Amazon's revised commercial liability insurance requirements for its US store took effect today. Third-party sellers with products in categories carrying enhanced safety listing requirements must now hold USD 1 million in cover whatever their monthly sales, and sellers based in Mainland China can no longer submit a new policy bought outside an insurer network Amazon built with a broker. The change was announced on September 3 in a post by the News_Amazon account on the US Seller Forums, which PPC Land reported on September 21. Two months on, the notice has been viewed 4,800 times and has drawn 52 replies, many of them asking questions Amazon's published documents do not settle.

In Short

Amazon now makes some small sellers buy USD 1 million of liability insurance even if they sell very little, as long as they list products such as toys, cosmetics, supplements or items with lithium batteries. Sellers based in Mainland China also have to buy that insurance through a group of insurers Amazon set up, rather than from any company they choose. If you sell in those categories without a valid policy on file, you risk losing the right to sell there, because Amazon's emails to sellers make proof of cover the condition for continuing.

Two new triggers on top of the old threshold

The baseline rule has not moved. Under section 9 of the Amazon Services Business Solutions Agreement, sellers must obtain and maintain commercial liability insurance within 30 days after exceeding USD 10,000 in gross proceeds in one month on Amazon.com, "or if otherwise requested by us," according to Amazon's Commercial Liability Insurance Requirements page. The minimum is USD 1 million per occurrence and in the aggregate.

What changed today are two additional conditions. The first is tied to the product. "First, sellers with products listed in categories with enhanced safety listing requirements will now be required to maintain a commercial liability insurance policy that covers those products, with a minimum coverage of USD 1 million per occurrence and in aggregate, regardless of whether they meet the USD 10,000 gross proceeds in a month threshold," the notice states. "This change applies to both new and existing listings."

Amazon names children's products, cosmetic and ingestible products, and lithium battery products, but says the categories "include, but are not limited to" these three. SellerEssentials and EcomCrew each counted 11 categories in September, from fire-related goods to mattresses and tires.

The second condition is tied to the seller's location. "Second, sellers based in Mainland China must now obtain their insurance through the Amazon Insurance Accelerator (AIA) program," according to the notice. "Starting November 2, 2026, we will reject newly submitted insurance policies that are not obtained through AIA." A valid third-party policy that meets the requirements and was submitted before November 2 can be used until it expires. "After that policy expires, you will be required to obtain insurance through AIA," Amazon wrote.

Amazon justified both changes in a single sentence: they are meant "to help protect Amazon's customers as well as help you protect your business from financial loss in the event of a product-related incident."

Thirteen criteria, and three ways around them

The requirements page, which sits in Seller Central Help under the Account Health Rating program policy, now lists 13 criteria that every policy must meet "unless otherwise required by applicable law or regulation." The two new triggers appear as items 12 and 13. The rest set out what a compliant policy looks like:

  • Policy type: commercial general, umbrella or excess liability.
  • Basis: the policy must be written on an "occurrence basis."
  • Limits: at least USD 1 million per occurrence and in aggregate, covering products, products/completed operations and bodily injury.
  • Deductible: no greater than $10,000, and listed on the Certificate of Insurance.
  • Scope: the policy "must cover all sales from products you have listed on the Amazon.com store."
  • Additional insureds: the policy must name "Amazon.com Services LLC and its affiliates and assignees."
  • No sunset clause, and the insurer must give Amazon at least 30 days' notice of cancellation, modification or non-renewal.
  • Insurer quality: global claim handling capability and a financial rating of S&P A- and/or AM Best A- or better, with a local equivalent allowed where those agencies are not used.
  • Name match: the insured name must match the legal entity name in the seller's account, with single-member LLCs also allowed to use a trade name.

The additional-insured clause matters more than its position on the list suggests. Policies bought to satisfy the rule extend protection to Amazon itself, which is relevant given the Consumer Product Safety Commission's July 2024 decision that Amazon is a distributor of hazardous products sold by third parties through Fulfillment by Amazon, a finding Amazon challenged in federal court in March 2025.

