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The seven Amazon restriction types

Seven kinds of gate and three ways they open. Which gates exist, anyone can explain; which one applies to you, only your connected account knows.

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The restriction message you paste, matched word by word against the taxonomy compiled into this page. It runs in your browser, nothing is sent anywhere, and no account is read — the page cannot see your Amazon account, only the text you give it.

Which gates exist can be explained. Which one applies to you is answered per account, per ASIN and per condition — and only by the account itself.

So this page does the half that can be done honestly from outside: name the seven blocks Amazon puts in front of a listing, and say what actually opens each one. Amazon does not publish a taxonomy — it gives you a message. The seven names below are ours: they are the classes our engine sorts those messages into.

The restriction message from Seller Central, or the reason you were given. It is matched against the words in it, here in your browser — nothing is sent anywhere.

Try one

Paste the message and it names which of the seven gates it describes.

The seven restriction types

Same order the engine shows them in: the ones a supplier list hits most first, the two that never open last.

  1. Brand gate brand_gate

    The block is on the brand, not on the item.

    What causes it
    Amazon restricts who may list that brand, so every ASIN under it answers the same way for you. This is the gate a wholesale list hits most often, and it is why a supplier catalogue can look profitable and still be unsellable by you.
    What opens it
    • An application in Seller Central. Amazon states the exact requirements inside that flow and they are not identical for every brand — read them there rather than from any checklist, this one included.
    • Invoices rather than receipts: issued to the exact legal entity and address on your Seller Central account, from a supplier Amazon can contact and verify.
    • Line items that name the product. Amazon has to match a line on your invoice to the ASIN in the application, and it cannot match what it cannot read.
    How long it takes
    Amazon does not publish a turnaround for this. Where the application is automated, the answer comes back on the spot; where a person reads the invoices, it comes back as a decision with no date attached, and a rejection puts you back at the beginning with whatever you send next. Anyone quoting you a fixed number of days is quoting their own experience, not a policy.
    What does not work
    • A letter of authorisation from a distributor. Amazon's own reply to a seller who sent one: “We are unable to accept authorization letters from third-party distributors.”
    • An invoice whose line reads “assortment” or “wave”. That describes a mixed box, and a mixed box cannot be matched to one ASIN — sellers report invoices refused on that ground alone, with nothing else wrong with them.
    • Editing the file to tidy it up: blanking a price, retyping a line, flattening it into a cleaner PDF. That is the move that turns a rejected application into a deactivated account.
    • Retail receipts, order confirmations, packing slips, screenshots of a supplier portal. None of them is an invoice.

  2. Category gate category_gate

    The block is on the category, for your account.

    What causes it
    The restriction sits on the category rather than on the brand or the item. Two accounts looking at the same ASIN get different answers, because one is approved for that category and the other is not.
    What opens it
    • A category application. Some are automated and answer immediately, some ask for documents, and some want selling history on the account before they will look at you.
    • Sometimes nothing at all. A category you were told is closed may already be open on your account, because approval is held per account and not per marketplace.
    How long it takes
    Instant where the decision is automated. Where it is not, the same as a brand application: no published turnaround and no queue position you can check.
    What does not work
    • Reapplying with the identical file after a rejection that never named the file as the problem.
    • Taking somebody else's answer for yours. “That category is gated” is a statement about their account.

  3. Product gate product_gate

    This one ASIN is blocked; the brand and the category are not.

    What causes it
    The restriction is attached to the individual listing. It is the gate people miss, because they check the brand, find it clear, and buy the case.
    What opens it
    • Usually the same application flow, but per ASIN — approval on one item does not carry across to its siblings.
    How long it takes
    The same shape as a brand application, and with the same absence of a published turnaround.
    What does not work
    • Reading across from a variation. A different size, colour or pack of the same product is a different ASIN and can answer differently.
    • Assuming brand approval covered it. Sometimes it does. Sometimes it does not, and the case has already shipped.
    • Waiting for the message to tell you. Amazon's short text for this one reads like the generic one — the tell is that the brand and the category are clear for you and this ASIN still is not.

  4. Condition gate condition_gate

    You may sell it — just not in that condition.

    What causes it
    The gate is on the condition you would list in: approved for New and not for Used, or the other way round. Collectible and refurbished behave the same way.
    What opens it
    • Frequently nothing at all: list the condition you are already approved for and the block is gone.
    • Where that is not an option, the condition has its own application, and it is a different one from the brand's.
    How long it takes
    Often there is nothing to wait for. This is the one gate that gets opened by reading it properly rather than by sending anything.
    What does not work
    • Sending invoices. Nothing in a supplier document answers a question about condition.
    • Listing it in the condition you are approved for when that is not the condition of the goods. That is a different problem and a worse one.

  5. Compliance gate compliance_gate

    No invoice has ever opened this one.

