Amazon FBA Fee Changes 2026: The Compliance Risks Hiding in Your New Cost Structure

Your profit margins just got squeezed again. You’re already running the numbers, figuring out which products can absorb another hit and which ones need price increases. But here’s what most sellers miss while they’re buried in spreadsheets: the way you respond to these fee changes could put your entire account at risk.

We’ve seen it happen dozens of times. A seller panics after a fee increase, makes rapid pricing changes, switches to a cheaper supplier, or rushes to liquidate slow-moving inventory. Three weeks later, they’re staring at a suspension notice wondering what went wrong.

At aSellingSecrets , our team (which includes former Amazon employees who know exactly how the system flags accounts) has helped over 3,000 sellers get reinstated with a 97% success rate. And every year when fee changes hit, we see a spike in cases that could have been prevented if sellers understood the compliance landmines hiding in their cost adjustments.

Let’s break down what’s actually changing in 2026, and more importantly, how to adapt without accidentally triggering Amazon’s automated enforcement systems.

Amazon announced several fee adjustments taking effect January 15, 2026. Here’s what you need to know:

The core fulfillment fee increase: A $0.08 per unit increase across most product size tiers. Yes, eight cents sounds small until you multiply it across thousands of units monthly. For high-volume sellers moving 50,000+ units, that’s an extra $4,000 or more in monthly costs.

Referral fee adjustments: Several categories are seeing referral fee structure changes. Some categories are getting slight reductions (Amazon’s way of appearing seller-friendly), while others are seeing increases that compound with the fulfillment fee bump.

Removal and disposal fee updates: This is where many sellers get caught off guard. The cost to remove or dispose of inventory is increasing, which changes the math on when it makes sense to liquidate versus hold slow-moving stock.

Peak versus non-peak fee structures: The gap between peak season fees and standard fees is widening. If you haven’t been planning your inventory around these seasonal fee differences, 2026 is the year to start.

Now, none of this is surprising. Amazon adjusts fees regularly. The problem isn’t the fees themselves. It’s what sellers do in response to them.

Here’s where things get dangerous. Fee changes create pressure, and pressure leads to shortcuts. We’ve identified four major compliance risks that spike every time Amazon announces fee increases:

You need to raise prices to maintain margins. Totally reasonable. But Amazon’s automated systems are constantly scanning for what they consider “price gouging” or unfair pricing practices.

If you raise prices too aggressively, too quickly, or during certain market conditions (like when competitors are out of stock), you can trigger a fair pricing policy warning or even a listing suppression. We’ve seen sellers get their entire account flagged because they raised prices across their catalog by 15-20% over a single weekend.

The algorithm doesn’t know you’re responding to fee increases. It just sees rapid price inflation and assumes the worst.

When margins tighten, sellers start looking for cheaper suppliers. Makes sense. But switching suppliers without proper documentation, or worse, buying from unauthorized distributors to save a few points on cost, is one of the fastest paths to an authenticity or counterfeit complaint.

We’ve had sellers tell us they found a “great deal” on inventory right after fee increases, only to discover their new supplier was shipping product that looked slightly different from the manufacturer’s current packaging. Customers notice. They file complaints. And now you’re dealing with an account suspension instead of a margin squeeze.

The math on some products just doesn’t work anymore after fee increases. So sellers rush to liquidate, remove, or dispose of inventory. The problem? Doing this aggressively can crater your Inventory Performance Index (IPI) score.

Amazon watches your sell-through rate, excess inventory percentage, and stranded inventory metrics. Mass removals or sudden liquidation efforts can signal to the algorithm that something’s wrong with your inventory management. Drop below the IPI threshold, and you’ll face storage limits that further complicate your business.

This is the one that breaks our hearts the most. A seller has been doing everything right for years. Then fee increases squeeze their cash flow, and they make one desperate decision: maybe they buy a few reviews to boost a struggling listing, or they create a second account to test a different strategy, or they start making claims in their listings that aren’t quite accurate.

One shortcut. That’s all it takes. Amazon’s systems are incredibly sophisticated at detecting manipulation, and the penalties are severe. We’ve worked with sellers who lost six-figure businesses because fee pressure pushed them into a single policy violation.

Your Account Health Dashboard is your early warning system. During any fee transition period, you should be checking these metrics daily, not weekly:

Your ODR needs to stay below 1%. Period. When you’re making pricing or supplier changes, watch this metric like a hawk. Any increase in A-to-Z claims, negative feedback, or chargebacks could signal that your cost-cutting measures are affecting product quality or customer experience.

Warning sign: If your ODR ticks up even 0.2-0.3% in the weeks after implementing changes, investigate immediately. Don’t wait for it to cross the threshold.

