Amazon Bundle Policy, January 11, 2027: The Exit Plan for Bundles You Assembled Yourself
Amazon's bundle policy changes January 11, 2027. Sort the bundles you assembled, pick an exit for each, and time letters and removals around holiday peak.
By Bernardo Campelo, Forbes Business Council E-Commerce Leader, Amazon SPN Certified provider, Amazon SP-API authorized partner, and Founder of PrepVia.
As of October 29, 2026, Amazon's announcement of September 10, 2026 stands as it was published: effective January 11, 2027, "most product bundles listed as a single ASIN must be packaged by the original manufacturer or brand." Inventory that does not comply can still be sold before January 11. After that date, Amazon says noncompliant bundles "will be deactivated and become listing violations on your Account Health dashboard," and it points sellers with Fulfillment by Amazon inventory to a removal order.
On October 20, 2026, an Amazon moderator in the same Seller Forums thread answered a seller who asked what "packaged by the original manufacturer or brand" means. The requirement means the brand or manufacturer "must have physically packaged the bundle and not just created the listing." Bundles the original brand packaged stay compliant and can be reordered. For bundles a seller assembled, the moderator listed three options before the deadline: a letter of authorization from the brands, a conversion to virtual bundles, or selling through existing inventory.
The rule and its exceptions are in our kitting vs bundling guide. This post is about the inventory: sorting every bundle you hold, projecting what sells before January 11 during Amazon's holiday peak, and choosing an exit for the rest. It is written for distributors who assemble bundles from other brands' products and for the brand owners they will ask for letters.
The 60-second version
Every bundle you assembled from other brands' products, outside the gift basket and camera exemptions, needs a decision before January 11, 2027: a letter from each of those brands that authorizes assembling or repackaging, a virtual bundle, a sell-through date or a removal order. If every brand inside is yours, you are on the brand side, although Amazon does not address bundles a third party assembles for a brand. Virtual bundles require a Brand Representative or Authorized Reseller role in Brand Registry and do not use units you already assembled. The deadline falls inside Amazon's peak: holiday peak fulfillment fees run from October 15, 2026 to January 14, 2027, and items bought from November 1 to December 31 can be returned through January 31, 2027. Amazon's removal pages warn of 30 days or more in the holiday season and 90 days or more in peak removal periods. Multipacks of one product are not bundles; Amazon's ASIN creation policy covers them.
Every date and name below was checked on October 29, 2026 against Amazon's September 10, 2026 announcement, the moderator replies in that Seller Forums thread, Amazon's 2024 consumables announcements and Seller Central help pages, linked where they first appear. Moderator replies are dated forum answers, not policy, and help pages change without a date: check both before you act. This is general information, not legal advice.
What Brand Packaging Means for Bundles Already Built
Amazon's product bundling policy describes a hard kit bundle as products "physically packaged together as a single product" with their own UPC or EAN, or a GTIN exemption for the primary brand. It allows them only when "packaged by the original manufacturer or brand, with a few exceptions." The October 20 reply answers what that means for stock already built: a listing the brand created does not make a seller-assembled bundle compliant.
That also limits the fix. The policy says a hard kit bundle's "component items cannot be changed after creation," so dropping the product you have no letter for means a new bundle with its own identifier, not an edit. A hard kit bundle must also be accepted as a single unit for returns.
This is the second round of the same rule. On October 14, 2024, Amazon limited consumables bundles in grocery, pet, baby, and health and beauty to bundles "created and offered by the original manufacturer." A note Amazon posted in early December 2024 rewrote that rule, added a letter of authorization path and set January 1, 2025 as the start of enforcement on existing bundles, with notices by email and in Account Health. January 11, 2027 brings in what the moderator called the "newly affected categories," meaning non-consumables.
Step One: Sort Every Bundle by Situation
Start with a list of every ASIN you sell as a bundle, plus any listing that combines different products without calling itself one. For each, record who physically packaged it, the brands inside and whether you own them, the letters on file, and the units in FBA and in transit.
