Mastering MAP Policies: a Reseller's Guide to Staying Compliant

If you resell another company’s products, a MAP policy limits the price you advertise. The price you sell at is still yours to set. That one distinction answers most reseller questions about MAP, and the rest come down to what the brand’s document actually says.

What you can still do

Sell below the MAP figure, as long as the lower number is never advertised. Where that line falls depends on the policy and on how the price is displayed, and brands differ most on prices shown in the cart. Read the document. If it does not cover your case, ask in writing and keep the answer.

What gets you a notice

Advertising below the figure, in any form the policy names. That includes the discount that never shows up as a price: coupon codes, bundles, buy-one-get-one, and free shipping where the policy counts it.

The version easiest to miss is a paid ad or a comparison feed pulling an old price out of your own catalogue. Nobody is looking at the feed, so the first anyone hears of it is the notice.

What non-compliance costs

Warnings first. Then the brand can stop supplying you, and tell its distributors to stop too. A manufacturer deciding whom it will keep supplying is long-settled ground in the United States. It goes back to United States v. Colgate and Co., 250 U.S. 300 (1919). That is why losing the line is a real outcome and not an empty threat. We are not lawyers and this is not legal advice.

How to ask for an exception

In writing, before the promotion runs, to the person named in the policy. Clearance and discontinued stock are the usual cases and brands often approve them. What does not work is running the promotion and explaining afterwards. By then there is a screenshot with a timestamp on it, and a process that has already started.

Why the brand bothers

A floor under the advertised price protects a margin. That margin pays for you to hold stock, employ someone who knows the product, and handle the returns. When every seller advertises the same figure, the sale goes to whoever delivers faster or answers the question better. That is the competition a good reseller wants.

If you are not an authorised seller

A brand has no obligation to supply a seller it never authorised, and unauthorised listings are where enforcement gets serious fast. Say you are buying stock through a third party and advertising under a policy you were never given. Expect the brand to spend its effort finding your supply route.

If you are on the other side of this and running the policy, here is what enforcement involves.