MAP monitoring
A Guide to Monitoring Minimum Advertised Prices
Monitoring is worth exactly what its coverage is worth. The whole SKU list, check times that move around, part numbers as the seller writes them, and the price after coupons and cart gating. Why the compliance rate is the number to report.
Monitoring is worth exactly what its coverage is worth. A crawl that checks part of your catalogue, at the same hour every weekday, matching only on your own part numbers, produces a compliance rate. It mostly describes the crawl. Four things decide whether the number means anything.
Define the monitored product list
Full SKU monitoring reduces product exclusions. A sample reports the offers checked, with limits that depend on how they were selected. State those limits before estimating compliance across the catalogue.
Check times that move around
Price changes are scheduled. A listing that drops below policy on Friday evening and comes back on Monday morning is compliant in every weekday business hours crawl ever run. Checks have to move, weekends and holidays included.
Part numbers as the seller writes them
Listings may use distributor numbers, wholesale numbers or seller-created identifiers. Matching only your own number can miss offers in either compliance category. Build and check a cross-reference from your catalogue and the distributor numbering.
The price a shopper actually sees
MAP applies to the advertised price, and the advertised price is not always the listed number. A stacked coupon, a bundle, a store wide promotion and an add to cart gate all change the figure the shopper ends up with. The gate exists specifically so the advertised price is never displayed at all.
Record the compliant listings too
A count of violations found tells you how hard somebody looked. The compliance rate, measured against every listing found including the ones that turn out to be fine, tells you whether the policy is holding.
Take that reading before the first notice goes out. Without a starting figure there is nothing for later numbers to be compared against, and every claim about progress becomes an opinion.
Marketplaces change the problem
Check who is selling the offer before choosing a response. A third-party storefront needs identity research. When the marketplace sells its own inventory, review that retail account and its supply terms. Neither situation should be treated as an automatic exemption from your policy.
A suspected counterfeit needs its own evidence and response. Check the platform’s current fulfilment rules and the specific order records. A low price or an unauthorised storefront alone does not establish that a unit is counterfeit.
Check the seller relationship
Check the supply relationship and the policy version the seller received. Ask counsel which terms apply and which supply decisions are available. Record what remains unknown. Restricting one route does not establish that the seller has no other stock or source.
A price below your policy does not by itself establish intellectual property infringement. Use a platform complaint only when the evidence supports the rule you cite.
This is the monitoring we run for automotive and powersports brands.
Correction, 23 September 2026: the earlier version treated first-party marketplace retail as beyond MAP enforcement. The account and applicable terms need review.