The current threshold sits around 400 for most sellers, though Amazon adjusts this periodically. During fee transitions, pay special attention to your excess inventory percentage and sell-through rate. Both can shift dramatically if you’re adjusting prices or removing inventory.

Warning sign: A sudden drop of 50+ points indicates something’s significantly wrong with your inventory strategy.

Check your Pricing Health page in Seller Central. Any pricing alerts mean Amazon’s system has flagged your pricing as potentially problematic. Even if the listing isn’t suppressed yet, an alert is a warning shot.

Warning sign: Multiple pricing alerts appearing within days of each other after you’ve adjusted prices across your catalog.

This is where account health issues often start. A single policy violation notification might seem minor, but they accumulate. During times of change, you’re more likely to accidentally trigger these, so monitor your notification center daily.

Warning sign: Any notification related to product authenticity, listing accuracy, or pricing policies requires immediate attention, not a “I’ll deal with it later” approach.

If you’ve switched suppliers or made product changes to improve margins, your customers will tell you whether you made the right call. Increased negative feedback or return rates are often the first sign that cost-cutting has compromised quality.

Warning sign: Return rates jumping more than a few percentage points on products where you’ve made sourcing changes.

Adapting to fee changes doesn’t have to trigger compliance issues. Here’s the approach we recommend:

Don’t raise all your prices at once. Spread changes over 2-4 weeks, adjusting a portion of your catalog at a time. This looks more natural to Amazon’s systems and gives you time to monitor the impact on sales velocity and account health.

Keep records of why you’re making changes. If Amazon ever questions your pricing, having documentation showing you adjusted prices in response to documented fee increases (rather than market manipulation) strengthens your position significantly.

Before switching to any new supplier, ensure you have:

• Invoices that clearly show the manufacturer or authorized distributor name
• Contact information for the supplier that Amazon can verify
• Proof of product authenticity (certificates, letters of authorization, etc.)
• Photos of the product matching your current listing images

If a deal seems too good to be true, it probably is. The savings from a slightly cheaper supplier will never cover the cost of an authenticity-related suspension.

If certain products no longer make sense with the new fee structure, create a phased exit plan rather than rushing to remove everything. Consider:

• Running promotions to increase sell-through (which helps your IPI)
• Using Amazon’s liquidation programs rather than mass removals
• Timing removals to avoid peak fee periods
• Spreading removals over several weeks to minimize IPI impact

When removing products from your catalog, do it cleanly. Close listings properly, remove inventory through official channels, and ensure no stranded inventory remains. Stranded inventory not only costs you storage fees but signals inventory management problems to Amazon’s systems.

After years of handling reinstatement cases, we’ve noticed patterns in post-fee-increase suspensions. Here are the scenarios we see most often:

A seller finds their margins destroyed by fee increases. They locate a supplier offering the same product at 30% less than their current cost. Without proper vetting, they place a large order. The product arrives, ships to FBA, and within weeks, authenticity complaints start rolling in.

Prevention: Any new supplier relationship should include a small test order, thorough documentation verification, and ideally a sample comparison with your existing inventory before committing to large quantities.

With tighter margins, sellers feel pressure to maximize conversion rates. Some start soliciting reviews in ways that violate Amazon’s policies, whether through inserts offering compensation, external services promising verified reviews, or follow-up messaging that crosses the line.

Prevention: There’s no shortcut to legitimate reviews. Use Amazon’s Request a Review button, focus on product quality and customer service, and accept that organic review growth takes time. The risk of review manipulation is never worth it.

Facing account health issues from fee-related changes, some sellers decide to start fresh with a new account. They don’t realize Amazon’s systems are remarkably effective at linking related accounts. Getting caught operating multiple seller accounts without permission results in the suspension of all accounts, often permanently.

Prevention: If your current account has issues, address them directly. Consider getting a professional account audit to identify problems before they escalate. Running isn’t a solution.

To maintain sales velocity despite price increases, sellers sometimes start enhancing their listings in ways that stretch the truth. Claims become slightly exaggerated, images start showing accessories not included, or condition descriptions become overly generous.

Prevention: Audit your listings quarterly for accuracy. Every claim should be verifiable, every image should reflect exactly what the customer receives, and every product detail should be current and correct.

