Amazon Seller Insurance Requirements: Rules & Key Steps

Amazon requires a U.S. third-party seller to carry commercial liability insurance in two situations: within 30 days after gross proceeds exceed $10,000 in a single month on Amazon.com, or whenever Amazon separately requests proof at any sales level. The obligation sits in Section 9 of the Amazon Services Business Solutions Agreement, and the detailed policy criteria sit on Amazon's business-insurance help page.

The headline requirement is a commercial general, umbrella, or excess liability policy of at least $1 million per occurrence and in aggregate, covering products, products/completed operations, and bodily injury, with a deductible no greater than $10,000 and Amazon named as additional insured. The policy must normally be written on an occurrence basis — with an exception for certain product categories, which matters if you sell supplements, ingestibles, chemicals, children's consumables, or critical automotive parts. Those figures are stated below with their sources and check dates.

One boundary holds regardless: a certificate of insurance is evidence related to a valid policy; it does not create coverage and cannot substitute for one.

Your fastest correct route, in order:

  • If your gross proceeds crossed the threshold, or a notice is sitting in your account — start a commercial liability quote now, using the action checklist below so the quote matches what the request actually asks for. Amazon's own in-account route is Amazon Insurance Accelerator, a broker-run panel of insurers reachable from the Business Insurance page in Seller Central; Amazon's criteria also expressly permit you to bring your own insurer instead, provided the policy meets every requirement. Calendar your deadline from the crossing date or the notice date, whichever started the clock.
  • If you are well below the threshold with no notice — prepare, do not purchase. The rule's second door lets Amazon request proof at any sales level, so fill the checklist and keep it current.
  • If you already hold a policy and your submission was rejected — fix the proof before buying anything new. The fault is usually a mismatched field, not missing insurance; work the rejection causes below with your current carrier first.
  • If any governing detail is unclear for your account — confirm the requirement first. Open the Amazon Services Business Solutions Agreement and the business-insurance help page inside your Seller Central login before you buy or upload anything. Your own notice controls if it differs from the general rule.

Every option here is an option to get a quote — never a promise of coverage, eligibility, or account compliance.

Verification note (as of 2026-08-07). Amazon's canonical help page renders behind a Seller Central login for anonymous requests. The operative criteria list is reproduced in full by Amazon staff on Amazon's own public seller forums, and the Business Solutions Agreement's General Terms — including Section 9 and the defined insurance threshold and limit for each elected country — are readable in copies Amazon publishes on its own content-delivery domains. Every consequential field below carries a text verification status and a source. See Sources and verification record. Next scheduled review: 2026-09-07.

Seller wheeling a yellow hand truck of sealed cartons through a small fulfillment room

On this page

The requirement at a glance

Field values below are sourced and dated in the verification record; statuses as of 2026-08-07.

QuestionAnswerStatus
Who must actU.S. third-party sellers whose monthly gross proceeds cross the threshold, plus any seller Amazon separately asks for proofVerified with limitation — account-type scope not separately confirmed
Trigger, deadline, and minimumGross proceeds over $10,000 in one month on Amazon.com, or an Amazon request at any sales level; 30 days to comply from whichever started the clock; a commercial general, umbrella, or excess liability policy at $1 million per occurrence and in aggregate, normally on an occurrence basisVerified with limitation — full field list below
Where the rule livesBusiness Solutions Agreement Section 9, plus the business-insurance help page in Seller CentralVerified — locations corroborated; current help-page text login-gated
First actionOpen the current rule in your own login, confirm the fields below against it, and copy anything that differs into the checklistEditorial recommendation

Two quick illustrations: a seller whose Amazon.com gross proceeds reach $12,400 in March crosses the trigger in that month and starts the 30-day clock; a seller who books $8,200 in each of four consecutive months never exceeds $10,000 in any single month and does not meet the trigger — though Amazon could still request proof separately. Before relying on a value near the line, read how the trigger is measured: shipping and handling count.

Your first practical step costs nothing: sign in to Seller Central, open the agreement's insurance section and the business-insurance help page, and check the fields below against what you actually see. Then send those exact fields — with your full business profile — to a carrier or authorized insurance producer and ask them to match the policy and endorsements to the request.

Valid proof only. A certificate of insurance is issued as evidence of a bound policy. It cannot be legitimately produced before coverage is bound, it does not create or amend coverage, and a name typed on a certificate does not by itself make anyone an additional insured — that normally takes an endorsement or policy provision. The policy, its endorsements, exclusions, limits, and the facts of a claim control what is actually covered.

When Amazon's insurance rule applies

Scope positions below are drawn from Amazon's own restatements and seller communications; statuses as of 2026-08-07.

The Amazon insurance requirements for sellers open through two independent doors. The first is the sales trigger: cross the monthly gross-proceeds threshold and the obligation attaches, with 30 days to obtain coverage. The second is a direct request: the wording reserves Amazon's right to ask any seller for proof regardless of sales volume, and sellers on Amazon's own public forums regularly report receiving such requests while averaging far below the threshold. If you have a notice in your account, the notice — not the threshold — is your governing gate.

Verifying is a ten-minute task with a specific output. Inside your login, open the agreement's insurance section and the business-insurance help page, and capture what you actually see: the exact trigger wording and metric, the marketplace and account scope, the policy and proof fields, any effective date, and — if a notice started this — the notice's own deadline and instructions, which can lawfully be narrower than the general rule. Save a dated copy for your records, because requirement pages change without redlines, and a dispute months later will turn on what the rule said when you acted. If the help page and your notice differ, do not average them: raise the discrepancy in a Seller Support case and get the answer in writing.

