Amazon Deactivates One Bad FBM Offer, Not Your Account

What Actually Changed

Amazon updated US Account Health enforcement for Fulfilled by Merchant offers. The core of it: an underperforming FBM offer can now be temporarily deactivated on its own. The rest of your catalog and your overall Account Health stay active.

• The change applies to US Account Health enforcement for FBM offers.
• Amazon can temporarily deactivate a single failing offer instead of risking the whole account.
• The change is effective August 31, 2026.
• Amazon does not state that every metric breach triggers immediate deactivation.

In simple terms, the penalty got more surgical. One bad offer no longer has to drag the whole account down with it. That is good news. The catch is that you now have more small fires to watch instead of one big one.

The Four Trigger Policies

Amazon names four performance policies that can trigger the offer-level action. These are the fulfillment metrics you already know. The difference is the consequence now lands on a single offer.

These four are the named triggers. The policy pages define the underlying metrics, but they do not define the new offer-selection method. Amazon also revised several fulfillment measures during 2026, so older thresholds you have in your head may be outdated. Confirm the live numbers before you trust them. If you want a refresher on how these tie together, read our breakdown of the Account Health metrics that matter.

Offer-Level vs Account-Level Risk

The old framing, in Amazon's own words, was that missing required metrics could put the entire account at risk. The new system only deactivates the affected offer while other listings stay active. Here is the side by side.

The description of the old system is Amazon's own framing, so treat it as context, not a precise legal record. The practical takeaway is clear enough: the blast radius shrank.

What Amazon Has Not Explained

Be honest about the gaps. Amazon left several important pieces undefined, and you should plan around the uncertainty rather than assume the best case.

• Amazon did not define how it selects the affected offer when metrics are tracked across many orders and time windows.
• Amazon did not publish an offer-level trigger threshold.
• Amazon did not state the amount of advance warning it gives.
• Amazon did not state the duration of a temporary deactivation.
• Account-level metric thresholds do not necessarily explain the new offer-selection method.
• Amazon has not said whether it uses minimum-order requirements, confidence thresholds, or other safeguards before deactivating an offer.

One more thing worth naming: an unavailable offer is expected to stop serving ads. Amazon has not confirmed that as policy, so treat it as a reasonable expectation, not a promise. Either way, check your campaigns when an offer goes down.

Why Low-Volume Sellers Should Worry

If you sell low-order-volume SKUs, this change carries a hidden edge. One defect on a handful of orders creates a far higher percentage than one defect on thousands of orders. That concentration can push a niche SKU past a threshold fast.

• A single A-to-z claim on a 5-order SKU is a huge percentage. The same claim on a 5,000-order SKU is noise.
• Amazon has not said whether it applies a minimum-order safeguard before it acts.
• SKU-level handling-time settings can create delivery promises some products cannot meet, which raises your late and on-time risk.

Seller objections that late shipments, carrier delays, or claims are not really properties of a single SKU are anecdotal. They may feel fair, but they are not proof the attribution is wrong. Plan for the system as it is, not as you wish it were. If you are still deciding how to fulfill, our guide on FBA vs FBM lays out the trade-offs.

Set Up Early-Warning Monitoring

The warning email is your first signal, and you do not know how much time it buys you. So build a system that catches trouble before Amazon does and that reacts the second an email lands.

• Build a weekly FBM exception report by SKU. Cover seller cancellations, late confirmations, promised vs actual delivery dates, A-to-z claims, chargebacks, and negative feedback.
• For each order, record the carrier, service level, warehouse or 3PL, and the Amazon delivery promise shown at purchase.
• Set an alert on the warning mailbox and assign one person the authority to open the Account Health case. No debate, no waiting.
• Align your catalog-wide handling-time defaults with SKU-level realities so you stop making promises you cannot keep.
• Verify current metric thresholds against live Seller Central help before you rely on any number.

Delivery timing is where a lot of FBM sellers get burned right now. If you have not read it yet, our note on the 2026 delivery rate rule explains why on-time delivery matters more than ever.

Reinstate a Deactivated Offer

A deactivated offer appears in Account Health under Other Policy Violations. You restore it by following the reactivation instructions listed there. Do it in this order.

1. Open the warning email if you received one. It should identify the issue and give resolution steps.
2. Go to Account Health and find the offer under Other Policy Violations.
3. Read the reactivation instructions listed for that offer.
4. Fix the underlying cause first. Correct handling time, swap carriers, or resolve the defect pattern.
5. Follow the reactivation path and submit your response.
6. Keep the case record. Save the email, the Account Health entry, and the order-level records you used.
7. Check your ad campaigns after the offer is removed to control wasted spend.

Do not try the shortcut. Relisting the same inventory under a new SKU to evade the action is not allowed. That path only creates a bigger problem.

Protect Q4 When a SKU Goes Dark

The worst time for a top SKU to go dark is peak season. Build a backup plan for every advertised FBM offer before you need it.

• Map every advertised FBM SKU to a backup fulfillment plan.
• Backup options include corrected handling time, a different carrier, a temporary pause, a 3PL change, or FBA if the economics work.
• Because an unavailable offer is expected to stop serving ads, check campaign status the moment an offer is removed.
• Move the fastest-selling SKUs to the front of your reactivation queue.

A backup plan you build in October beats a scramble on Black Friday. Decide now who acts, what they switch to, and how fast.

Build Your Evidence File

When you respond to a deactivation, records win. Start collecting them before you ever get a warning, because some data changes or disappears over time.

• Save any Amazon warning email, the Account Health entry, and the order-level records you use in a response.
• If a carrier scan or customer event looks wrong, preserve the original tracking pages and timestamps before the data changes.
• Keep the carrier, service level, and warehouse or 3PL for each order tied to a defect.
• Store the Amazon delivery promise shown at purchase alongside the actual delivery date.

A clean file lets you answer fast and specific instead of guessing. That is the difference between a quick reactivation and days of back and forth.

Your This-Week Checklist

Do these seven things in the next few days.

1. Build a weekly FBM exception report by SKU.
2. Set an alert on the warning mailbox and name one person to open the case.
3. Align catalog-wide handling-time defaults with each SKU's real capability.
4. Map a backup fulfillment plan to every advertised FBM SKU.
5. Verify current metric thresholds on live Seller Central help pages.
6. Start an evidence file with carrier, promise, and delivery data per order.
7. Write down the exact reactivation steps under Other Policy Violations so nobody hunts for them mid-crisis.

Conclusion

The change is a net positive. One bad FBM offer no longer has to threaten your whole account. But the gaps Amazon left, no published threshold, no stated warning window, no defined selection method, mean you cannot rely on the system to be gentle. Watch your four metrics per SKU, act on the warning email the moment it arrives, and keep an evidence file ready so reactivation is fast.

When an offer comes back on, make sure it earns clicks. Pair tight fulfillment with a strong listing by studying our Amazon listing optimization checklist and, if delivery timing is your weak spot, our take on what the 2026 delivery rate rule changed. Surgical enforcement rewards sellers who run a tight operation.

References

1. Amazon Seller Forums discussion on FBM offer-level deactivation
2. Amazon: Fulfillment and shipping program overview