Defining MAP: A Retailer's Guide to Pricing Policies

MAP is the lowest price you are allowed to advertise a product at. It is not the lowest price you are allowed to sell it at, and it is not the manufacturer’s suggested retail price. If you resell, those two sentences cover most of what the policy asks of you.

The rest is detail about what counts as advertising, and that detail is where compliant retailers still end up with a violation notice.

MAP, MSRP and what the customer pays

MSRP is a recommendation about the retail price. You can ignore it.

MAP is a floor on public display. A manufacturer sets it, announces it, and enforces it by deciding who it keeps supplying. What you charge at the till or at checkout is a separate question, and a well-written policy says so in as many words.

What usually counts as advertising

Read your supplier’s policy, because the definitions vary. The figure that matters is the one a shopper sees before they commit. That normally covers the listing price, the price after an automatically applied coupon, and the effective price inside a bundle. It also covers any price you publish in a feed, an email or a comparison site.

Whether free shipping, financing or a loyalty discount counts is a question only the policy in front of you can answer. If it does not answer it, ask the manufacturer in writing and keep the reply.

What you can normally still do

The in-cart price is the reason “add to cart to see price” exists at all. Some policies allow it and some name it as a violation, so check yours before you build a listing template around it.

Service, stock, delivery time and the fact that a human answers your phone are outside the policy entirely. A manufacturer enforcing MAP is protecting the margin that lets you compete on those, which is the honest argument for going along with it.

Four ways a compliant retailer still gets a notice

• An automated repricer matched a violator. Your tool saw a lower price on the same listing and followed it down. Set a floor in the repricer at the MAP figure for every affected part number, and update it when the policy changes.
• Coupons stacked. A sitewide code applied on top of a category promotion took the visible price under the floor for a few hours. That is still a violation on the timestamp somebody captured.
• A stale feed. Shopping feeds, marketplace listings and affiliate sites cache old prices. The listing you fixed is still live somewhere else.
• A part number you did not know was covered. Policies apply to SKUs, and distributor numbering can hide which SKU a listing actually is. Ask for the policy as a part number list, not as a paragraph.

If you think the number is wrong

Get legal review before discussing price levels with suppliers or competing resellers. The FTC distinguishes competitor price agreements from manufacturer requirements. Those are different legal questions. Your counsel needs the participants and the proposed conduct, not just the label “MAP”.

The manufacturer has the same constraint from the other side, which is why a MAP figure usually arrives as an announcement instead of a discussion.