What the corroborated wording does not do is draw many of the distinctions that circulate online. Treat scope claims the way the table treats them:

Scope questionPositionStatus
Does it apply to all account types?Threshold wording refers to sellers generally; some third-party summaries claim it targets Professional accounts onlyBlocked — summaries conflict; no official capture
Does FBA vs. FBM matter?No fulfillment-based distinction appears in the corroborated wordingBlocked — do not infer an exemption either way
Which marketplaces count?Amazon's own restatements vary between "on Amazon.com" and "in Amazon stores", and each marketplace has its own agreementPartial — see which marketplace governs you
Can the obligation end if sales drop?Seller-support responses reported on Amazon's forums say a request stands even if sales fallPartial — reported consistently, but not policy text
Was there an older version of the trigger?Yes — a three-consecutive-months basis; Amazon announced a single-month basis effective September 2021Superseded — explains why older articles conflict
Does product category change the rule?Yes, on policy form only: Amazon's criteria require an occurrence-based policy "except for certain product categories" set out in its own FAQPartial — the exception is confirmed in Amazon-hosted material; the category set is reported consistently in secondary sources as pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals and dietary supplements, ingestibles, chemicals, critical automotive parts, and children's consumable products, together with a condition that cover remain in force for three years after you stop selling those products or carry tail coverage. Secondary-sourced — confirm the current list in the FAQ inside your login before relying on it.

The Superseded row matters more than it looks: much of the conflicting advice online traces to pages written against the pre-2021 wording. That is exactly why the current text in your own account — not any summary, including this one — is the publication-grade source for your decision.

This page owns only Amazon's platform rule and proof workflow. For the broader questions the rule tends to surface — what an online seller's real risk exposures are, which coverage mix fits, and what quotes require — see Amazon seller insurance beyond the platform rule.

What the policy and proof must show

Primary requirement record. Amazon states these criteria as applying "unless otherwise required by applicable law or regulation", so a conflicting state or national rule can displace one. Sources are keyed A–H and listed in the verification record; statuses as of 2026-08-07; next review 2026-09-07.

FieldWhat Amazon requiresStatus · sourceWhat to confirm in your account
Amazon trigger / thresholdGross proceeds exceeding $10,000 in one month on Amazon.com, or a separate Amazon request at any sales levelVerified with limitation · A, BWhether your marketplaces aggregate, and how refunds and returns are treated
Amazon deadline30 days after crossing the threshold or receiving a request. Amazon support has also restated this as four weeks from the date of request — calendar the shorterVerified with limitation · A, BThe deadline stated in your own notice, which controls
Amazon policy typeCommercial general, umbrella, or excess liability, written on an occurrence basis — with an exception for certain product categories listed in Amazon's FAQ, where a claims-made policy may be accepted insteadVerified with limitation · A; category fallback Partial · CWhether your categories are on the exception list, and whether a sunset clause would disqualify a claims-made policy
Amazon minimum limitsAt least USD 1 million per occurrence and in aggregateVerified with limitation · A, BWhether stacking a primary policy with umbrella or excess satisfies it for your account
Amazon covered hazardsLiabilities caused by or occurring in conjunction with your business operations, including products, products/completed operations, and bodily injuryVerified with limitation · A, BThat your certificate names each hazard — do not shorten it to "product liability"
Amazon deductible ceilingNot greater than $10,000, and any deductible amount must be listed on your certificate of insuranceVerified with limitation · AYour current deductible, and whether it can be bought down if it exceeds the ceiling
Amazon products-covered ruleThe policy must cover all sales from products you have listed on the Amazon.com storeVerified with limitation · AThat no category you list is excluded or sublimited on your actual forms
Amazon insurer standardsGlobal claim-handling capability and a financial-strength rating of S&P A− and/or AM Best A− or better, with a local equivalent allowed where those scales are not usedVerified with limitation · AThe insurer's rating on the rating agency's own listing — not the provider's self-description
Amazon named-insured ruleMust match the legal entity name on your Amazon account. Exception: for single-member LLCs whose legal name differs from the name they trade under, the insured name may match the trade name or DBAVerified with limitation · AExact-character match between the account entity, the policy, and the certificate
Amazon additional-insured wordingThe help-page criteria require the policy to name "Amazon.com Services LLC and its affiliates and assignees" as additional insuredsVerified with limitation · AThe exact entity wording in your own notice, and the endorsement that effects it
Amazon policy-administration rulesThe policy must be completed in its entirety and signed by an authorized representative of your insurer, which must give Amazon at least 30 days' notice of cancellation, modification, or non-renewalVerified with limitation · AThat your carrier will give the cancellation-notice undertaking before you bind
Amazon submission routeUpload through the Business Insurance page under Seller Central account settings; a review status and a rejection path followVerified with limitation · AThe current upload location, status labels, and remediation route in your account

Where Amazon's own restatements diverge. The criteria above are assembled from two Amazon-hosted sources that do not match exactly, and the difference is worth knowing before you brief a carrier. The staff post sets out nine criteria. The notice text pasted by a seller sets out twelve, adding an explicit claims-made fallback for certain product categories, a condition that the policy carry no sunset clause, and a requirement that an authorized representative of the insurer sign it. The staff post also describes the response window as four weeks from the date of the request, while Section 9 of the agreement gives thirty days. Neither source replaces the current help page. The safe reading is the stricter one on every field, which means the shorter window and the tighter policy conditions, and the only way to close the gap is to read the criteria in your own account.

Three further divergences appear once you read the agreement itself. They matter because a producer drafts an endorsement from whatever wording you hand over.

FieldHelp-page criteria sayThe captured agreement text saysWhat to do
Who is named as additional insured"Amazon.com Services LLC and its affiliates and assignees"Section 9 names Amazon and its assignees, and the North American copy lists the contracting party for Selling on Amazon in the United States as Amazon Services LLCThese are not the same character string, and one of them is a different legal entity. Use the exact wording in your own notice or help page, and have the producer put that string on the endorsement — not a paraphrase of it
Trigger period in the contractOne month, per the criteria and Amazon's 2021 announcementThree consecutive months, in every agreement copy captured on 2026-08-07The single-month basis is Verified from the help-page criteria and the announcement, not from the captured contract text. Confirm the current Section 9 wording in your own account
Where the certificate goesUpload through the Business Insurance page in Seller CentralSection 9 asks for certificates at a mailing address in Seattle marked for Risk Management in the North American copy, and at a dedicated certificate mailbox in the Australian copyUse the route your own notice or account specifies. If a notice names a different channel from the upload page, follow the notice and log a Seller Support case recording that you did

Divergences captured 2026-08-07 from Sources A, B, and F; status Verified with limitation — the canonical help page is login-gated, so your own account settles all three.

Two different $10,000 figures appear above and they are not related. One is the sales trigger — the monthly gross proceeds that make the rule apply to you. The other is the deductible ceiling — the most your policy may make you pay before the insurer responds. Crossing the first does not change the second, and a policy with a $15,000 deductible fails the criteria no matter what your sales are.

