MAP monitoring
Mastering MAP Policies: a Reseller's Guide to Staying Compliant
A MAP policy limits the price you advertise. The price you sell at is still yours to set. What that means for a reseller day to day. What triggers a notice, what non-compliance costs, and how to ask for an exception before the promotion runs.
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
Supply consequences need counsel’s review. Colgate concerns a manufacturer’s independent choice about whom to supply. Coordinating restrictions with distributors requires a separate legal assessment.
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
Check the supply relationship before drawing conclusions about an unauthorised seller. Ask counsel which terms apply and which supply decisions are available. A storefront listing alone does not establish that relationship.
If you are on the other side of this and running the policy, here is what enforcement involves.
Correction, 23 September 2026: the earlier version treated coordinated distributor restrictions as automatically protected by Colgate. That was too broad.