[OSSLab] Case #01 - When Amazon’s Policy Outruns Its Process
What Triggered the Story
A Month of Silence: When Compliance Meets a Wall
It started like many of our most complex cases do, with silence.
A high-performing grocery bundle had been down for over a month. The seller had done everything by the book: calls, chats, escalation forms, and even Account Health follow-ups. Every reply came back identical: “This product violates Amazon’s Product Bundling policy.”
No context. No instruction. No path forward.
Behind the surface, something larger was happening. Amazon had quietly rewritten the rules for bundles across multiple sensitive categories (Grocery, Pet, Baby, Health, and Beauty), tightening what used to be one of the most flexible listing formats. The result: compliant listings were being flagged and trapped in review loops that frontline teams weren’t yet trained to resolve.
Our client wasn’t careless. They had the right packaging, clear labeling, and even letters of authorization from every brand included in the bundle.
By policy, they qualified. But the policy wasn’t the problem, the process was.
Amazon had launched enforcement faster than its internal teams could adapt. That mismatch between intent and execution turned one valid bundle into a month-long suspension with no human resolution in sight.
Summary of Findings
Category: Grocery (restricted for custom bundles)
ASIN status: 3 weeks restricted (Product Policy Violation)
Appeal history: 7 appeals denials, before contacting us
Primary cause: Automated flag under updated Product Bundling policy
What’s actually going on
The Rulebook Rewritten: How Bundles Became a Moving Target
To understand this case, we have to look at how Amazon’s Product Bundling policy changed, and why the shift happened so aggressively across specific categories.
Historically, bundles were an easy way for sellers to add value and stand out. You could pair complementary items (coffee and filters, shampoo and conditioner) and list them under your own brand or even “Generic.” Amazon tolerated this practice for years because it drove convenience and incremental sales.
But as Amazon grew, so did counterfeit activity, safety concerns, and expired or repackaged bundles, particularly in high-trust categories like grocery and beauty. And repackaged multi-brand bundles started affecting the consistency of how brands appeared across the catalog.
And the part most sellers didn’t see: Brands hated it.
Many of the largest household names (especially those with direct supplier relationships with Amazon) had no control over these mixed-brand or “Generic” bundles that used their products without permission. Their customer experience was being shaped by listings they didn’t own, didn’t approve, and couldn’t remove.
For Amazon, it was a brand trust issue, and a partner relationship issue.
So Amazon rewrote the rulebook:
Only manufacturer-created bundles are allowed.
Mixing different brands under one ASIN is prohibited.
Private-label or Generic brand names can’t host multi-brand combinations.
The sole exception: gift baskets, but only with letters of authorization (LOAs) from every brand involved.
In theory, this policy should have made the marketplace cleaner and more consistent for customers and brands.
In practice, the rollout exposed a deeper problem.
Our client met every condition. But the internal systems (the actual algorithm/bot that processes information and checks for compliance) hadn’t yet caught up.
Additionally, support teams were using outdated documentation. Restricted Products reps lacked clear escalation routes. And reinstatement requests were being shuffled between teams that didn’t yet know who was responsible.
It’s a familiar pattern inside Amazon: policy innovation always runs ahead of procedural clarity.
And when that happens, compliant sellers fall through the cracks, especially when the policy exists because Amazon’s brand partners are demanding tighter control.
Glossary
LOA (Letter of Authorization): A brand-signed document confirming the seller’s right to distribute or bundle its product.
ASIN (Amazon Standard Identification Number): The catalog ID assigned to every product on Amazon.
Manual Review Team: Specialized Amazon teams trained to evaluate complex cases that automation cannot handle accurately.