The scope criterion also answers, at least on paper, a question left open in September: whether a seller brought in only by the category trigger can insure just the affected products. The forum notice speaks of a policy "that covers those products." The requirements page, however, says a policy "must meet all of the following criteria," including coverage of all sales from all listed products, and it describes no narrower policy for low-volume sellers caught by item 12.

Three exits from the rules are written into the page. Item 2 allows a "claims-made policy" when a seller "cannot procure an 'occurrence-based policy' for certain product categories that are outlined in the Frequently asked questions." Item 13 binds China-based sellers to AIA "unless otherwise agreed in writing by Amazon," a qualifier that does not appear in the forum notice. And a general clause states: "Amazon will consider exceptions to these requirements on a case-by-case basis if you are unable to secure a policy that meets these requirements." The page gives no timeline for case-by-case decisions and no criteria for a written agreement; for both, it points to the FAQ on the Business Insurance page.

The claims-made route had already been tested before the notice. One seller posted an Amazon message received on July 3 confirming that "claims-made policies are permitted for children's products that are not insurable under an occurrence policy form, which includes MVSS 213 restraints like the products you sell."

A mandatory network that can still say no

For China-based sellers, the requirement and the program's own description do not fully line up. Amazon describes AIA on the requirements page as a network built with an insurance broker, made up of "insurance providers who will evaluate and, if appropriate, offer liability insurance at competitive rates to qualifying sellers." The notice calls them "pre-vetted insurers who understand Amazon's coverage requirements."

A program that offers cover to "qualifying sellers" is now the only route for an entire group of sellers. What happens to a Mainland China seller that AIA's insurers decline is not addressed, other than through the written-agreement and case-by-case language. One reply on the forum raised a specific version of this problem: "Currently, individual sellers without a company entity can only purchase product liability insurance from offline insurance companies. Amazon's platform accelerator does not support individual sellers purchasing insurance." The seller asked: "How will Amazon properly address the issue of these individual sellers purchasing insurance?" Amazon's documents do not answer it, and PPC Land could not independently confirm the claim about individual sellers.

Price is the other unknown. EcomCrew reported AIA quotes of USD 837 to USD 2,200 a year for a seller with USD 500,000 to USD 1 million in revenue, figures gathered before the change and for sellers well above the old threshold. Neither the notice nor the requirements page gives prices for the sellers the new trigger targets, those with little or no monthly revenue.

Two months of questions

The forum thread has grown sharply since September. When PPC Land reported on the notice on September 21, it had 664 views and 20 replies, with 2 thumbs-up reactions and 14 thumbs-down. As of today it shows 4,800 views, 52 replies, 6 thumbs-up and 37 thumbs-down. By PPC Land's own calculation, that is roughly seven times the views and more than two and a half times the replies in about six weeks.

The most-endorsed of the thread's early replies, with 25 thumbs-up, was a single sentence of protest: "Amazon giving me daily reasons why it was a good decision to make eBay my primary marketplace to sell on... especially as someone who sells on a part-time basis." The next, with 20, asked how sellers would know they were affected. "Will we get a notification in case this requirement applies to one or several of our products? Or do we monitor the 'Account Health' page?" the seller wrote, before adding that small sellers "can no longer make a profit on Amazon. Tests, certifications, insurance, tariffs, legal support: all that costs a lot of money." The same reply raised classification: "Unfortunately, AI is very selective in its checks. Therefore, I expect my herbal tea to be treated as a supplement - and thus require insurance - while the same herbal tea from the competitor will be considered a grocery product - which does not require insurance."

Which products count, then? That question is unresolved. In October, another seller pointed out that Amazon's own category page disclaims completeness, quoting it as saying: "This list changes as Amazon adds new categories, and it does not cover all products with these requirements." The seller asked: "Where can we find the full product category list?" A separate thread asked whether one specific ASIN was subject to the new requirement, the same uncertainty at the level of a single product; it had 24 views and an Amazon reply.