Read the statuses literally. Verified with limitation means Amazon's own text supports the field, captured from a first-party Amazon-hosted source on the date shown, but the canonical help page could not be opened without an account — so the wording you see in your own login governs if it differs. Partial means the field is reported in Amazon-hosted material that is not a staff post, or in consistent secondary sources that are not Amazon's own text. Blocked means the governing source could not be reached, or was reached and does not settle the question — which is not the same as there being no rule.

Two data disciplines apply when you do your own capture. First, a blank is never an answer: the criteria above say nothing visible about how refunds and returns are treated in the proceeds figure, and that establishes only that no rule has been found — not that none exists — so put the question to Seller Support or your producer rather than assuming zero. Second, dates travel with facts: note the capture date beside every field you record, and re-capture before acting if weeks have passed. This page holds itself to the same standard — its statuses move only on captured evidence, and its fields are updated together with that capture, not piecemeal.

One conflict remains genuinely live and this page will not resolve it: whether the rule's scope is tied to account type. It resolves in about two minutes inside your own login, and cannot be resolved honestly any other way.

One warning carries this whole section: a provider's statement that its policy "meets Amazon's requirements" is marketing, not verification. Compliance is a field-by-field comparison between the current official rule, your actual policy forms and endorsements, and your business facts. When you are ready to shop the category itself, start with the general liability insurance options hub rather than a single provider's landing page.

General liability, umbrella, or excess: which one satisfies the rule?

Amazon's criteria name the three as alternatives, not as a stack. What differs is what each one is built to do.

FieldCommercial general liabilityUmbrella liabilityExcess liability
What it isA standalone primary liability policy, most commonly written on the ISO occurrence form CG 00 01A layer above one or more primary policies that can also drop down to cover some claims the primary excludesA layer above a specific primary policy that follows the primary's terms
How it sits relative to a primary policyIt is the primarySits above; usually needs a qualifying primary underneath at a stated limitSits above; follows form, so it responds only where the primary would
Can it satisfy Amazon's rule alone?Yes, at $1M per occurrence and in aggregateNamed as acceptable, but confirm whether Amazon accepts it without a primary at the required limitNamed as acceptable, with the same question — an excess layer over a $0 primary is not a policy
Occurrence basisStandard on CG 00 01Usually follows the primaryFollows the primary
What to confirm in the quoteProducts and completed operations included, not excluded by endorsement; category sublimitsWhich primary it attaches over, and the attachment pointWhether it follows form on the products hazard specifically
Certificate implicationOne policy on the certificateTwo policies must appear, with both limits and both termsTwo policies must appear

The practical answer for most sellers is a single commercial general liability policy at the required limits. Umbrella and excess appear on Amazon's list because a seller who already carries a primary policy with lower limits may top it up rather than replace it. A certificate showing only an excess layer, with no primary beneath it, will not demonstrate $1 million of available cover. Ask your producer which combination they will certify before you bind.

How the monthly sales trigger is measured

Mechanics below reflect Amazon's contract definitions as captured 2026-08-07 from an Amazon-hosted copy of the General Terms; that copy is superseded on the trigger period, so confirm the current wording.

The formula is short: take your gross sales proceeds for a single month on the covered Amazon marketplace and compare them to $10,000. Exceed it in any one month and the Amazon $10,000 insurance requirement attaches, with a 30-day window to obtain coverage. Four questions decide whether your own number is over the line.

Sealed carton on a postal scale beside a yellow clipboard of sales pages in a garage corner

First, what counts as gross proceeds — and shipping counts. In the General Terms, the gross proceeds from your transactions are defined to include all shipping and handling, gift wrap and other charges, together with taxes and customs duties to the extent set out in Amazon's tax policies. Section 9 uses that same phrase for the trigger. So a seller grossing $9,600 on item price alone, but $10,300 once shipping is included, has crossed the line. The captured North American copy adds a third limb that catches business sellers: for invoiced orders, amounts a customer fails to pay by the invoice due date still count toward the figure. A month of unpaid B2B invoices can therefore push you over a line your bank balance says you never reached. Two cautions travel with that. The copy carrying this definition predates the September 2021 change to the trigger period, so confirm the current definition in your own account. And it says nothing about refunds and returns, which remain genuinely unsettled. Pull your Seller Central sales report for the month and compare it against the definition you find, rather than against a summary.

Second, what is the period? "One month" most plausibly means a calendar month, but the corroborated wording does not publicly settle calendar versus rolling measurement. Never annualize in either direction: $120,000 spread evenly across a year with no month above $10,000 does not meet the trigger, and one $11,000 December does — regardless of the other eleven months.

Third, which storefronts aggregate? Amazon's own restatements vary between naming Amazon.com and referring to Amazon stores generally, and each marketplace is governed by its own agreement with its own threshold and limit. A seller with U.S. and international marketplace activity should not assume either consolidation or separation. The marketplace router below sets out what is captured for each store and what is not.

Fourth, the trigger is not the only door. A request from Amazon binds you at any sales level, and the reported support position is that such requests are not waived when sales fall. If the two doors ever point in different directions, the notice in your account controls.

Keep the arithmetic honest on your side: archive the monthly sales report for any month near the line, note the date you crossed (or received a notice), and calendar the deadline from that date. The trigger math is a reading aid for planning — the current Seller Central rule and any account notice are the compliance determination, and this page is neither.

Which Amazon marketplace governs you

Amazon sets a separate insurance threshold and limit for each elected country, inside that country's own Business Solutions Agreement. This router covers every marketplace for which a threshold could be captured from an Amazon-hosted source, and routes every other marketplace to its governing agreement. Captured 2026-08-07; confirm current values in your own Seller Central account for that marketplace before relying on any of them.

MarketplaceInsurance thresholdInsurance limitTrigger period in the captured copyStatus · source
United States (amazon.com)USD 10,000USD 1,000,000One monthVerified with limitation · A, B, C
Canada (amazon.ca)CAD 10,000CAD 1,000,000Three consecutive monthsVerified with limitation · B
Mexico (amazon.com.mx)MXN 100,000MXN 10,000,000Three consecutive monthsSuperseded · B, G
Japan (amazon.co.jp)JPY 1,000,000JPY 100,000,000Three consecutive monthsVerified with limitation · B
Australia (amazon.com.au)AUD 10,000AUD 1,000,000Three consecutive monthsVerified with limitation · F
United Kingdom, the European marketplaces, India, Brazil, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Turkey, Egypt, and every other Amazon storeNot capturedNot capturedNot capturedBlocked — route only

Four notes carry that table.