The second group matters. The policy requires the word "Bundle" in the title, a first bullet that names the items, and a main image that shows all of them, and an Amazon moderator wrote on September 18, 2026 that bundles not correctly labeled as bundle ASINs "will fall under the ASIN Creation Policy," which "more generally prohibits non brand/manufacturer configurations beyond the bundles-specific circumstance, for all categories." With the list in hand, sort each line:
| Situation | What Amazon says | Before January 11 |
|---|---|---|
| Packaged by the original manufacturer or brand | Such bundles "remain compliant and you can continue reordering," the moderator wrote | Keep selling; keep the record of who packaged it |
| Every brand inside is yours | The policy's compliant examples include one packaged "for brands it owns." Amazon does not address bundles a third party assembles for the brand | Keep proof that each brand is yours, such as Brand Registry records |
| Gift basket | Exempt if it is a curated collection "physically bundled together in a single container or packaging that is designed for gifting," listed "in a gifting browse node," with gifting intent clear on the detail page; you must be qualified to sell every item | Check the container, the browse node and the page |
| Camera bundle | Exempt when a camera or lens is the primary product; the moderator excluded BINOCULAR and CAMERA OTHER ACCESSORIES as primary product types | Check the primary product's type |
| Letter from every other brand inside | Allowed if the letter grants permission to "reconfigure and repackage" with the other brands in the bundle | Confirm it covers assembly, not just resale (Exit One) |
| Consumables not packaged by the manufacturer, no letters | "already prohibited under current policy," the moderator wrote on September 18, 2026 | A current problem, not a January one |
| Assembled by you or a 3PL, no letters, non-consumable | Deactivated after January 11, with a listing violation in Account Health | Pick an exit (below) |
| Combines different products but is not labeled as a bundle | Falls under the ASIN Creation Policy, which the moderator said "more generally prohibits non brand/manufacturer configurations" | Treat it as noncompliant: fix the listing, then sort it into one of the rows above |
| Several units of one product | Not a bundle; the ASIN creation policy applies | See the multipack note below |
Multipacks are a separate rule. The bundling policy says "Bundles don't include multi-packs, which consist of two or more identical products," and an Amazon moderator wrote on October 1, 2026 that multiple units of the same product "would be considered a multipack and fall under the more general ASIN Creation Policy," which "has already prohibited creation of non-standard pack sizes since 2024." Amazon's ASIN creation policy says sellers "should not list non-standard multipacks that are not created by the brand owner or manufacturer." The same moderator drew the bundle line at distinct products: the bundling policy "only applies where two or more distinct products are bundled."
"January 11 is not the day to find out which bundles you cannot sell. Check every bundle you assembled before then, and give each one that does not comply a path: a letter from the brands inside, a virtual bundle, a sell-through date or a removal order. A bundle Amazon deactivates is still your inventory."
Bernardo Campelo, Founder of PrepVia
Step Two: Project the Sell-Through Into Peak
Amazon's announcement says "You can choose to sell any inventory that's noncompliant before January 11." Selling through is the simplest exit. Amazon's Q4 2026 peak readiness playbook applies holiday peak fulfillment fees to FBA from October 15, 2026 to January 14, 2027, so a sell-through from November to January 11 runs entirely on peak fees.
Run the projection one bundle at a time: units in FBA divided by expected daily sales gives the days to zero. Say a bundle has 600 units in FBA on November 15 and sells 8 a day through the holidays. That is 57 days to January 11, or 456 units at that pace, which leaves 144 units with no sale before the deadline. Those 144 units need another exit, chosen in November rather than in January.
Two more dates belong in the model. Under Amazon's extended holiday returns policy, items bought between November 1, 2026 and December 31, 2026 "are returnable through January 31, 2027," FBA orders included, so a bundle sold in December can come back after January 11, as a single unit. Amazon's pages do not say what happens to a returned unit of a bundle that has since been deactivated, so count those units in the plan.
The same playbook says fulfillment center teams "will focus on receiving shipments in September and October, then shift to processing customer orders in November and December," and "inbound delivery window slots will be limited." Any exit that sends new units into FBA in those months, such as component stock for a virtual bundle, competes with that shift.
Units also stay on sale until they leave. Amazon's removal overview says "Fulfillable inventory is available for customers to buy until we remove it," so close the listing first if a bundle should stop selling before its units are removed.
Exit One: A Letter That Authorizes Repackaging
A letter fixes a seller-assembled bundle only if it says the right thing. The policy asks for a letter from "the brands or manufacturers of all products in the bundle" granting "permission to reconfigure and repackage their products with all other included brands for sale as bundles in Amazon stores." The moderator's October 20 reply adds that "the LOA must authorize the seller to assemble/repackage the product, not just sell it."
That rules out the documents a distributor usually holds. Amazon's letter of authorization page lists "Distribution rights and reseller agreements" among the documents it does not accept as a letter. A brand's authorization in Brand Registry is not enough either: the moderator called the bundle letter "a more specific authorization to reconfigure a brand's products rather than sell their existing catalog."
