The Records and Review a MAP Enforcement Process Needs

Keep two records before reviewing a MAP violation: the policy delivered to the reseller and a timestamped capture of the offer. These records support the review. They do not establish whether the policy is lawful or enforceable. Have counsel assess the terms and proposed action against the applicable law.

Give the policy to every reseller, and keep the receipt

Send it to a named person and record the date. Repeat that step when a new seller joins or the policy changes. If receipt is disputed, check the delivery record before deciding whether to escalate.

Check the distribution list against your real dealer list, not the one in the CRM from last year. Sellers who arrived through a distributor are the ones usually missing from it.

Capture the violation before you contact anyone

Screenshot the listing with the URL and the time visible, and store it where it can be found again. Prices change within minutes of a notice going out, and then the seller says the price was never there. With a capture, that exchange ends in one reply.

Record the figure a shopper would end up seeing, including coupons, bundles and any discount that only appears in the cart. The listed number on its own is not always the advertised price.

One owner inside your company

Enforcement stalls when it is split between sales and marketing. The person who owns the dealer relationship is the person least able to risk it. Name one owner, give them the approved templates, and let the account manager stay out of the notice chain. Sales still gets the good half, which is thanking a seller who comes back into compliance.

Treat every reseller the same

Record exceptions and their reasons, including those for large accounts. Have the approved decision-maker review them before the notice sequence changes. Unexplained differences make the programme harder to defend to other sellers.

Put a review date on the document

Review it when your price list moves and on a fixed date otherwise. New products arrive, old ones get discontinued, and a product the policy does not cover cannot be enforced on.

Where we stop

We are not lawyers and none of this is legal advice. Your counsel writes the policy and decides what it may contain. We enforce it as written, and we stay out of any conversation about what the price itself should be. How that runs.

The FTC distinguishes manufacturer policies from price agreements. Documentation alone does not settle that legal assessment.

Correction, 23 September 2026: proof of receipt and a captured offer do not make a MAP policy legally enforceable by themselves.