Other replies show the reach of the rule beyond the US. A Chinese-language reply asked whether the insurance was expensive, noting the writer was a first-time founder with limited funds. A Spanish-language reply described a new company with brands blocked and almost no sales, asking for leeway for small sellers. In October, a seller opened a thread asking whether any sellers operating on Amazon US as Mexican legal entities had obtained the required cover.

Some replies turned on other sellers. One seller, with 14 thumbs-up and none down, predicted that Chinese sellers of edible products would "scramble to get 5-year insurance agreements from fictitious/fraudulent insurance providers on November 1, 2026." Others mixed the insurance rule with the testing side of the enhanced safety requirements: one seller asked whether a Logitech headset with a lithium battery would need to be "tested myself" or whether the brand would handle it.

A related thread, opened two months ago by a seller asking why Amazon had emailed them to submit proof of commercial liability insurance by November 2, 2026, to keep selling in categories with enhanced safety listing requirements, had 601 views and 23 replies and was still drawing new posts today.

Why the rule reaches advertisers

The insurance rule is a seller policy, not an advertising one, but the two are tied on Amazon. Amazon's emails to affected sellers make proof of cover the condition for continuing to sell in these categories, and a listing that cannot be sold cannot carry Sponsored Products or Sponsored Brands ads either. For brands and agencies managing many small catalogs in children's products, beauty, supplements or consumer electronics, a compliance gap now carries a direct media cost.

The rule also arrives at the end of a year in which Amazon added several costs and obligations to the third-party model. A 3.5% fuel and logistics surcharge on FBA took effect on April 17, 2026, averaging $0.17 per unit for US orders. Supplement listings with inflated ingredient claims faced deactivation from March 31. From December 18, seller-fulfilled orders in the US will need prepaid return labels, with Amazon able to issue returnless refunds and charge them to the seller. Outside Amazon, the Consumer Product Safety Commission began enforcing electronic certificate filing on July 8, 2026, a rule that applies to children's products among others.

For China-based sellers, the AIA requirement adds another Amazon-administered layer. Amazon began quarterly reporting of seller data to Chinese tax authorities in October 2025, and the insurance change now places the choice of insurer inside a program Amazon set up.

Amazon's marketplace business is still growing. In the third quarter of 2026, third-party seller services revenue rose 9% to $46.49 billion and advertising revenue grew 11% to $19.64 billion. Whether a USD 1 million policy makes sense for a seller with a few hundred dollars a month in toy or supplement sales is a different calculation, and the forum thread suggests many are still making it on the day the rule began.

What the documents do not say is also significant. Neither the notice nor the requirements page states how many sellers or listings the category trigger affects, what happens on day one to sellers without cover, or how quickly Amazon will decide case-by-case exceptions. The notice applies to the Amazon.com store, and neither document says whether similar triggers will follow in other Amazon marketplaces.

Timeline

Summary

Who: Amazon and third-party sellers in its US store, in particular sellers below USD 10,000 in monthly gross proceeds with products in categories carrying enhanced safety listing requirements, and all sellers based in Mainland China.

What: Sellers with products in enhanced safety categories, including children's, cosmetic, ingestible and lithium battery products, must now hold a commercial liability policy of at least USD 1 million per occurrence and in aggregate regardless of sales, and Mainland China sellers must obtain new policies through the Amazon Insurance Accelerator, which Amazon describes as offering cover only to qualifying sellers.

When: The requirements took effect today, after a notice posted on September 3, 2026. Existing compliant third-party policies held by China-based sellers remain valid until they expire.

Where: The Amazon.com store in the United States, under Amazon's Commercial Liability Insurance Requirements page in Seller Central Help.

Why: Amazon says the changes protect its customers and help sellers avoid financial loss after a product-related incident. The policies must also name Amazon as an additional insured. For advertisers, a listing removed for lack of cover takes its paid placements with it, and the forum response, with 52 replies and 37 thumbs-down reactions, shows sellers still unsure which products are covered and how exceptions will work.