Amazon Business Solutions Agreement (BSA) & Seller Terms: 2026 Guide

Published: February 27, 2017
Last updated: June 12, 2026

The Amazon Services Business Solutions Agreement (BSA) - still called “Terms and Conditions” or “Participation Agreement” by most sellers who’ve heard of it - is the governing contract between Amazon and every third-party seller on its marketplace. You accept it automatically by selling on Amazon. Amazon can modify it with 15 days’ notice.

Most sellers have never read it. That’s a problem, because this is the document that determines when Amazon can freeze your money, suspend your account, or restrict the tools you use to run your business.

Table of Contents

1. BSA vs. Participation Agreement: Get the Name Right
2. Key BSA Sections Every Seller Should Know
3. The March 2026 Update: The Agent Policy Changes Everything
4. Auditing Your Automation Tools Under the New Agent Policy
5. How to Monitor Future BSA Changes
6. FAQ

---

BSA vs. Participation Agreement: Get the Name Right

The BSA was introduced in 2011, alongside the older Participation Agreement, and has since become the controlling document. Two agreements technically coexist, but the BSA governs - running about 46 pages versus the Participation Agreement’s 15. The official Seller Central reference is help article G1791.

If you’re still calling it the “Participation Agreement” or “Terms of Service” when arguing a suspension appeal, you’re using the wrong name. That small error signals to Amazon’s appeals team that you haven’t read the document you’re disputing.

---

Key BSA Sections Every Seller Should Know

Most BSA disputes trace back to the same five sections. Here’s what each one actually does to your business:

Section	Topic	What Sellers Often Miss
Section 2	Fees & Fund Withholding	Amazon can freeze payouts if it anticipates chargebacks or A-to-z claims. Several arbitration rulings have challenged “permanent withholding” as excessive, but Amazon still does it.
Section 3	Termination	Basis for account suspensions. Since 2019, sellers get a 30-day appeal window after a seller-responsibility decision.
Section 4	License Rights	Amazon obtains broad rights to reuse your submitted images globally. Not a daily issue, but relevant if you ever pursue brand licensing or franchise arrangements.
Section 8	Liability Cap	Amazon’s liability to you is capped at fees paid over the preceding six months.
Section 9	Insurance	US sellers earning more than $10,000/month in gross proceeds must carry $1M commercial general liability insurance, naming Amazon as additional insured. Canada threshold: CAD $10,000/month.
Section 15	BSA Modifications	Amazon gives at least 15 days’ advance notice before changes take effect - a policy guarantee since August 2019.

Section 8 deserves more attention than it gets. That six-month fee cap isn’t protecting your revenue - it’s protecting Amazon. Quick math: a seller doing $600K/year in gross sales typically pays around $60K in annual Amazon fees. Their Section 8 cap against Amazon is $30K (six months of fees). Their $600K in revenue is irrelevant to that ceiling. Sellers who discover this during an active dispute describe it as the most expensive paragraph they never read.

The insurance threshold in Section 9 catches more sellers than you’d expect. $10,000/month in gross proceeds is not a high bar - that’s a modest Amazon side business. If you cleared $120K this year, you’re likely out of compliance unless you have that $1M liability policy in place.

---

The March 2026 Update: The Agent Policy Changes Everything

The March 4, 2026 BSA overhaul was the largest in years, but not all five changes carry equal weight.

The most consequential is the new Agent Policy. Any software accessing Amazon Services on your behalf - repricers, PPC management tools, listing automation, inventory sync, review request tools - must now clearly identify itself as automated, comply with the policy continuously, and stop immediately if Amazon requests it. You must be able to revoke access to any tool within minutes. A tool you can’t shut down on demand is now a compliance risk.

The second major change bans using Amazon’s data, materials, or systems to train AI models or develop machine-learning applications. If you or a contractor was scraping BSR data, product reviews, or search results to feed a model - that’s now explicitly prohibited under the BSA.

Three additional changes are worth noting but affect fewer sellers: Amazon reorganized dispute resolution under Section 20 (same binding arbitration with AAA, same class-action waivers, clearer language about arbitrator authority), published a separate BSA for the Mexico store (removing Mexico references from the US/Canada document), and updated terminology throughout (“Developer Site” is now “Solution Provider Portal”).