    What causes it
    The product class carries a legal requirement — pesticides and pesticide-adjacent labelling, ingestibles and supplements, medical devices, children's products. Amazon is not asking where you bought it. It is asking for the paperwork the law attaches to the product.
    What opens it
    • Documents that come from the manufacturer: certificates, test reports, the label itself.
    • For some classes, a course and an exam that you sit. That is a real route, and it is open to anyone willing to take it.
    How long it takes
    The clock here is yours, not Amazon's: a course you have to finish, or documents you have to obtain from someone who is not Amazon. Nothing you send speeds it up.
    What does not work
    • An invoice. Not a weak answer — the wrong document. This is the one gate that never competes for the next invoice you were going to spend.
    • A supplier's word that the product is “fine to sell”. The requirement is on the product, not on the supplier.

  6. Applications closed closed_applications

    There is an application, and it is shut.

    What causes it
    Amazon is not taking applications for that brand or category right now. The gate itself may be perfectly ordinary; the door is simply closed today.
    What opens it
    • Nothing today. It can reopen without notice, and it can stay shut for as long as it likes.
    How long it takes
    No clock: nothing is queued, so nothing is late. Waiting is not a step here, it is the whole thing.
    What does not work
    • Reapplying. There is no queue to get into.
    • Paying anyone to push it through. There is nothing to push.
    • Buying the stock now to be ready. That is holding inventory against a door that may never open.

  7. Brand owner only brand_owner_only

    The brand kept the listing to itself.

    What causes it
    The brand is the only seller Amazon permits on it. Where you bought the goods was never in question, so nothing that proves where you bought them is an answer.
    What opens it
    • Only the brand: written permission from the brand itself, or the brand adding you as an authorised seller. That is a commercial conversation with a company, not an application to Amazon.
    How long it takes
    No clock. Nothing is pending on Amazon's side, because nothing was submitted.
    What does not work
    • Invoices, however genuine the distributor. An invoice proves you bought it; this gate never asked that.
    • Any service promising “any brand”. This is the gate that makes that promise impossible to keep.

The three unlock paths

The type tells you what is blocking. The path tells you whether there is a way through — and what it costs you: paperwork, time, or nothing that exists.

  • requestable

    There is an application and it is open. Whether it succeeds depends on what you can send; that it exists at all is what keeps the row worth looking at.

    What it does to the rowThe verdict does not drop. The row is judged on its money exactly like an unrestricted one and carries a condition instead: worth buying if they approve you.

  • certification

    The way through is a course, an exam, or documentation you obtain elsewhere. It is open to you, and it costs your time rather than your paperwork.

    What it does to the rowCapped at Review however good the numbers are. Not because the row is bad — because no invoice buys a course, so it must never compete for the invoice you were about to spend on something else.

  • none

    No route that is practicable from where you stand. Not “hard”: absent.

    What it does to the rowDiscard, at any ROI. There is nothing to apply for, so there is no number that changes it.

The type and the path are two separate answers, and the second does not follow from the first. A brand gate is an application right up until applications for that brand are closed, and then the same brand gate has no path at all. Our engine stores them as two fields for that reason, and both of them come back from your account rather than from a table.

An invoice, a letter of authorisation and an authorised seller are three different things

They get used as synonyms, and the difference is the difference between an application that opens and an account that closes. An invoice proves you bought the goods. A letter of authorisation is the brand giving you permission. Being an authorised seller is a relationship with the brand — and Amazon treats the first as evidence, the second as something a distributor cannot issue on the brand's behalf, and the third as something only the brand can confer.

An invoice from an authorised distributor does not make you an authorised seller. It documents a purchase. Authorisation is a relationship with the brand, and only the brand can grant it.

A letter written by a distributor is not the brand's letter. Sellers report applications refused on exactly that ground: authorisation letters issued by third parties are not accepted as the brand's permission, however genuine the distributor is.

The expensive version of this confusion is the one sellers report going the other way: accounts deactivated for counterfeit while holding a genuine invoice from a genuine US distributor. The paperwork was real. It answered a question nobody had asked.

The circular trap: you buy first, you ask second

Approval does not normally arrive before the stock does. What sellers report, over and over, is being sent away to come back with an invoice for goods they have already bought and already paid for.

The application wants an invoice. The invoice wants a purchase. The purchase happens before anybody tells you whether you may sell the thing. That order is Amazon's and it is not going to change, which leaves exactly one place where the risk can come out: before the money moves. Not by guessing which brands are gated — that is a question about somebody else's account — but by asking your own account, per row, while the supplier list is still just a file.

And this is where the second half of the trap does its damage: a gated row is not a dead row. Two of the seven types never open, one opens with a course, and the rest have an application behind them. Treating all of them as a single “can't sell” throws away the ones that were one form away. See how the list gets read.

Questions sellers actually ask

How do you get ungated on Amazon?

