Not accusing you, but others “absorb” information like this and use it.
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Yea, that makes sense. It seems like I’m already linked via IP Address and my Device then.
This was all very helpful, thanks.
MOD EDIT - Cleaning up post
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MOD NOTE:
I have removed one post and edited a reply/quote to remove some information that is used to link accounts. This is a no fault edit and we are just making sure knowledge does not get into bad actors hands.
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If you are selling the business that includes the Amazon account, are you not also transferring all of the business assets, such as devices and office/warehouse spaces? 
If the new business owners are continuing to use the business’s old Amazon account that you helmed, then they are indeed already in violation of Amazon’s policies, as @oneida_books noted above, so you should certainly be watchful! 
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There’s a reason why a properly-formulated APA (“Asset Purchase Agreement”) is de rigueur in such situations.
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Yea, it was an asset purchase so everything was transferred except my legal entity. Believe this is typical for Amazon business purchases.
They changed the legal entity and address on the seller account so I believe they went through Amazon protocols to change ownership. Had this entire process they had to go thru with Amazon post acquisition.
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I do not believe that the “no sale of an Amazon Seller account” policy is a real policy. The fact they even ALLOW a legal entity change is evidence that they allow the sale of an account. I think that policy strictly exists so that if there’s an issue with the new owner they can point to it as justification for the suspension.
Anytime an Amazon business is sold, there’s no way the buyer is going to go through creating a new account, getting all ungatings needed, getting brand registry ownership transferred, and the monumental task of removing and then sending back all FBA inventory (during which time all sales ranks will plummet). A lot of times these businesses are sold a lot of the value is in the sales ranks of the ASINs and the FBA inventory.
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I agree. I (and my business partners) have bought several companies that have been on Amazon and we purchased the entire company. All we did was go in and add a few users and kept everything else the same on the front end. Only the stock ledger changed as well as some banking information for things like loans due to personal guarantees.
The one we sold was sold as assets only and we closed the Amazon account along with all bank accounts/CC etc.
The buyers lawyer in the sale, pointed out that it would be absurd to have to make a new Amazon account with every change in ownership if you have a multi partner LLC or corporation. You would need to start over every time someone leaves or joins despite the entity not changing at all. Our largest corporation has 6 owners now. 7 now lives out his remaining years in the Philippines, and we are not starting all over because he simply got old.
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For a public company (And there’s at least 1 public company amazon seller), every time the stock trades there’s technically a “change in ownership.”
If you want to be technical about things, you could have a corporation wholly own the Amazon corporation, then just transfer ownership of the parent corporation. Technically and legally speaking the ownership of Amazon corporation is not changing. The beneficial ownership is changing, but that’s not what the text says.
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Maybe, but that’s still a “real” policy.
And the policy (or enforcement) in the past can never be guaranteed as the policy (or enforcement) of the future.
All we can say is that at this moment in 2024, this is the Amazon policy. So going forward, our SellersAskSellers recommendation would be that if @oldtimeseller sells another business, they protect their remaining and future Amazon accounts by prohibiting a mere turnover of the Amazon account associated with the sold business and require that the new business owners start a new account.
True, and this is exactly what Amazon is trying to prevent–or give themselves room to enforce a prohibition if needed.
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That would almost certainly be a dealbreaker in the sale (or result in getting paid a substantially smaller amount of money).
It is true that there have been many policies in the past that weren’t enforced until they were though.
If I were to ever sell my seller account, it would only be in a situation where I decided I’m completely done with Amazon. After that, it’s the buyer’s problem to deal with. I would make sure the sale agreement states that the buyer understands the policy and that they’re accepting full responsibility if an issue arises from violating it, and have the agreement drafted/approved by an attorney.
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Yes. That’s the point.
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And yet I have seen posters of “Related Account Suspension” who it turned out sold an old account. Thanks to the pitiful NSFE I can’t search back to them though. Granted there aren’t that many, at least that admit it, but I know I’ve seen at least 2.
Note that these below are all different situations.
With Issue (I believe) - Asset Only
The old and new account can be linked and suspended.
Without Issue - Assets with closed AZ Account
Without Issue - Company
Without Issue …
We all know seller accounts are bought and sold all the time. Fact is buyer accounts also get bought/sold, although for very little.People also sell counterfeit; sell inauthentic; dropship; etc. However there is written policy against it all.
It’s like speeding down the interstate to me.
- Keep to the limit and you are fine (let’s leave out getting pulled over for a broken tail light and such)
- Do 10 over and you are likely still fine
- Do 20+ over
- You MIGHT not get caught
- If you DO get caught you’re not getting out of it
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Of course we are talking about buying entities not accounts. Many authors on the OSFE and NSFE think they can sell their sole proprietor “business/company” without having to have the recipient open a new account.
I assert this type of business is what Amazon was referring to when they put this policy into verbiage.
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If a related account gets suspended, then I would count that as a situation where they want this policy to point to as justification.
As with everything else on Amazon, if there’s no issue things goes smoothly, if there’s a problem then everything related has a problem as well.
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Being how messed up Amazon is at almost everything, I expect to be suspended for something eventually, despite following all policies. That level of resignation to Amazon’s ineptitude sure does take the burden off of ones shoulders.
If I had an unlimited amount of time and money I would start an insurance company with a team of lawyers for sellers to buy insurance for the inevitable. Like insuring owners of a trailer park in Florida or a cliff house in California, its not “if”, but “when”.
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There’s an increasing number of things that are uninsurable. Many hurricane zones can no longer buy flood insurance.
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I can see it now…
Amazon - Your doorbell said racist stuff to our driver
Us- We don’t have a doorbell
Amazon- Suspended
Amazon - Your FBA inventory never arrived on time
Us- Uh your own records show you received it two weeks ago in full
Amazon - Suspended
Amazon - Your Argentina account is now active
Us - We don’t have any presence in Argentina
Amazon - Suspended
Amazon - You have changed your credit
Us- Our card was expired as it was 6 years old
Amazon - Suspended
Amazon - Our Alexa device detected obscene noises near the device
Us- “sigh”
Amazon - Suspended
Amazon - Your insurance policy put our company name in all capital letter
Us- facepalm
Amazon - Suspended
Us - Chinese seller is selling counterfeit goods on XYZ test buy order and here is our trademark, patent, copyright and court case
Amazon- We understand this is important to your business so please read the BS below generated by a bot so we can further ignore your issue
Us- Prepare to receive our suspension appeal
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“From Russia, with Love” is a highly-apropos conclusion for your astute - albeit tongue-in-cheek - observations.