Amazon updated two policies on dietary supplements and emission tuners within the past week. On April 2, 2024, it announced that, effective April 2, 2024, dietary supplement products need to be verified through a third-party Testing, Inspection, and Certification (TIC) organization.
“To ensure that your listings are compliant with our policy, you must use the Manage Your Compliance dashboard to initiate a test for each product with one of the third-party TIC organizations. Once testing is requested, you’ll work directly with the third-party TIC organization to complete the testing of your products. For testing instructions, go to the Manage Your Compliance dashboard and select Add or appeal compliance.
“Once we receive a test result that confirms compliance with our policy, your product will be eligible for sale on Amazon.”
One seller responded stating they believe the policy has the potential to increase costs and serve as a barrier of entry for smaller brands. Another seller asked if there was a way to proactively upload the required documents to prevent disruptions. “I’ve never understood why we need to wait for Amazon to pull down listings in order to provide the documentation they want,” they said. “Listings will go down for 3-5 days minimum even if you have the documents immediately ready to submit.”
Amazon also updated its policy on emission tuners. Amazon announced on March 28 that as of March 11, 2024, sellers are required to provide a California Air Resources Board Executive Order (CARB EO) number for new and existing listings of automotive and marine emission tuners “to ensure that these products are compliant with the Clean Air Act.”
One seller responded to the announcement, “What do you mean by “automotive and marine emission tuners”? This is such a vague term by Amazon.”
It appears to be related to the government crackdown on devices designed to defeat required emissions controls on vehicles and engines, which falls under the Clean Air Act. Readers may recall that the Department of Justice sued eBay in September over the sale of what it called “aftermarket defeat devices,” which eBay is fighting.
Both the govt and Amazon deserve praise for this. Make steroid truck bros cry again.
“no one may buy or sell” … while I would like to think a marketplace is after the “overall good” of its community, it’s funny how difficult they can make buying and selling!!
As a buyer, I want to know the products that I buy are SAFE … but at WHAT COST to the sellers? And, in some cases, just how “necessary” is the “product testing,” in the first place? As mentioned in the story … how may this HARM the SMALL SELLERS who will NOT be able to enter the marketplace because of the new policy and FEES? And, too bad sellers have to DEAL WITH MORE FEES just to sell their goods!