How to Deal with The Violation and Violators of The MAP Policy?

Posted by MAP Services Corp on February 15th, 2021

Map policy is important for all business to avoid any kind of under-pricing of a product or a brand. But still we can easily find out hundreds of results where we have seen the violation of the MAP policy.  Platform like Amazon has reported has lots of such violation reports which are causing hindrance in the business growth. Minimum advertised price is often being crossed and lower prices are scheduled to attract customers. The name of Amazon came up in this case of violation as they don’t have any strict policy or agreement in the seller pricing.

Now why so?

Well, there is a huge reason behind this scenario.

The manufacturer comes up with the agreement with the retailers. Amazon is not a retailer who will be included in the policy rules. Moreover, they don’t want to get into such violation rules with the manufacturer or the retailers.  Overall, they are above all the enforcement activities.

So, what can a manufacturer need to do when they find any reseller on Amazon is violating the MAP policy?

In that case, what the manufacturer needs to do is to directly contact with the reseller who is violating the policy. Amazon has no role to play in this case. Reseller need to be consulted which you can get through the in-depth monitoring of the MAP violations.

How to address Map violators

Here are the steps to address the Map violators:

• Identify the MAP violators with the MAP violation software or monitoring.
• A message can be sent to them about alerting them about vigorous enforcement for the Map violations.
• Respect of the MAP must be taken or the reseller would be banned for the products they are selling.
• Prior warning should be given. Even after that if they ignore your message, you can directly opt for banning.
• Don’t stop monitoring the channels and find out such reseller who are violating the rules of the map policy and going below the minimum advertised price.
• In some cases, you may find reseller who may be again violating the MAP policy even after getting warning. In that case contact with the Amazon and stop that reseller from allowing to sell any products.

Why you must have a MAP policy?

If you are a manufacturer and not having a MAP policy, it is immediate thing that you must be doing right now. You must note that the MAP policy is the only option which can protect your brand worthy and also help you get a pricing limit for your product launching in the market. Without the Map policy, enforcing the minimum pricing is also not possible.

Concluding

Contact with any professional Amp policy makers who are doing it for years. They can handle the task of building the Map policy on behalf of you and also help you monitor and produce reports on everyday basis on violation of the Map policy. So, take the right step ate the right time.