The single-month basis is not in the contract text captured here. For the United States it comes from the help-page criteria and Amazon's 2021 announcement. Every agreement copy readable on 2026-08-07 — North American and Australian alike — still sets the trigger at three consecutive months. For Canada, Japan, and Australia that leaves an open question this page cannot close: confirm the current Section 9 wording in your own account for that store.

Known change since the captured copies. Amazon updated the Business Solutions Agreement effective 2026-03-04. That revision added a separate agreement for the Mexico store and removed Mexico references from the US and Canada agreement; reporting on the same revision indicates insurance limit definitions were also clarified. Treat the Mexico row above as Superseded and every other row as Partial until re-captured in your own account. Checked 2026-08-07.

Once the obligation attaches, it does not lapse with your sales. Section 9 requires the cover to be maintained at your expense throughout the remainder of the term — that is, for as long as you keep selling — not only for the month you crossed. This is the contractual basis for the support responses reported elsewhere on this page, and it is the reason renewal is part of the workflow rather than the end of it.

A blank in the final row is a routing instruction, not a finding that no requirement exists. If you sell on a store in that row, the threshold and limit that bind you are in that store's own agreement, and only that agreement settles them.

Does your coverage fit what you sell?

Coverage fit is controlled by your actual policy wording and facts — not by matching a policy's name to Amazon's list.

Amazon's criteria describe a commercial liability policy at $1 million per occurrence and in aggregate, covering operations, products, completed operations, and bodily injury. Owning a document with the right title still is not the finish line, because two policies with identical names can respond very differently to an e-commerce claim.

The heaviest variable is your role in the supply chain. A private-label seller, an importer of record, and a reseller of domestic wholesale goods present materially different product-liability profiles to an underwriter — importers and private-label sellers are often treated as if they were the manufacturer for claims purposes. If your quote inputs describe "online retail" while your operations are private-label imports, the policy that comes back may exclude or misprice exactly the exposure Amazon's rule is aimed at.

The form language backs that up. On the standard ISO commercial general liability form, "your product" reaches goods manufactured, sold, handled or distributed by you or by others trading under your name — so a supplier's goods carrying your brand are your product for coverage purposes, whether or not you made them.

Product categories do their own work. Ingestibles, topicals, children's products, electronics with batteries, and anything with a safety-standard history commonly carry exclusions, sublimits, or surcharges on real policy forms. Amazon's own criteria also carve out certain categories from the occurrence-basis requirement — a second reason to disclose categories precisely rather than generically.

Watch the hazard names as closely as the limits. Amazon's criteria list operations, products, products/completed operations, and bodily injury; standard commercial liability forms typically bundle coverages — contractual liability among them — that the platform rule may or may not reference at all. Note also that the standard form runs two separate annual caps: a general aggregate and a separate products-completed operations aggregate. A certificate that names the right policy type but omits a required hazard is a predictable rejection.

Then check the quieter fields. Territory and jurisdiction wording matters when goods are manufactured abroad. Ask whether the aggregate limit is shared across all of your sales channels, because a busy off-Amazon channel can erode the limit Amazon's rule expects to find intact. And check that the named insured exactly matches the legal entity (or DBA) on your seller account — a mismatch is a proof-rejection waiting to happen even when the coverage itself is sound.

Territory deserves a sentence of its own, because the standard form is narrower than sellers expect. The ISO coverage territory is the United States, its territories and possessions, Puerto Rico and Canada — extended worldwide for goods you made or sold inside that territory, but only where your liability is settled or decided in a suit brought inside it. A judgment obtained against you in a foreign court is outside the standard grant.

None of this makes a coverage promise, and this page cannot: whether any claim is covered is controlled by the policy, its endorsements, exclusions, limits, and the facts. What you control is disclosure — complete, category-level, supply-chain-honest quote inputs.

What this policy does not cover

Based on the ISO commercial general liability coverage form CG 00 01 04 13 (Source D, checked 2026-08-07). Every row below is verified against that form on that date; the Confidence column names which part of the form carries it. Your own policy may be broader or narrower — this is the standard baseline, not your contract.

ExposureDoes a standard commercial liability policy respond?Where it comes fromWhat to ask for insteadConfidence
CGL — recalling or withdrawing your productNo. Costs of withdrawal, recall, inspection, repair, replacement, adjustment, removal or disposal are excluded when the product is pulled because of a known or suspected defectCoverage A exclusion n, the "sistership" exclusionA separate product recall or product withdrawal policy. There is no standard ISO endorsement that buys this back inside the liability formForm text
CGL — damage to the product you soldNo. Property damage to your own product, arising out of the product itself, is excludedCoverage A exclusion kNothing on the liability side — this is a business cost. Price it into your reserve, not your policyForm text
CGL — a defective product making other property useless without physically damaging itNo, where the loss is loss of use rather than physical injuryCoverage A exclusion m, impaired propertyDiscuss with your producer; some markets endorse limited reliefForm text
CGL — injury to your own employeesNo. Bodily injury to an employee arising out of employment is excludedCoverage A exclusion eWorkers' compensation and employer's liability — required once you have employees in most states, with the threshold set by state law, and in a small number of states available only from the state fund. The hub carries the state rules; this page does notForm text
CGL — loss, corruption of, or inability to access electronic data; a breach of customer dataNo. Electronic data is not tangible property under the form, and damages arising from its loss or corruption are excludedCoverage A exclusion p and the property damage definitionA cyber liability policy. Ask specifically about first-party breach response, not just third-party liabilityForm text
CGL — patent or trademark infringement claims over a listingNo. Infringement of copyright, patent, trademark, trade secret or other IP rights is excluded. The narrow exception is infringement of copyright, trade dress or slogan in your advertisementCoverage B exclusion iIntellectual property or media liability cover; and legal advice before you listForm text
CGL — a claim that the product failed to match what your listing saidNo. Personal and advertising injury arising from goods failing to conform to a statement of quality or performance in your advertisement is excluded — and an Amazon listing is an advertisement under the form's own definitionCoverage B exclusion gAccurate listing copy. No policy substitutes for itForm + advertisement definition
CGL — your inventory, stock, or equipmentNo. This is a liability policy; property you own is excluded from it. And if you store inventory at home, your homeowners policy will not fill the gap — homeowners forms exclude business property and business-related liability beyond a small sublimit, so garage-stored stock is typically uninsured on both policies at onceCoverage A exclusion jCommercial property or stock cover. If you hold inventory where you live, see protect inventory and equipment kept at homeForm text; homeowners point is market practice — check your own homeowners form
CGL — marketing that breaches anti-spam, telemarketing or credit-reporting lawNo. Damages arising from acts violating the TCPA, CAN-SPAM, FCRA/FACTA, or similar statutes limiting the sending or distribution of material are excludedCoverage A exclusion q and Coverage B exclusion pCompliance review; some cyber and media forms offer limited defense coverForm text
CGL — claims decided in a foreign courtGenerally no, unless liability is determined in a suit brought inside the coverage territory or in a settlement the insurer agrees toCoverage territory definitionDiscuss international exposure explicitly if you sell or manufacture abroadForm + territory definition
CGL — professional advice or services you provideNo under the standard grantNot a covered offence or occurrenceProfessional liability, if you sell services alongside productsStandard grant — no covered offence

