Risk of Deactivation Banner Panics Some Amazon Sellers

Some Amazon sellers panicked this week when they saw a banner telling them their account was at risk of deactivation. One reader thought it must have been related to the recent issue dealing with Amazon adding the Brazil marketplace to sellers' accounts, and he said Amazon seller support told him to ignore the message and it would go away. But then he realized it was related to the verification process necessitated by the Inform Act.

On a post on the Amazon seller discussion board, a seller warned colleagues not to panic if they saw the message:

"Just a heads up to save everyone from the heart attack and mental stress that we just went through - Instead of just putting up a banner to go through the Inform Act verification yet again, Amazon puts a banner saying you had a "critical issue with your account and that it is at risk of deactivation" instead. It'd be nice if people there knew how to do things correctly as to not cause alarm and stress, but part of me thinks they do that for fun."

An Amazon moderator responded to the seller's post with the following message:

"Thank you for the information provided regarding your experience with the Inform Act verification. I understand that you are seeing the banner regarding certification for the Inform Act. Once a year our team will require reviewing and confirming that the information associated with the account is up to date.

"If any changes are needed, we would encourage you update the information and complete the verification once more. Otherwise, you may see disruptions in the account as the compliance is required by law. Once completed, you should see the banner fall off and your account return to normal. Have you been able to attempt this process? What is the current status?

"Please continue to refer to this thread with any future questions or updates you have on this situation."

Another seller replied and asked the moderator to provide feedback to Amazon that it is very stressful to see the words, "risk of deactivation" (which was clearly exacerbated by not informing sellers of the reason).

Sellers discussed the deactivation banner on other threads, and some discussed their experiences re-verifying their information this week, with some comparing it to last year's rocky process, including on this thread titled, "Account at Risk of Deactivation Banner."