The moderator also published a model clause: "[Brand owner] hereby grants [seller] the right to repackage products for [brand(s)] with [any other brand | certain set of brands] for sale as bundles on Amazon [in perpetuity | for specific term], [across all stores | for certain stores]." The letter page asks for five terms (licensor, licensee, grant, geographic scope and term) on the rights holder's letterhead with an authorized signatory, or in an email from the brand's own domain. Amazon "may validate your letter of authorization by contacting the relevant intellectual property owner."
The announcement says the letter is uploaded to Account Health "if your bundle is identified as noncompliant after January 11." On October 1, 2026, the moderator added that sellers with a Customer Success Manager can have the CSM submit it in advance, and that non-consumables get "an additional 30 day grace period after notification before enforcement," shown as "Listing at risk of removal." That is a dated forum reply, not policy: ask for the letters now and treat the grace period as a cushion, not a plan.
A letter can also be rejected: the reason the moderator quoted for one was "The authorization documents provided were not authentic or current." And once a brand permits a bundle, other sellers qualified to list that brand "will also be able to offer that bundle."
Kits, bundles and multipacks, with components counted at receiving and labels scan-verified.
Exit Two: A Virtual Bundle, If You Hold the Role
The bundling policy says virtual bundles "can be listed by any selling partner that is qualified to sell each individual product being bundled." The tool's own page is stricter: Amazon's virtual product bundles page says the feature "is only available to sellers who have a Brand Representative or Authorized Reseller role assigned for at least one brand in Brand Registry," and the ASINs "must belong to a brand that you own or are a reseller for and that is registered in Brand Registry." Plan by the tool's page.
A virtual bundle holds two to five ASINs, each "buyable on its own," with active FBA inventory in New condition and every component on the same fulfillment channel. A single ASIN sold in multiples can't be made into a bundle with the tool, although a bundle can hold several units of each component.
The bundle is priced from the sum of the components' prices minus a discount percentage you set, and if that price ends up higher than the components' current prices, active deals included, the bundle "will lose Featured Offer eligibility." To appear in the "Bundles with this item" widget, it "must cost at least 1% less than buying the components separately," and an Amazon moderator added on October 28, 2026 that placement in that slot is not guaranteed.
Virtual bundles are built only in Seller Central, with "no API or feed integration available," and can't join variation families. Components ship and can be returned individually, there is "no additional fee for creating or selling a virtual bundle," and a bundle with the wrong components has to be deleted and recreated after 24 hours.
What a virtual bundle does not fix is stock you already assembled. Amazon describes the tool as a way to "offer bundles without packaging items together or changing your inbound inventory," with each component fulfilled and shipped individually. In our reading, units sitting in a fulfillment center as assembled bundles are not components of anything: without a letter, they still need a sell-through date or a removal order.
Exit Three: The Removal Order, on Peak-Season Time
Amazon's announcement links noncompliant FBA inventory to its page on how to remove inventory from a fulfillment center. That page says a removal "can take 10 to 14 business days to pick, pack, and process. However, removal times may increase to 90 days or more during peak removal periods." The removal overview says "during the holiday season, processing may take 30 days or more," and Amazon's removal fee page adds that the carrier takes an additional two weeks to deliver.
Orders are processed in the order they were submitted, and "Once an order moves out of Planning status, it can no longer be cancelled, so plan removals ahead of peak periods when possible." Fees are charged per unit removed, based on shipping weight, at the time each unit leaves.
Read the receiving rules before you pick the address. The ship-to address is locked once the order is submitted, and by submitting it "you agree to receive each and every unit in that order, all at once." If the recipient does not accept the units all at once, Amazon may instruct the carrier to dispose of them, at the seller's cost and without reimbursement. Claims for units damaged in transit must be filed within 60 days of delivery.
The removal page lists the destinations: a return-to address you designate, donation or recycling at the fulfillment center, or FBA Liquidations. Case-packed inventory comes back as individual items, and no storage fees are charged on the units while a removal order is processing.
Check one setting before January 11. Amazon's page on stranded inventory says "All sellers are expected to update their stranded auto-removal settings to remove stranded inventory automatically," and the removal page says the Fix stranded inventory page "includes all inventory in the fulfillment center that does not have a listing offer." In our reading, a deactivated bundle leaves that kind of inventory, so check where those settings would send it.
If the plan is to sell the products as single units again, each one goes back under its own ASIN and the FBA barcode rules. Amazon's barcode requirements say that as of March 31, 2026, "Brand owners can continue to use manufacturer barcodes without stickers. Resellers are required to use Amazon barcodes for products even if they have a manufacturer barcode." Our guide to Amazon removal orders covers claims, fees and destinations in more detail.
