon.
Inconsistent MAP enforcement across marketplaces
First, it’s tough to enforce MAP pricing consistently on Amazon when brands also sell through other marketplaces that have different MAP rules (like Walmart, eBay, or even their own direct-to-consumer sites).
That’s because price drops on external platforms can trigger lower Amazon prices due to automated repricing algorithms. Amazon and its sellers want to continue selling products, so third-party Amazon repricer tools and even Amazon itself can automatically raise and lower product prices based on activity across the internet. These tools can and often do drop prices below MAP pricing.
The solution? Brands need to develop a cohesive pricing strategy across all sales channels so they aren’t undercutting themselves on any specific platform (and creating unintended MAP violations).
Lack of transparency with seller identities
Another frustration with selling on Amazon is that the tech giant doesn’t always provide full seller details — even in cases of clear MAP violations. This makes it tough to track repeat offenders.
Some unauthorized resellers even use multiple storefronts or anonymous third-party accounts to keep operating while avoiding detection.
This is why brands need effective tools, like Jungle Scout’s Amazon Competitive Intelligence, to monitor listing activity and track pricing changes across multiple seller accounts.
Limited control over third-party sellers
Amazon is a difficult place to control third-party sellers, but if you sell wholesale, you add another layer of complication. Distributors may sell to unauthorized resellers for well below MAP, allowing those resellers to undercut MAP pricing while still turning a profit.
The reality is that, once a product is sold to a distributor, the brand loses control. That product may end up in the hands of sellers who disregard MAP policies — frustrating both the brand and its legitimate resellers and retailers.
To combat this challenge, brands must establish clear reseller agreements and track distribution channels to limit MAP violations. So let’s look at how you can do that effectively.
How to monitor and enforce MAP pricing on Amazon
Follow these four steps to get a handle on your Amazon pricing. By making these changes, you’ll gain the ability to track and enforce MAP pricing on Amazon’s marketplace.
Identify and track unauthorized sellers
The first step is figuring out which sellers are consistently violating your brand’s MAP policies. To monitor unauthorized resellers, you’ll need a platform like Jungle Scout that lets you track all sellers and identify patterns. Monitoring seller pricing history is a reliable way to reveal repeat offenders, so it’s typically the best place to start.
Set up MAP violation alerts and compliance checks
Automated monitoring tools can simplify MAP violation tracking, allowing you to set up automatic alerts that notify you whenever MAP violations occur, so you can take the appropriate action.
Compliance checks are also a good idea, as they help brands detect patterns in price violations and identify those repeat offenders who regularly move into non-compliance.
Communicate and enforce MAP compliance with sellers
Next up is reaching out to those repeat violators with formal MAP violation notices. Proactive communication with good-faith resellers — those who unintentionally violate MAP policies — can nip issues in the bud before they escalate.
But there’s always the question of what to do with bad-faith sellers or repeat offenders. If your brand has its own authorized seller lists, you can remove sellers that violate your MAPs. Otherwise, your options are limited — the only thing you can really do is report repeat offenders to either Amazon or the brands whose MAPs they’re violating.
Use Amazon’s Brand Registry and Transparency programs
Amazon isn’t always a MAP policyholder’s best friend, but the platform does offer two programs that can help: Brand Registry and Transparency.
The Amazon Brand Registry gives brands more control over product listings and unauthorized resellers. With Brand Registry, you can detect and report IP infringement, publish enhanced A+ Content product pages, set up a dedicated Amazon store, and more. Similarly, Amazon’s Transparency program helps brands protect their IPs, especially from counterfeiters.
Neither of these tools will completely eliminate MAP pricing violations, but they can help. And enterprise brands can combine these tools with MAP monitoring solutions for a better overall enforcement approach.
How Jungle Scout helps brands monitor and enforce MAP pricing
Jungle Scout is a powerful addition to any Amazon seller’s arsenal. Our platform equips you with robust tools that deliver actionable insights and marketplace intelligence, helping your brand:
- Track price fluctuations to identify potential MAP violations.
- Monitor competitor pricing trends over time, giving you the data you need to price competitively while protecting profits.
- Grow profits — using Jungle Scout for a year results in an average 367% jump in revenue!
Protect your brand with MAP enforcement
Setting and enforcing a MAP pricing policy is essential for protecting brand value and keeping a level playing field for retail partners, resellers, and even first-party sales. It’s also a key way to protect your profit margins and ensure long-term profitability.
MAP policy enforcement is difficult, especially on Amazon. But with Jungle Scout’s proactive price monitoring and enforcement, ecommerce brands can stay in the driver’s seat and maintain consistent pricing across multiple online marketplaces.
Need an enterprise-level solution? Jungle Scout Cobalt delivers retail insights, market intelligence, and digital shelf analytics that the world’s top brands use to track MAP violations and take enforcement actions on Amazon.
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