Getting a MAP Policy Complied With, and Keeping It That Way

Before you write to a reseller, check whether the price came from you. A feed carrying an old figure. A co-op advertising proof approved without a price check. A discount a sales representative offered to close a quarter. All three show up in monitoring as a reseller violation.

The price feed

Distributors and marketplaces list from data you send them. If the MAP figure in that data is stale, every seller consuming it advertises the old price. Every one of them looks like a violator. Check the feed before the notices go out. A first notice that turns out to be your own data error costs you the standing to send the next one.

Co-op advertising

When you fund a reseller’s advertising, someone on your side approves the creative. That approval is a price check as much as a brand check. Put the current MAP figure on the approval form and make the approver confirm the advertisement against it.

Your own sales team

A representative under quota who offers a discount, a bundle, or a promotional price that the reseller then advertises has created the violation. Rules alone do not fix that. Give the team something else to trade. A stocking allowance, priority on a back ordered part, joint marketing money, early access to a new line. None of those touch the advertised price.

Promotions you ran yourself

A manufacturer led promotion that drops the advertised price needs a written suspension of MAP for its dates, sent to every seller. Without one, the sellers who followed your promotion are in breach of your own policy and the ones who ignored it are compliant.

What to check before a notice goes out

• The MAP figure in the current feed matches the policy
• No manufacturer promotion is live on that part
• No co-op approval covers the advertisement in question
• The capture shows the price, the URL and the timestamp
• The seller received the policy version you are citing

Five checks, and they take minutes. Sending a notice the seller can rebut is how a programme loses its teeth.

Resellers have an internal version of this too

A reseller’s pricing software can reprice automatically against a competitor and walk below your MAP without anyone deciding to. When a previously compliant seller starts breaching on a few parts at odd hours, ask about their repricing rules before assuming intent. A phone call settles that faster than a letter.

Then enforce

Once your own side is clean, enforcement runs as a straight process and the arguments get shorter. See MAP monitoring and enforcement.