---

Auditing Your Automation Tools Under the New Agent Policy

The Agent Policy isn’t theoretical. The majority of active professional sellers use at least one tool that now falls under it: repricing software, PPC automation, listing management platforms, inventory sync, reporting dashboards. Each one needs to be reviewed.

Start with an inventory. List every tool that touches Seller Central or any Amazon API. For each one, confirm with the vendor that it was updated for Agent Policy compliance. The specific requirements:

• The tool must identify itself as automated when interacting with Amazon - not simulate human behavior
• You need a documented, fast process to revoke its access (minutes, not days)
• Shared credentials - giving a contractor your login to run automation - violate the policy
• Browser automation that mimics human browsing is in a gray zone and likely non-compliant

The risk isn’t only account suspension. The BSA ties Agent Policy violations to the same liability framework as other breaches - which, given Section 8’s fee-based cap, means the floor of your exposure is low, but Amazon’s ability to terminate services is uncapped.

For FBA Repricers specifically: the repricing tools most commonly used by FBA sellers were among the first category of software Amazon had in mind when drafting the Agent Policy. If your repricer vendor hasn’t communicated their compliance status, that’s the first call to make.

For context on Fulfillment by Amazon, FBA itself operates under service terms layered on top of the BSA. Your fulfillment fee structure and pricing obligations are governed by those addenda - but the Agent Policy applies to any tool touching the FBA API as well.

---

How to Monitor Future BSA Changes

Amazon commits to 15 days’ notice before changes. That sounds like a buffer; it isn’t. For a seller with a dozen active tools, auditing vendor compliance, reviewing updated contract language, and updating internal processes in 15 days is genuinely tight. The sellers who handle it well treat BSA monitoring as a standing quarterly review, not a response to an email.

Three things to do now:

1. Enable Seller Central email notifications for policy updates - the default isn’t always on. Check your notification settings.
2. Watch Seller Central forums for threads titled “Changes to the Amazon Services Business Solutions Agreement.” Amazon posts there when updates go live, often before the email goes out.
3. Follow third-party summarizers. AMZ Sellers Attorney, SellerEngine, MyAmazonGuy, and EcommerceBytes publish plain-English breakdowns within days of a BSA change. They’re faster than reading the full document and useful for initial triage - but read the actual change before making decisions.

That last point matters: third-party summaries can simplify in ways that affect your specific situation. If you’re in an active dispute or negotiating with a vendor on compliance terms, you need the original language, not a blog post’s interpretation of it.

Don’t rely on your tool vendors to flag BSA changes that affect their software. You’re the account holder. The liability sits with you.

---

Running repricers, PPC tools, or listing automation? Feedvisor’s AI-powered platform is built for Seller Central API compliance, including the March 2026 Agent Policy requirements. See how Feedvisor works.

---

FAQ

Is the Amazon Business Solutions Agreement the same as Amazon’s Terms and Conditions? Yes - “Terms and Conditions” and “Participation Agreement” are informal names sellers use for the same document. The formal name is the Amazon Services Business Solutions Agreement, referenced at Seller Central help article G1791. Amazon’s consumer Terms of Service governs buyers and is a separate document entirely.

What is Amazon’s Business Solutions Agreement? The BSA is the legal contract governing every third-party seller’s use of Amazon’s marketplace. It covers fee structures, account suspension rules, insurance requirements, dispute resolution through binding arbitration, and how Amazon can modify the terms. The March 2026 overhaul added the Agent Policy, which now regulates automation tools and AI use.

What happens if I don’t comply with the Agent Policy? Amazon can restrict or block non-compliant tools, suspend your account, or terminate selling privileges. The policy applies regardless of whether you knew the rules changed - continued use of Amazon Services after March 4, 2026 constituted acceptance. If a tool can’t identify itself as automated or can’t be revoked on demand, you’re exposed.

Does the BSA cover returns and refunds? It covers liability allocation - specifically that third-party shipping and returns are the seller’s responsibility. The mechanics are in Amazon’s return and refund policies, which are service-specific addenda. FBA orders operate under different rules, as the agreement explicitly carves out.

How often does Amazon update the BSA? Several times per year in smaller ways; major overhauls like March 2026 are infrequent but significant. Amazon must give at least 15 days’ notice before changes take effect. Set up Seller Central notifications now, before the next one lands.

---