Reseller Partner Program Breakdown: MAP/UPP Policy Enforcement in 2025

Last month, Brandwoven’s CEO, Chris Gray, held a webinar on UPP/MAP and managing online resellers. With Amazon and other marketplaces becoming increasingly competitive, brands must prioritize reseller management to safeguard their products and maintain brand integrity. To protect marketplace presence, learning how to approach both authorized and unauthorized resellers is a cornerstone to brand protection. This recap article is part 2 of the many lessons from this great webinar; see part 1 about How Amazon Resellers Obtain Products.

In this article, we’re going to break down:

• Different reseller policies: what each one means, how they’re different, and how enforcement works
• How to effectively implement a policy (internal support & tools needed)
• Common roadblocks to effective reseller management
• Common questions about reseller management

Framework for Successful Reseller Management

Brand protection requires certain policies, agreements, and tools in place to be successful. There are 4 core ways to approach enforcement:

1. UPP Pricing Policy/Unilateral Pricing Policy: a one directional policy for both known and unknown retailers.
2. Authorized Distributor Program: a two-way signed agreement between a distributor and the brand that outlines the terms in which they can operate and distribute the product.
3. Authorized Reseller Program: similar to above; a two-way agreement signed between the brand and a retailer.
4. Established Material Difference: legal recourse of bad actors varies depending on unauthorized or authorized product resale.

Established Material Difference – EXAMPLE

Typically, the most effective way an established material difference may be represented is in regard to a product’s warranty. A warranty is void if it’s not sold by an authorized reseller (this has been established in different court cases). It allows the brand to say that the product was not sold through an authorized reseller and is therefore a counterfeit.

There are many court cases that revolve around this. One of the most well-known cases is Otterbox versus Triple Net. Reading through the case helps us understand the argument they made and is worth following to see how the court responds to the policy and action taken.

Overview of Reseller Policy Programs

UPP vs MAP Policy Enforcement

Foundationally, the difference between a unilateral pricing policy and a map policy is price management (we try not to say price control as that has implications from an antitrust and anti-competitive price fixing perspective).

A unilateral pricing policy is one sided. It applies to everybody that you’re selling your products to and is a non-legal mechanism to enforce (i.e. you can’t sue or ask for any legal relief), but it allows brands to say they’re going to quit selling to someone because they can choose who to sell to while the reseller can choose what they sell it for. Cutting off supply is the mechanism of enforcement.

It’s a little bit different than a MAP policy that for years was more common (a MAP policy is technically a minimum advertised price); it generally only applies to prices on ads or visibility to the consumer in different outlets. It doesn’t apply to everyday in-store prices, and it’s very muddy about whether it applies to in-cart prices versus prices that are visible online. It also generally requires some sort of reciprocal marketing support. Nowadays, brands want to get away from the advertisement-only component, making unilateral pricing the gold standard.

Authorized Reseller and Distributor Policies

Authorized reseller agreements are signed between trustworthy partners and the brand. The agreement outlines how and where they can sell. It requires adherence to the UPP policy as well, noting recourse for those who don’t follow the policy. The agreements are signed by both parties, like a contract – so, there can be legal recourse. There can be a lot of flexibility in authorized reseller agreements which some brands may prefer, even if it isn’t the cheapest or easiest path to enforcement (for example: you can only sell on Amazon, only sell these products, etc.).

Authorized distribution agreements are very similar but outline the conditions in which distributors can resell products. For example, they can’t resell under a specific price or the brand gives them a list of authorized resellers that they can only distribute to. Oftentimes, this also includes the sharing of information, like where product is going and how much product is going where, so that the brand doesn’t lose track of what’s happening to their product as it’s distributed out. Pick your distributors carefully, making sure that they’re willing to share information and be a true partner to the brand.

Common Issues that Reseller Programs Address

The main benefit to utilizing a reseller policy is the ability to enforce it. These are real contracts that your brand has with these other entities, so you can pursue legal action if needed. It rarely comes to that, but it is a helpful option to have if your brand is in a situation where enforcement is needed.

Most of the time, with authorized sellers, they are a known entity and good partner to your brand, but even still, mistakes can happen. Or, if you have a bad actor that ends up being authorized, you have a recourse to go after that and find relief from whatever damage they’ve caused to your brand.

Dealing with Unauthorized Resellers

The course of action shifts a but once we’re dealing with unauthorized sellers. These are people that have your product but you don’t know how they got it. The best option is usually to let them burn through their inventory and then restrict supply.

A lot of people will ask whether Amazon or Walmart will enforce counterfeit product claims. Unfortunately, at this point, they will not recognize material difference in product as a reason to kick that product off the platform.

How to Create a Reseller Partner Program

There are 3 main areas to building and implementing a reseller management program:

1. Internal Support: quarterback programs, confirm enforcement & facilitate authorized program details
2. Legal Services: generally recommended to draft and assist with implementation of policy documents & enforcement
3. Tracking Software: monitor and summarize reseller activity across all online distribution channels, and report on infringement. This is extremely important for brands with thousands of SKUs across multiple marketplaces, helping to identify violators for enforcement.

Internal Support

Reseller management and enforcement is not something that happens once and then goes away; it is an ongoing process. It requires constant monitoring to answer important questions like:

• What do we do about an infringement?
• Who do we need to cut off?
• Who is getting product?
• What are our objectives?
• Why have we chosen to get rid of bad acting retailers?
• Why have we picked these specific retailers to sell?

