Amazon’s New Insurance Rules Hit Small Sellers in 11 Categories
Amazon is adding two commercial liability insurance requirements on November 2, and one of them removes the sales threshold that has protected small sellers for years. If you list in any of Amazon's enhanced safety categories, you now need $1 million in coverage regardless of whether you've ever crossed $10,000 in monthly sales.
The second change applies only to sellers based in Mainland China, who must obtain their policies through Amazon's own insurance program.
The Threshold Change Is the Bigger Story for Most Sellers
Amazon's existing rule required commercial liability insurance within 30 days of exceeding $10,000 in gross proceeds in any single month, with minimum coverage of $1 million per occurrence and in aggregate. That threshold meant a seller doing $2,000 a month in toys or supplements never needed a policy.
That changes November 2. Sellers with products in categories carrying enhanced safety listing requirements must maintain a $1 million policy covering those products, regardless of sales volume. The change applies to existing listings, not just new ones.
Amazon's announcement names children's products, cosmetic and ingestible products, and lithium battery products as examples, but the actual list runs to 11 categories including supplements, small kitchen appliances, mattresses, and tires. The full list sits on Amazon's Product categories with enhanced safety listing requirements page, and it's worth checking against your catalog directly rather than assuming your products fall outside it.
China-Based Sellers Lose the Ability to Choose Their Insurer
The second requirement is narrower but more consequential for the sellers it covers. Beginning November 2, Amazon will reject newly submitted insurance policies from Mainland China-based sellers unless those policies came through the Amazon Insurance Accelerator, a network of pre-vetted insurers Amazon works with through a broker.
There's a grace provision. A valid third-party policy that meets coverage requirements and was submitted before November 2 stays usable until it expires. After expiration, AIA becomes mandatory. Sellers everywhere else keep the option to bring their own insurer, with AIA remaining optional.
Amazon frames this as helping sellers avoid policy rejections and ensuring claims get supported. The practical effect is that Amazon now controls which insurers can underwrite a substantial portion of its seller base, and those insurers are vetted against Amazon's own coverage standards rather than selected by the seller.
What the Coverage Actually Has to Include
The requirements themselves haven't changed, but if you're buying a policy for the first time because of the category rule, the specifics matter. You need commercial general, excess, or umbrella liability insurance covering at least $1 million per occurrence and in aggregate, with a maximum $10,000 deductible. The policy must be occurrence-based, cover every product you list on Amazon, and name “Amazon.com Services LLC and its affiliates and assignees” as additional insureds. The insured name has to match the legal entity on your Amazon account exactly, and your provider needs global claim handling capability.
On cost, EcomCrew's own reporting on the Insurance Accelerator found quotes ranging from $837 to $2,200 annually for a seller in the $500,000 to $1,000,000 revenue range, with one provider refusing to insure products manufactured in China at all. Those figures predate this policy change, but they give a rough sense of what a small seller newly pulled into the requirement might face.
What This Signals About Where Amazon Is Heading
This fits a pattern running through 2026. Amazon has tightened product compliance verification through third-party testing labs, expanded categories requiring direct validation rather than seller-submitted certificates, and now put in writing which product types it considers risky enough to require insurance from the first unit sold.
The through-line is Amazon moving product safety risk upstream, away from itself and onto sellers and their insurers, with less discretion left to the seller at each step. Enforcement is the open question. Amazon tightened insurance rules back in 2021 and enforcement was widely described as nonexistent, so whether November 2 brings actual listing suppressions or another unenforced requirement remains to be seen.
What to Do Before November 2
Pull Amazon's enhanced safety categories list and check it against every ASIN you sell, including low-volume listings you may have forgotten about. A handful of supplement or children's product ASINs is enough to trigger the requirement even if those listings generate almost nothing.
If you need coverage, start now rather than in late October. Underwriting takes time, and quotes vary widely between providers, so getting more than one is worth the effort. Your current status and the AIA quote tool both sit under Settings, Account Info, Business Insurance in Seller Central.