Two things follow. Amazon's rule is satisfied by a policy that carries every one of these exclusions, because meeting the platform requirement and being adequately insured are different questions and Amazon is only asking the first. And if this exercise surfaces exposures beyond liability, map them with check other business coverage needs.

COI, additional insured, and submitting proof

Sequence and rejection patterns below are workflow guidance; your notice's exact instructions control (as of 2026-08-07).

Proof problems cause more Amazon insurance escalations than missing insurance does. The sequence that avoids them runs in one direction only:

  1. Bind the policy first. Nothing downstream can legitimately exist before coverage is bound. Any offer of proof before binding is a red flag, not a convenience.
  2. Request the endorsements the notice asks for. Amazon's criteria require the policy to name "Amazon.com Services LLC and its affiliates and assignees" as additional insureds. That normally takes an endorsement or a policy provision — give the carrier or authorized producer that wording exactly as written, confirm it against the wording in your own notice, and ask what it costs and how long processing takes.
  3. Have the certificate issued. The carrier or authorized producer issues the certificate of insurance showing the insured's exact legal name, policy type and term, limits, the deductible amount, and the additional-insured entity. What each field on that document proves, and does not prove, is covered in what a certificate of insurance proves; who can issue it depends on the provider's role, defined below.
  4. Submit through the current official channel. The path is the Business Insurance page under Seller Central account settings. The page asks for your insurance provider's name, the name of the insured exactly as it appears on the policy, the policy number, and the policy start and end dates, and asks whether the policy was bought through Amazon's in-account panel. Have all five in front of you before you start — a mismatch on the insured name is the most common rejection. Treat the path and any document-format requirements in your own account as controlling. Reported field set; confirm against your own account, checked 2026-08-07.
  5. Check the review status and calendar the outcome. Accounts display a verification status after review. Record the submission date, the status, and the policy expiration — renewals re-run this entire workflow.
  6. If rejected, diagnose fields before buying anything. Compare the rejection reason against the usual suspects: insured name not matching the account's legal entity or DBA; limits below the cited minimums; the hazard list on the certificate omitting products or completed operations; missing or incorrectly worded additional-insured entity; an expired or nearly expired policy term; an illegible or partial document; or a deductible issue where a deductible rule applies.

Two proof details deserve their own sentences. Certificate holder and additional insured are different fields doing different jobs: the holder is simply who receives the certificate, while additional-insured status extends certain policy protections to the named entity and normally requires the endorsement from step two — confirming both against your notice's exact wording prevents the most common rejection. And some summaries cite a minimum remaining policy term at the time of submission; the exact rule is uncaptured, but a certificate issued weeks before its policy expires invites the question, and submitting earlier in a policy term costs nothing.

One thing the insurance does not settle. The seller agreement also carries an indemnity obligation, under which you agree to defend and hold Amazon harmless against claims arising from your products, your materials, and alleged infringement of intellectual property rights by them. That obligation is broader than the insurance Amazon's rule requires — most obviously on IP infringement, which the standard liability form excludes. Buying the policy satisfies Section 9; it does not cap the indemnity.

Escalate along the right channel: coverage and certificate questions go to the carrier or authorized producer; platform interpretation, submission mechanics, and disputed rejections go to an Amazon Seller Support case; questions about what the agreement's indemnity or contract terms actually obligate you to go to an attorney, not to your carrier and not to Seller Support; and if policy language itself is in dispute, that is a question for a qualified insurance professional reviewing the actual forms — not for a marketplace forum. At no point does any legitimate path involve proof without a bound policy: altering a certificate, backdating coverage, or uploading a document for coverage that does not exist creates a far worse account and legal problem than the one being avoided.

When the answer is not simply "buy the policy"

Nine situations that change the decision, including the three where no conforming policy is available. Statuses as of 2026-08-07.

