Amazon has very strict performance and behavior requirements a seller must follow in order to keep good standings with Amazon. If your selling privileges have been removed, they may be eligible for reinstatement by appeal.

Steps for Appealing a Suspension

1: Determine Why you Were Suspended

Read any notices in your Seller Central account under Performance > Performance Notifications. This will help you determine if your suspension was due to poor performance or for a potential violation to their selling Policies and Agreements.

2: Evaluate Your Selling Practices

Review your customer metrics in ChannelAdvisor or Amazon Seller Central and identify those that do not meet the the Amazon performance targets. Evaluate your selling practices for those that may result in buyer dissatisfaction. Review your inventory for items that are in violation of their  Policies & Agreements.

Seller Performance Targets

 All Amazon sellers should be working toward achieving and maintaining a level of customer service that meets the following seller performance targets:

•  Order defect rate: < 1%

• Pre-fulfillment cancel rate: < 2.5%

• Late shipment rate: < 4%

Amazon selling accounts are commonly suspended or blocked for:

• Poor performance, i.e., your Amazon customer metrics (order defect rate, cancellation rate, and/or late shipment rate) do not meet their performance targets.
• Violations of the Amazon Selling Policies and specifically:

• Setting up a second Amazon account, in the same locale, to have two Amazon listing identities.
• Operating and maintaining multiple seller accounts is prohibited by Amazon.
  
• Setting up new Amazon account with a different name after being suspended from Selling. Amazon will monitor IP addresses on closed accounts.
• Violating the Price Parity clause of the Amazon Policies & Agreements. You should refer to your agreement for details. The basics of the clause state that a merchant must maintain price parity between the products you offer through your other sales channels (your own website, eBay, etc)  and the products you list on Amazon. This includes consideration of shipping charges, refunds and discounts.
• Marketing directly to your Amazon customers in violation of the Amazon Policies & Agreements. You should refer to your agreement for details. The basics of the requirement state that a seller will not use Amazon information contact or market to a customer with the goal of having them make additional or alternative purchases outside of Amazon (eg directly on your own website).
• Violations of the Amazon rules about Prohibited Content and/or Restricted Products.

3: Create a Plan of Action

Create a Plan of Action to outline the steps you will take to correct the problem(s) that Amazon identified in the suspension notice or that you identified in Step 2. Providing a precise Plan of Action that effectively addresses the problems improves the chance that your selling privileges will be reinstated.

Important -  To have the best chance of success, your plan must address the specific concerns that Amazon has raised in their suspension notice.

As part of your resolution plan, you may need to write an email explaining the issue and what your plan of action is to resolve it.  An example reinstated on Amazon letter can be downloaded.

4: Send your Appeal to Amazon

Once you have created your Plan of Action, send it to Seller Performance with your request for reinstatement. You can submit your appeal via your Seller Central account (using the Appeal button in the Performance > Performance Notification screen) or email it to seller-performance@amazon.com. 

Step 5: Watch your e-mail for a decision from Amazon

After receiving your Plan of Action, we'll notify you of our decision by e-mail, usually within 48 hours. We review all appeals carefully. However, submission of an appeal does not guarantee reinstatement of your selling privileges.

Additional Information

In the event that you find your Amazon account has been shut down, you should refer to the instructions on the Amazon Seller Central page Appeals for Suspended or Blocked Accounts.

• Amazon Strategy Blog Post (August 11, 2012) - How to be Reinstated on Amazon
• Category, Product, and Listing Restrictions
• Product Detail Page Rules
• Prohibited Content
• Prohibited Seller Activities and Actions