Use this checklist before, during, and after implementing any changes in response to the 2026 fee updates:

Before Making Changes:

• ☐ Screenshot your current Account Health Dashboard metrics as a baseline
• ☐ Document your current pricing across all SKUs
• ☐ Verify all supplier documentation is current and accessible
• ☐ Review your IPI score and identify any metrics already at risk
• ☐ Calculate realistic margin impacts by product to prioritize changes

During Implementation:

• ☐ Spread price increases over 2-4 weeks minimum
• ☐ Monitor Account Health Dashboard daily
• ☐ Document every change with dates and reasoning
• ☐ Test any new supplier relationships with small orders first
• ☐ Check pricing alerts within 48 hours of any price change

After Changes Are Complete:

• ☐ Compare current Account Health metrics to your baseline
• ☐ Review customer feedback for any new negative patterns
• ☐ Verify no stranded inventory from product changes
• ☐ Confirm all listings still accurately reflect products
• ☐ Schedule a follow-up review in 30 days

If you’re managing a large catalog or complex account, this is exactly the type of systematic compliance review that Amazon Shield+ handles proactively. Having experts monitor your account health during transition periods catches problems before they become suspensions.

Despite your best efforts, sometimes things go wrong. Maybe a price change triggered a fair pricing warning. Maybe a customer filed an authenticity complaint right after you switched suppliers. Maybe your IPI dropped below threshold after inventory adjustments.

Here’s what NOT to do:

Don’t panic-submit an appeal. Rushed appeals almost always fail. Amazon gives you the opportunity to respond, but a weak first appeal can actually make reinstatement harder. If you want to understand why this matters so much, read about why most Plan of Action templates fail and what actually works.

Don’t keep making changes. If you’ve received an alert or suspension, stop adjusting your account until you understand exactly what triggered the issue. Additional changes can complicate the situation.

Don’t assume you know the root cause. What you think caused the problem and what Amazon’s systems flagged are often different things. Properly decoding your suspension notice is critical before responding.

Do gather all documentation related to recent changes. Invoices, supplier communications, pricing change records, anything that shows what you did and why.

Do review your Account Health Dashboard for any other issues you might have missed.

Do consider professional help if the stakes are high. Our team has handled thousands of these cases, and the first 72 hours after a suspension matter tremendously for your outcome.

Yes, but it depends on how you do it. Moderate price increases spread over time are generally fine. However, dramatic increases (20%+ overnight), increases that push you significantly above competitor pricing, or increases during perceived shortage situations can trigger fair pricing policy violations. Amazon’s systems look for patterns that suggest price gouging or market manipulation, not legitimate cost adjustments. Document your reasoning, make changes gradually, and monitor your pricing health dashboard for any alerts.

The key is avoiding sudden, dramatic changes. If products are no longer profitable, create a phased liquidation plan rather than mass removals. Use Amazon’s official liquidation programs when possible, as these impact your IPI differently than standard removals. Focus on improving sell-through rates through strategic promotions before resorting to removals. Spread any necessary inventory reductions over several weeks, and monitor your excess inventory percentage and sell-through rate throughout the process.

First, don’t ignore it. Even if your listing isn’t suppressed, a warning indicates Amazon’s systems have flagged something concerning. Review the specific warning language to understand what triggered it. If the warning relates to pricing, consider adjusting prices back toward previous levels or more in line with market rates. Document why you made the original changes (fee increases) in case you need to explain your pricing decisions. If the warning escalates or you’re unsure how to respond, get a free consultation before the situation worsens.

Fee announcements sometimes coincide with policy clarifications or enforcement priority shifts, though Amazon doesn’t always announce these directly. It’s worth reviewing the full fee announcement for any policy language updates, checking your Seller Central notifications for recent policy reminders, and monitoring Amazon’s seller news for enforcement trends. That said, core policies around product authenticity, listing accuracy, fair pricing, and customer service standards remain consistent. The fee changes themselves don’t change what’s allowed; they just create pressure that leads some sellers to violate existing policies.

Fee increases are frustrating, but they’re survivable. Account suspensions can be catastrophic. As you work through your response to Amazon’s 2026 FBA fee changes, keep the compliance risks front and center.

Make changes gradually. Document everything. Watch your account health metrics like your business depends on it (because it does). And if you’re unsure whether a particular strategy might put your account at risk, err on the side of caution.

If you’d like expert eyes on your account before you make significant changes, we offer a free account health consultation. Our team can review how the 2026 fee changes might impact your specific situation and identify any compliance vulnerabilities before they become suspensions. With our 97% success rate across more than 3,000 reinstatements, we’ve seen every type of account issue and know what puts sellers at risk.

Schedule your free consultation and get ahead of any potential problems. Or learn more about our Amazon Shield+ proactive compliance audit service , which provides ongoing monitoring and early warning detection, especially valuable during transition periods like this.

Your margins might be tighter after January 15th. Let’s make sure your account is still healthy enough to recover them.