SituationWhat is actually happeningWhat to do next
Below the threshold, but a request arrivedThe rule's request door operates independently of sales volume, and reported support responses say requests stand even when sales fallPartial — treat the notice as governing; verify scope and deadline via your account and a Seller Support case
Multiple stores or selling entitiesProof must match each selling entity's exact legal name; one certificate may not cover legally distinct entitiesVerified with limitation — confirm per entity before assuming shared coverage
An existing policy from a brick-and-mortar businessIt may satisfy the rule if — and only if — its forms, hazards, limits, named insured, deductible, and endorsements match the stated criteria; the policy's age or channel is irrelevantEditorial guidance — ask the carrier for a field-by-field comparison rather than buying a duplicate policy
Lapse or renewal gapSection 9 requires the cover to be maintained throughout the remainder of the term, so the obligation is continuous once attached, and your insurer must give Amazon 30 days' notice of cancellation, modification, or non-renewalVerified with limitation · B — calendar renewal 30+ days ahead so endorsements and certificates re-issue in time
Your category cannot get an occurrence-based policy at all — commonly supplements and ingestibles, children's products, and high-capacity battery electronicsStandard admitted markets decline these categories, or write them only on restrictive terms. Amazon's own criteria anticipate this and allow a claims-made policy for certain categories set out in its FAQWork with a producer who writes your category, and ask whether the placement is admitted or surplus lines. Surplus-lines carriers are not backed by state guaranty funds if the insurer fails — a trade-off worth knowing before you bind. Surplus-lines eligibility and guaranty-fund treatment are set by your own state's insurance department, not by the carrier — ask your producer which state's rules govern the placement and confirm it on that department's site. Confirm the insurer still meets Amazon's rating standard
Your existing policy is sound but the deductible exceeds $10,000The policy fails Amazon's criteria on one field only. Replacing it is usually the expensive answerAsk your current carrier to buy the deductible down to the ceiling by endorsement, and to reissue the certificate showing the new figure. Compare that cost against a replacement policy before shopping
No insurer will write you on conforming termsAmazon's criteria state that it will consider exceptions on a case-by-case basis where a seller is unable to secure a conforming policyOpen a Seller Support case in writing, describe the declinations you received, and ask for the exception route. Do not let the deadline pass silently while you shop — a documented open case is better than an unanswered notice
The $1 million limit costs more than you expectedThe limit is Amazon's floor, not a negotiable field — but the premium behind it varies widely by market, and one quote is not a priceGet quotes from more than one market before concluding it is unaffordable, ask whether the premium can be paid in instalments and what the fees are, and weigh the annual cost against the monthly proceeds that triggered the rule in the first place
You have a prior product claim, a cancellation, or a declination on recordLoss history narrows appetite and lengthens placement. It does not disqualify you, and concealing it can void the policy you buyDisclose it in full at the quote stage, in writing. Start earlier than you would otherwise — an adverse history routinely turns a same-week placement into a multi-week one, and the deadline does not move to accommodate it

The category list above and Amazon's own form exception answer different questions — market appetite versus which categories Amazon will accept on a claims-made form — and they do not match row for row.

The common thread in the first four rows: the expensive mistakes are assumption mistakes. Sellers assume a request will lapse with low sales, assume one entity's certificate covers another, assume an old policy fails (or passes) without a comparison, and assume a renewal certificate appears on its own. Each assumption is replaceable with one confirmation in the account or one question to the carrier.

A further situation deserves plain language. If you are already selling above the threshold with no coverage, you are exposed twice: to the underlying product claim, which nobody is paying but you, and to the account consequence. There is no legitimate route that produces proof for a period you were not insured. Bind coverage now, submit the certificate you can honestly obtain, and put the gap in front of a producer and, if a claim has already arisen, an attorney.

Action checklist: prepare before you quote or submit

One reusable preparation set. It also serves as the per-provider scorecard in the next section — same fields for every quote, so answers are comparable.

BlockGather and confirm
Amazon recordMarketplace and account; notice date if any; the official rule URL; the exact captured wording of trigger, scope, policy, and proof fields; the effective or as-of date; your deadline
Business identityExact legal name and any DBA; entity type; business address; the seller account's registered name; every selling entity that needs proof
OperationsProducts and categories; your role — manufacturer, importer, private label, wholesale, or arbitrage; monthly and annual proceeds; sales channels and marketplaces; FBA/FBM mix; countries of manufacture and sale; inventory locations and storage; employees, and any contractors you pay, since both affect how the policy is rated
PolicyCarrier and its current rating; named insured; policy number and term; form types and occurrence or claims-made basis; per-occurrence and aggregate limits; deductible or retention; territory; product or category exclusions; endorsements in force
Proof requestRequired Amazon entity wording; certificate holder details; additional-insured endorsement status; document type requested; upload location; deadline; any prior rejection reason, verbatim
EscalationYour carrier or authorized producer's contact; an open Seller Support case number if platform-side; a qualified insurance reviewer if policy language is disputed; an attorney if the agreement's indemnity or contract terms are in question

Your premium is an estimate until audit. Commercial liability is rated on figures you supply at quote — revenue, categories, payroll — and reconciled against actuals at the end of the term. Two consequences follow. Understating revenue does not save money; it defers a bill. And payments to contractors or fulfilment help who cannot produce their own certificate of insurance are commonly picked up as your exposure at that reconciliation. Collect a current certificate from anyone you pay to handle, prep, or ship your goods, before you pay them, and keep it for the policy term.

Completing the top two blocks before requesting quotes does double duty: it makes the quotes accurate, and it makes any later proof submission match the account on the first attempt.

Terms that decide more than they look

TermWhat it means for your Amazon policy
Occurrence basisCovers claims arising from incidents during the policy term, whenever the claim is later reported. This is Amazon's default requirement
Claims-madeCovers only claims reported while the policy is in force, which is why a sunset clause on one can matter, and why a reporting period or tail is the field to check. Accepted by Amazon only for certain product categories
Products/completed operationsThe hazard covering claims that arise after the product has left you — the one an Amazon seller most needs and the one most often missing from a certificate
Per occurrence / aggregatePer occurrence is the ceiling for any single claim; the aggregate is the annual total across claims. The standard form runs a separate products-completed operations aggregate alongside the general one
Retention / deductibleA retention is a deductible you fund before the insurer defends, and the two are not always the same thing. Amazon caps the deductible at $10,000 and requires it to appear on the certificate
Admitted vs surplus linesAn admitted insurer is licensed by your state and backed by that state's guaranty fund if it fails; a surplus-lines insurer is not licensed there and carries no guaranty-fund backing, but can write risks admitted markets decline. Eligibility rules are set by your state's insurance department
Employer's liabilityThe part of a workers' compensation policy that responds to employee injury claims falling outside the compensation system. A general liability policy excludes employee injury entirely
Additional insured vs certificate holderThe certificate holder is simply who receives the certificate — the field creates nothing. Additional-insured status extends certain policy protections to the named entity and normally takes an endorsement. Amazon's criteria ask for additional-insured status, so a certificate that lists Amazon only as holder does not meet them

Choosing a provider at a glance

This page ranks no providers and holds no active provider relationships; the profiles below describe documented characteristics to shortlist, not recommended vendors (as of 2026-08-07). Named, evidence-matched comparisons belong to the general liability hub and the e-commerce seller guide linked above.