If You Own the Brand: The Letter Requests Coming Your Way
For a brand owner, a bundle letter is a scoped grant, and the model clause shows the dials: which of your brands, combined with any other brand or only a named set, for a fixed term or in perpetuity, in all stores or only some. Once you permit a bundle, other sellers qualified to list your brand can offer it too, and Amazon may contact you to validate a letter a seller submits.
There is a second way to let a distributor bundle your products without anyone repackaging them. The virtual bundle tool requires a Brand Representative or Authorized Reseller role in Brand Registry, and every ASIN must belong to a brand the seller owns or resells, so a bundle with other brands needs a role from each. When one seller's letter was rejected, the Amazon moderator suggested asking the brand owner for a Reseller role.
If you find a bundle of your products that breaks the policy, the moderator described the route on October 20, 2026: report it from your Account Health dashboard through Report Abuse of Amazon policy, selecting "Listing violates Amazon's policies." Trademark, copyright or patent infringement goes through Brand Registry instead. On the seller's side, the moderator wrote on October 1, 2026 that intellectual property violations "will continue to appear separately on Account Health." A letter is a legal document: have your attorney review its terms.
Where a Prep Center Fits
A prep center works on the physical side of a bundle, not the authorization. It can build a bundle the brands have authorized, apply the barcodes and labels the listing needs and ship it into FBA. For a bundle made only of your own brands, Amazon's pages do not say whether assembly by a third party counts as packaged by the brand, so keep that question in the census. A prep center cannot write or approve a letter, assign a Brand Registry role, create a virtual bundle in your Seller Central account or tell you whether Amazon will accept a configuration.
PrepVia receives, inspects, counts, FNSKU-labels, poly-bags, bundles, boxes and palletizes seller inventory, then creates and ships the inbound to Amazon. Discrepancies are reported within 24 hours of arrival, with photos. For a bundle of other brands, the letters come first. For units removed from FBA, PrepVia also offers removal order receiving and unbundling or reworking kits and bundles.
Questions worth asking any 3PL that assembles bundles for you:
- Which configurations did you build for us? Every bundle and kit it built for you that may still be in FBA or in transit, with the brands inside each one, is the starting list for the census.
- What is still in transit? Assembled bundles on their way to Amazon count in the sell-through projection.
- Where are the letters? A configuration with other brands inside needs its letter on file before the next batch is built.
Frequently Asked Questions
When does Amazon's new bundle policy take effect?
On January 11, 2027. Amazon announced it in the Seller Forums on September 10, 2026, with a date but no time or time zone. From then, most bundles listed as a single ASIN must be packaged by the original manufacturer or brand.
Can I keep selling a noncompliant bundle until January 11?
Yes. Amazon's announcement says you can sell noncompliant inventory before January 11; after that date, noncompliant bundles are deactivated and become listing violations in Account Health. That sell-through runs on holiday peak fulfillment fees, which apply from October 15, 2026 to January 14, 2027.
Can I submit a letter of authorization before January 11?
Amazon's announcement says the letter is uploaded to Account Health if the bundle is identified as noncompliant after January 11. An Amazon moderator added on October 1, 2026 that sellers with a Customer Success Manager can have the CSM submit it in advance. Either way, get the letter now, and make sure it authorizes assembling or repackaging, not just selling.
Is there a grace period after January 11?
An Amazon moderator wrote on October 1, 2026 that non-consumables get "an additional 30 day grace period after notification before enforcement," with violations shown as "Listing at risk of removal." That is a forum reply, not the policy page, and consumables bundles not packaged by the manufacturer were already prohibited. Plan as if January 11 is the date.
Can any seller convert a physical bundle into a virtual bundle?
No. Amazon's virtual product bundles page limits the tool to sellers with a Brand Representative or Authorized Reseller role in Brand Registry. A virtual bundle does not use units you already assembled: without a letter, they still need to sell through or be removed.
Is a multipack of the same product a bundle under the new policy?
No. The bundling policy says bundles don't include multi-packs of identical products. An Amazon moderator wrote that multiple units of the same product fall under the ASIN Creation Policy, which says sellers should not list non-standard multipacks that are not created by the brand owner or manufacturer.
How long does a removal order take during peak?
Amazon's removal pages give 10 to 14 business days in normal conditions. During the holiday season, processing "may take 30 days or more," and one page says removal times may increase to 90 days or more during peak removal periods. Once an order leaves Planning status, it can't be cancelled.
Final Take
January 11, 2027 is a date on an announcement, but the work it creates is inventory work: a list of every bundle, the brands inside, who packed it and a decision for each line. Letters, Brand Registry roles and the removal queue all take time.
Start the census now, send letter requests that use the clause Amazon's moderator published, and decide in November which bundles get letters, which listings move to virtual bundles, and which units sell through or come out.
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