We recommend at least a 2-person team dedicated to reseller management:

1. Program Administrator: often an internal sales lead who can build the program, administer the authorized sign ups, and push enforcement
2. Executive Sponsor: buy-in from senior leadership is needed to allow the program to become successful

Legal Services

Although not every brand may choose to utilize legal services to assist with their reseller enforcement program, it’s surely a small price to pay to guarantee strong, defendable policies that don’t raise any concerns around price fixing, antitrust, or anything of the like. Brands that want to be extra careful should choose to partner with a professional in the space to assist with building up and enforcing the program. Legal partners can help with several complex tasks regarding reseller management, such as:

1. Development of the program
2. Verbiage to use in reseller agreements
3. Ensuring the program is specific to the brand’s needs and what they are trying to accomplish
4. History of working in the industry and acting on similar cases
5. Consulting on when to choose to take legal action against bad actors
6. Training of the brand’s sales team to ensure long-term protection

Some legal service partners that Brandwoven has had success working with are:

• Howell & Associates – experts in developing and enforcing UPP/MAP policies and authorized reseller programs
• K&L Gates – legal resource
• Vorys eControl – helps protect brands from bad actors with tracking software

Tracking Software

Tracking software is an essential piece to successful programs because it can track and organize violators, measure improvement, and serve as a layer of enforcement. Tracking software can:

1. Scan the entire ecommerce ecosystem daily
2. Dashboard and document violations
3. Assist in program administration
4. Gain access to database of known sellers

Many systems can also assist in the enforcement process by sending notification letters automatically or with the brand’s choosing to bad actors, speeding up the process (especially helpful for large brands managing thousands of SKUs across hundreds of resellers).

Some additional tracking software partners we recommend are:

• Trackstreet – technology partner providing MAP/UPP and authorized reseller monitoring, reporting and enforcement
• PriceSpider – provides visibility and control into the customer journey

Does Amazon Help with Unauthorized Resellers?

There are a lot of misconceptions around Amazon’s Brand Registry and Transparency programs and whether they can be used as tools to manage resellers & pricing policies. While some brands tend to often use the programs for this purpose, the use of Brand Registry or Transparency for reseller control is often against TOCs within Amazon and not the intended use of the programs.

• Brand Registry – does not do much, if anything, to assist with reseller management or price management. It’s mainly for trademark infringement and to make sure Amazon knows who the owner of various brand names are to give them additional selling features.
• Transparency – we’ve seen it be used to manage resellers by adding a Transparency sticker to authorized resellers’ products on Amazon, but there is some risk as this isn’t the design of the program. We’ve seen some brands be warned or even kicked out of the program after Amazon found out that they were not labeling all products with the Transparency sticker. The main purpose of the program is to notify Amazon automatically of any counterfeit products, being that they don’t have a Transparency sticker on them.

6 Barriers to an Effective Reseller Program

There are a handful of common things that can get in the way of an authorized reseller program, authorized distributor program, or UPP program being developed or used effectively to manage resellers and price:

1. Lack of Commitment from the Brand
2. Misalignment of Internal Goals
3. Untrustworthy Partners
4. Ineffective Program and Policy Design
5. Fear of Reaction from Partners
6. Cash Impact of Implementation

Lack of Commitment from the Brand

The number one hinderance to successful reseller and UPP policy is wavering commitment from the brand. In a classic example, management is running smoothly but it’s the end of the quarter and a known bad actor offers to buy millions to help with quarter close and makes the sale, leaving months of inventory in the hands of a retailer selling below UPP. This is largely what gets in the way of programs being successful in most cases. A brand’s commitment to their program has to remain consistent.

Misalignment of Internal Goals

There can be misalignment between sales leaders and sales reps. Since Amazon is significant business for many dealers, salespeople are motivated to continue to drive volume into small dealers who have been previously cut off. It’s essentially taking commission dollars out of reps’ pockets, creating misalignment from a pure financial motivation standpoint. It’s important that brands are aware of this when incentivizing their sales teams and building sales plans. It can be really hard for people to behave in the best interest of the brand and the company when their personal financial success is measured in a different metric.

Untrustworthy Partners

Sometimes, even partners with years of relationships are willing to bend the rules in search of margin or sales growth – this often means breaking policy. Some are going to say all the right things but do all the wrong things. We advise all brands to ask for open reporting and communication from partners to avoid unexpected problems.

Ineffective Reseller Program and Policy Design

Having well written policies and agreements is key to success not only for their enforceability, but for the ease of retailers and distributors to follow the rules. It is not uncommon to have well-meaning partners misinterpret unclear, complex, or poorly communicated UPP or authorized retailer policies. Brands should aim to have policies that can be well understood by their whole distribution network, ensuring every partner can march in the same direction.

Fear of Reaction from Partners

Fear of reaction from partners is another area where we see a tremendous drop off in the efficacy of these programs. Whenever programs are implemented or changed, fear of negative reactions from retailers may arise, like:

• Upset partners
• Partners stop purchasing altogether
• Partners bad mouthing the brand at retail

This can happen, but generally only happens with low value partners who only compete on price and don’t have the ability to bring extra value to the brand that other, really good partners would. Value can come from a lot of different places, whether it’s holding inventory, customer service, speed of delivery, etc. On the other side, good retailers may see this as a boon for their business as that’s how we see it play out most often. It’s essential that brands are confident that their programs help protect their partners and business.

Cash Impact of Implementation

The reality of implementing consistent authorized reseller and UPP programs is that it can have a short-term impact on cash. Existing unauthorized dealers will need to sell through inventory before a brand can take over, and that time leaves a gap in sales revenue and cash. While the total sales through platforms will still increase, timing becomes an issue for some.

For example, if a brand sold 30 million dollars in inventory and the dealer wants to go direct on Amazon, the dealer has to draw down that 30 million of inventory before the brand starts selling unit one, figuratively, creating a cash impact short-term, even if there’s no macro sales impact to the consumer. In cases like this, it just needs to be planned for in advance.