You have two routes, and Amazon states both. It runs Amazon Insurance Accelerator, a broker-operated panel of insurers reachable from the Business Insurance page inside Seller Central, and its criteria expressly permit you to bring your own insurer instead, provided the policy meets every requirement above. Neither route changes the fields you must satisfy. This page names the program because it is Amazon's own documented route and a seller will meet it in their account; it does not name, rank, or recommend any participating insurer.

  • Best for a private-label or importing seller: a carrier or program whose current forms document products and completed-operations coverage for imported goods in your categories — quote it with your supply-chain role fully disclosed. Not ideal for a seller who cannot yet describe their supply-chain role precisely; the quote will be wrong and so will the policy.
  • Best for a seller facing an active notice deadline: a carrier or authorized producer that documents, in writing, its additional-insured endorsement workflow and certificate turnaround — and confirm the deadline math before binding. Not ideal for a seller whose category needs specialist underwriting; speed and appetite rarely come from the same market.
  • Best for a multi-channel seller: a policy documented to cover all sales channels, with an aggregate limit sized to total revenue rather than Amazon proceeds alone. Not ideal for a seller who only needs the Amazon minimum; you will pay for limit you are not required to carry.
  • Best for a seller below the trigger with no notice: often no purchase yet — confirm the requirement first in your Seller Central login, then keep the checklist above filled so you can quote quickly if either door opens. Not ideal for a seller with a near-line month once shipping is counted; that seller should be quoting, not waiting.

Every profile is an option to quote; eligibility, pricing, and terms are underwriting decisions no page can promise.

Match your situation to a shortlist move

Your situationShortlist moveConfirm in the quote
Solo FBM seller, below the threshold, no noticeConfirm the requirement first via the official rule in your login; prepare inputs, defer purchaseWhether the current wording's scope covers your account type; how refunds are counted; what the request door means for you
Private-label FBA importer who just crossed the thresholdQuote commercial liability now using the full checklistOccurrence-based form for your categories; any category exclusion or sublimit; additional-insured endorsement cost and processing time; certificate turnaround after binding
Established seller with existing coverage and a rejected submissionField-by-field comparison with your current carrier before shoppingExact-name match to the account entity; hazard list including products and completed operations; the notice's entity wording on an endorsement; deductible at or below the ceiling and shown on the certificate
Seller in a category that admitted markets declineProducer with appetite in your category, before you shop on priceWhether the placement is admitted or surplus lines; the insurer's current rating against Amazon's standard; whether a claims-made form is being offered and what its reporting period and tail are
Seller with existing coverage carrying a deductible above $10,000Deductible buy-down with the current carrier, not a replacement policyThe endorsement cost, the reissued certificate showing the new deductible, and the effective date relative to your deadline
Non-U.S. seller listing on a U.S. accountProducer licensed for the U.S. exposure, and confirm which marketplace agreement governs youWhich elected country's threshold and limit apply; whether the insurer meets the global claim-handling requirement
Already selling above the threshold with no coverageBind now on honest inputs; submit only the certificate you can legitimately obtainEarliest inception date the carrier will write; whether any product claim has already arisen, which is an attorney question before it is an insurance one; that nothing offered covers the period you were uninsured
Policy lapsing or renewing mid-obligationRe-quote 30+ days out so endorsements and the certificate re-issue before the old term endsThat the additional-insured endorsement carries over to the new term; the reissued certificate's dates and deductible; that your insurer will give Amazon the 30 days' notice the criteria require

No single provider type fits a majority of these rows, and where a row's governing requirement is unresolved, the official verification path comes before any purchase. Score every quote against the action checklist above — identical fields, identical evidence requests — rather than against each provider's own summary of itself.

Who actually issues the policy: provider roles

The same storefront word — "provider" — hides five different roles, and the role changes your pricing path, quote workflow, certificate issuance, claims contact, and where your data goes.

RoleWho issues and bears the policyWhat it changes for you
Direct carrierIssues its own policy and bears the riskOne underwriter's appetite and pricing; certificates and endorsements issued in-house, often fastest; claims go straight to the carrier
MGA / program administratorUnderwrites and issues on an insurer's behalf under delegated authorityProgram-specific forms and eligibility; usually issues certificates itself; the risk-bearing insurer sits behind it — ask which one
Broker / agencySells and services policies issued by carriers it representsAccess to multiple markets; certificates come through the producer; adds a service layer between you and the carrier
Comparison marketplaceIssues nothing; routes your details to carriers or agenciesFast multi-quote comparison; certificate and claims paths belong to whichever provider you land with; your data is routed as leads
Platform-brokered panelA broker curates participating insurers for the platform; the policy is issued and borne by whichever participating carrier you land with, not by the broker and not by AmazonFastest route to a policy pre-shaped to the platform's criteria; the appetite you get is the panel's appetite — a declined category still needs an outside producer, and the certificate and claims paths belong to the issuing carrier

A provider's role belongs in its own current documentation; when it is not stated there, treat it as Role not verified and ask directly before you rely on its certificate timeline.

Frequently asked questions

Is the sales threshold measured monthly or annually?

Monthly. The Amazon $10,000 insurance requirement attaches when gross proceeds exceed $10,000 in a single month, not from annualized or averaged sales. A year of steady sub-threshold months does not meet the trigger; one over-threshold month does. Shipping and handling count toward the figure under the contract's own definition, so check a near-line month against your Seller Central report rather than against item price alone.

Does Amazon require insurance from sellers below the threshold?

It can, under the rule's second door: a direct request for proof at any sales level. Sellers on Amazon's public forums report receiving such requests while selling far below the threshold, and reported support responses indicate a request is not waived when sales fall. If you have a notice, treat it — not the threshold — as your governing gate, and verify its scope through a Seller Support case.

Is umbrella or excess liability required on top of general liability?

No. Amazon's criteria name commercial general, umbrella, and excess liability as alternative acceptable forms, not as a stack. A single commercial general liability policy at $1 million per occurrence and in aggregate satisfies the limit requirement on its own. Umbrella or excess is useful if you already hold a primary policy at lower limits and want to top it up — but confirm with your producer that the combination will certify, because an excess layer with no primary beneath it does not demonstrate the required cover.

Do FBA sellers have different insurance requirements than FBM sellers?