There is no single ungating. There are seven different blocks with different answers: an invoice opens some of them, a course opens one, and two of them do not open at all. The first useful step is reading which one is in front of you — sending the invoice answer to a gate that never wanted an invoice is how weeks go into a listing that was never going to open.

Is there a list of restricted brands on Amazon?

There is no public one, and any list you find is a record of somebody else's account. Restrictions are evaluated per selling account, per ASIN and per condition, so the same brand can be open for one seller and closed for the next. A list can tell you what to expect. Only your own account can tell you what you get.

Do I have to buy the stock before I can get ungated?

Often yes, and sellers describe it as circular: the application wants an invoice, the invoice wants a purchase, and the purchase happens before anyone tells you whether you may sell it. That order is not going to change, so the only place left to take risk out is before the purchase — knowing which rows are gated, and which of those have a path at all.

Does an invoice from an authorized distributor make me an authorized seller?

No, and the two get confused constantly. An invoice proves you bought the goods. A letter of authorisation is the brand giving you permission. Being an authorised seller is a relationship with the brand. Amazon has told sellers who sent the second in place of the first that it cannot accept authorisation letters from third-party distributors, and sellers report accounts deactivated for counterfeit while holding a genuine invoice from a genuine US distributor. The invoice was real. It answered a question nobody had asked.

Are Amazon ungating services worth it?

Ask what is actually being sold. Filing an application you could file yourself is worth whatever your hour is worth. Coaching on what a specific brand accepts can be worth real money. Being supplied with invoices — theirs, arranged, or in somebody else's name — is the version that ends with a deactivated account, and the account is yours, not theirs. No service can open a listing the brand has kept to itself, or an application Amazon has closed, so “any brand” is a promise nobody is in a position to keep.

Why does Amazon keep rejecting my invoice?

The reasons sellers report most: the buyer name or address does not match the Seller Central account exactly; the line item says “wave” or “assortment” instead of naming the product, so it cannot be matched to the ASIN; the document is a receipt, an order confirmation or a portal screenshot rather than an invoice; the supplier does not respond when Amazon tries to verify them; or the file was edited — even only to tidy it — which is the one that escalates from a rejection to an enforcement.

Can I check Amazon restrictions before I buy?

For your own account, yes. Amazon exposes the restriction for an ASIN through its official API, per account and per condition. That is precisely what this page cannot do for you, because it has no account to ask with. FlipIQ Batch connects read-only through Amazon's official OAuth and asks that question for every row of a supplier list before any money moves.

Where this page describes what sellers run into rather than what our engine does, it is our own reading of public seller discussion from 2024 to 2026, written up in August 2026. It is set in our own words and not in quotation marks on purpose: we do not have a permanent link to any single thread, and a quote nobody can open is our own claim wearing somebody else's voice. Treat it as what sellers report, not as a measurement and not as a statement of Amazon policy — the only thing on this page that speaks for your account is your account.

How it is calculated

verdict(gated row) = none → Discard · certification → Review at best · requestable → the ROI decides

none / certification / requestable
the unlock path Amazon's answer carries for that ASIN on that account. It is a separate field from the gate type and does not follow from it: a brand gate is an application right up until applications for that brand are closed
the ROI decides
the same thresholds an unrestricted row gets — 40% ROI and above is a Candidate, 12% and above is a Review, below that a Discard
Review at best
a certification path is capped there no matter how good the numbers are. Not because the row is bad: because no invoice buys a course, so it must never compete for the invoice you were about to spend elsewhere

Worked example

  1. A row from the supplier list comes back gated. Cost $12.40 a unit, Amazon price $27.90, Amazon's fees on it $8.05.
  2. Profit is 27.90 − 8.05 − 12.40 = $7.45, and 7.45 ÷ 12.40 = 60% ROI. On money alone, a Candidate.
  3. The path is requestable, so the verdict stays Candidate. The gate does not lower it — it attaches a condition: worth buying if they approve you.
  4. Change only the path to certification. The same 60% is capped at Review, because a course and an exam are not something the invoice in your hand can open.
  5. Change it to none. Now it is a Discard at 60% ROI, and it would still be a Discard at 600%: there is nothing to apply for.

Which gate applies to you is a question about your account, not about Amazon.

This page can tell you what a brand gate is. It cannot tell you whether your account is gated for that brand — nobody can, from outside, because Amazon answers per account, per ASIN and per condition. FlipIQ Batch connects read-only through Amazon's official OAuth and asks that question for every row of a supplier list — Excel, CSV or the 300-page distributor PDF — before the money moves. 5,000 rows a month free, no card.

Check a supplier list against your account

More free tools: UPC & EAN check digit calculator · Amazon FBA & FBM revenue calculator. Read alongside them: Amazon wholesale suppliers, and how to read their price list · What the numbers on a supplier row mean. Or see the three places to ask the engine and the rest of the free tools.