No fulfillment-based distinction appears in the corroborated wording, and neither an FBA exemption nor an FBM exemption should be inferred. Fulfillment method can still matter to underwriting — inventory location, storage, and handling change your risk profile and pricing — but as far as public evidence shows, the platform rule's trigger and proof process are the same. Confirm in your account rather than assuming either way.

What happens if proof isn't submitted by the deadline?

The obligation is a term of the seller agreement, and sellers publicly report selling-privilege interruptions tied to unresolved insurance requests — but the exact current enforcement sequence is not captured from the official source, so treat this as Partial. Take the deadline in your own notice as real, use the remediation path shown in your account if you miss it, and escalate through a Seller Support case in writing rather than through a rushed, mismatched upload.

How fast can I get a certificate of insurance after buying a policy?

Commonly the same day to a few business days after the policy binds — but the clock is set by the slowest dependency, not the fastest promise: complete quote inputs, underwriting review, payment or deposit, endorsement processing for additional-insured, waiver-of-subrogation, or primary-and-noncontributory requests, and the certificate-holder details from the requesting party. No timeline is universal, and a certificate is evidence of a bound policy — it cannot legitimately exist before one, and nothing speeds that up.

How much does the insurance itself cost?

No figure is published here, because a premium quoted for another seller's profile is not an answer for yours. The drivers, in rough order of weight: your categories and supply-chain role — private label and imported goods rate above wholesale resale; annual revenue across all channels; the limits and deductible you choose; prior product claims; and your state's market conditions. Your own price is set by those, plus payroll and employees where you have them. Any figure you see anywhere is a dated sample for a documented business profile, never an average or a guaranteed quote. For coverage selection beyond Amazon's rule, see the e-commerce seller insurance guide.

Next step

Open the insurance section of your Seller Central account today — the Business Solutions Agreement and the business-insurance help page — and check the fields in this page's requirement table against what you actually see, copying anything that differs into the action checklist. Then put those fields, not a summary of them, in front of your carrier or an authorized producer and ask one question: do the actual policy and endorsements match this request, field by field? Only after a yes should a certificate be issued and uploaded. For coverage selection beyond Amazon's rule, continue to the e-commerce seller insurance guide.

Seller and freight driver moving a wrapped pallet of cartons, yellow-handled wrap roller on top

Sources and verification record

All sources checked 2026-08-07. Next scheduled review: 2026-09-07, or sooner on any official Amazon policy change.

KeySourceWhat it supportsStatus
AAmazon staff restatement of the commercial liability insurance criteria, Amazon Seller Forums — posted by a named Amazon account, linking to help page G200386300The nine policy criteria: policy type, limits, deductible ceiling and disclosure, products covered, additional-insured wording, named-insured rule and single-member-LLC exception, insurer rating standard, signature, and notice of cancellationVerified with limitation — first-party Amazon-hosted staff post, publicly readable; the canonical help page itself is login-gated
BAmazon Services Business Solutions Agreement, General Terms — North America (United States, Canada, Mexico, Japan), Amazon-hosted copySection 9 structure, the 30-day window, the defined insurance threshold and limit for each elected country, and the definition of gross proceeds including shipping and handlingSuperseded on the trigger period — this copy retains the pre-September-2021 three-consecutive-months basis; defined terms captured as-is and subject to the 2026-03-04 update at Source G
CCurrent insurance criteria pasted from an Amazon notice, Amazon Seller ForumsThe occurrence-basis requirement, the claims-made fallback for certain product categories, and the no-sunset-clause conditionPartial — Amazon-hosted, but pasted by a seller rather than posted by Amazon staff
DCommercial General Liability Coverage Form CG 00 01 04 13 — public specimenEvery exclusion, definition, and territory statement in what this policy does not coverVerified — standard form text; your own policy may be amended by endorsement
EAmazon business-insurance help page, G200386300 and Business Solutions Agreement, G1791The canonical, governing textBlocked for anonymous readers — renders behind a Seller Central login; read it in your own account
FAmazon Services Business Solutions Agreement, General Terms — Australia, Amazon-hosted copyThe Australian insurance threshold and limit, and the trigger period applying to the amazon.com.au storeVerified with limitation — Amazon-hosted and publicly readable; the document is not internally dated, so confirm in your own Australian Seller Central account
GBusiness Solutions Agreement updates effective March 4, 2026 — Amazon Seller Forums announcementThe separation of the Mexico store into its own agreement, the removal of Mexico references from the US and Canada agreement, and the effective dateVerified — Amazon-hosted announcement; the amended agreement text itself is login-gated
HAmazon Insurance Accelerator, reachable from the Business Insurance page in Seller CentralThat Amazon operates a broker-curated panel of insurers as an in-account route, and that sellers may instead use any qualified insurer of their choiceVerified with limitation — the program's existence and structure are documented by Amazon and its broker; the current participating-insurer list and eligibility terms are not captured here and are visible in your own account

Fields still unresolved and labeled as such above: whether the rule's scope is tied to account type; how refunds and returns are treated in the proceeds figure; whether marketplaces aggregate; the product-category list attached to the occurrence-basis exception, which is secondary-sourced only; the exact current enforcement sequence for a missed deadline; and the insurance threshold and limit for every Amazon store outside the six named in the marketplace router.

About this page

Cover My Trade is an independent editorial publisher, written and maintained by the Cover My Trade editorial team. It is not an insurer, agency, broker, adviser, or certificate issuer, it is not affiliated with Amazon, and nothing here is insurance advice, a quote, a binder, or legal advice. Reading this page does not satisfy any Amazon requirement.

This page recommends no provider. How this page is funded: Cover My Trade is supported by advertising and, on some pages, disclosed referral links; no provider has paid for placement, ordering, or inclusion on this page, compensation never determines what is included or how it is ranked, and if a compensated link is added to this page, it will be disclosed here. It is reviewed on the schedule above and updated when the governing source changes; where a fact could not be verified from a permitted source, it is labeled rather than smoothed over.

Corrections and updates. If a figure, source, or status on this page is out of date or wrong, tell us at hello@covermytrade.com with the field and what you found. Corrections are made on receipt and the check date at the top of the affected section is updated. This page's scheduled recheck is monthly; the next is 2026-09-07.

Sources and last verified date

Last verified: August 7, 2026

Next review: September 7, 2026

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