Brands gate their products to keep sellers like you out. Becoming authorised is the route almost nobody tries.

Key takeaways

• Brands request gating to protect against counterfeits, maintain pricing control and manage the customer experience. Understanding that motive is what makes an approach work.
• Reporting describes a brand-direct route to approval — asking the brand for authorisation rather than routing around the gate — as saving money and protecting the account compared with paid ungating services.
• A letter of authorisation from the brand owner is named across sources as accepted documentation for brand-level approvals.
• Authorisation solves five problems at once: ungating, authenticity appeals, IP complaints, reimbursement documentation and acquisition diligence. All five run on the same evidence.
• It is slower than buying an invoice and it is the only version of this that survives contact with an enforcement action.

Most wholesale and reseller guidance treats gating as an obstacle to be cleared with paperwork. It is more useful to read it as what it is: a brand deciding who may sell its products, and Amazon enforcing that decision.

Once you see it that way, the strategy changes. You are not trying to satisfy a form. You are trying to become someone the brand does not mind selling.

01Why brands gate

Reporting names three motives: protecting against counterfeit products, maintaining pricing control, and ensuring a consistent customer experience.

Two of those are about you specifically. A brand that has watched its price collapse because thirty unauthorised resellers undercut each other is not being obstructive when it gates the listing — it is managing a real problem. A brand fighting counterfeits cannot distinguish you from the counterfeiter without a record of who it sells to.

Which means the approach that works is the one that addresses their problem, not the one that argues your case. A seller who can describe how they will handle pricing, presentation and customer questions is answering the question the brand actually has.

02What authorisation actually gets you

This is the part worth laying out, because the benefit is far wider than the gate you were trying to clear.

Ungating. A letter of authorisation from the brand owner is named across sources as accepted documentation for brand-level approvals — see the ungating guide.

Authenticity appeals. An authorised supply chain is exactly what an inauthentic allegation tests. Our suspension guide covers why retail receipts fail and authorised distributor invoices do not.

IP complaints. The IP guide describes retractions as the fastest resolution. A brand that authorised you has no reason to file against you, and every reason to withdraw if an agent did so in error.

Reimbursement documentation. Proper invoices establish sourcing cost — see the reimbursement guide.

Acquisition diligence. Buyers reconcile cost of goods sold against supplier invoices, as the exit guide covers.

One relationship, five systems. That is the same convergence the invoice guide describes — and authorisation is the upstream version of it. The invoice is the artefact; the relationship is what produces it.

03How to approach a brand

Find the right person. Not a general enquiry address. Wholesale, channel, distribution or partnerships. A brand large enough to gate is large enough to have someone whose job this is.

Lead with what you offer, not what you want. You are asking for permission to sell their product, which is a favour until you have demonstrated otherwise. What a brand wants to hear: that you will maintain their pricing, present the product properly, handle customer questions competently, and not become the reason their listing looks cheap.

Be a real business. A registered entity, a business bank account, a resale certificate where applicable, some evidence of sales history. Most brands are not evaluating your Amazon expertise — they are evaluating whether you are a business or a person with a Seller Central login.

Expect to be turned down. Some brands have exclusive distribution and cannot authorise you. Some are building direct and want no resellers. That is a legitimate answer, and the correct response is a different product rather than sourcing around the decision.

Ask what they need. Minimum orders, pricing agreements, MAP policies, territory restrictions. A brand with a MAP policy is telling you what they will enforce, and knowing it before you list prevents a complaint later.

Get it in writing. A letter of authorisation stating you are an authorised reseller, dated, on letterhead, naming the products or categories.

04Distributors, and the thing to check

Buying from an authorised distributor rather than the brand directly is normal and generally sufficient for ungating, since the reported requirement is an invoice from an authorised distributor.

One question to ask the distributor: does the brand permit its products to be sold on Amazon by their customers? Some distributors are authorised to distribute but their agreements prohibit marketplace resale, and a distributor who does not volunteer that is a distributor who will not help when a complaint arrives.

Ask it in writing, before the first order.

05The honest limitation

This route does not work for everyone, and the reason is worth stating plainly.

Retail and online arbitrage cannot produce authorisation, by definition. Buying at retail is not a supply relationship a brand permits — it is a transaction the brand does not know about. As the invoice guide argues, that is the structural rather than regulatory objection to arbitrage as a long-term model: the sourcing method cannot generate the evidence five separate systems require.

Private label sidesteps the question by making you the brand — which is what the Brand Registry guide is about, and which is why so many resellers eventually go that way.

Wholesale is where this guide applies, and where the effort pays back.

06What to do

Pick five brands, not fifty. Depth beats breadth. Five brands you can speak knowledgeably about, where you can articulate why you would sell them well.

Check the distribution structure first. Some brands sell direct, some through exclusive distributors, some through open wholesale. It determines who you approach.

Approach before you buy. Sourcing inventory for a gated brand and then seeking approval is the expensive order.

Keep the letter and the invoices filed together, per brand, per SKU. Five systems will ask for them.

Renew the relationship. A letter from three years ago against a brand that has since changed hands is worth less than it looks. Reporting on supplier verification makes the same point: verification is not a one-time event.

If a brand says no, believe them. Sourcing around a refusal produces a business that works until an enforcement action, and the suspension guide describes what that costs.

Frequently asked

Why do brands gate their products?

Reporting names protection against counterfeits, pricing control and customer experience. All three are about who is selling and how, which is why the route through them is a relationship rather than a document.

What is a letter of authorisation?

A written statement from the brand owner confirming you are an authorised reseller. It is named across sources as accepted documentation for brand-level approvals on Amazon.

Can I sell a brand without authorisation?

Sometimes, where the brand is not gated. But you cannot produce authorisation evidence if an authenticity or IP complaint arrives, and the invoice requirement runs through five separate systems.

Is buying from a distributor enough?

Generally yes for ungating, since the requirement is an invoice from an authorised distributor. Ask the distributor in writing whether the brand permits marketplace resale by its customers — some agreements prohibit it.

What if the brand says no?

That is a legitimate answer. Some brands have exclusive distribution or are building direct. The correct response is a different product rather than sourcing around the decision.

Does this work for arbitrage?

No. Buying at retail is not a supply relationship the brand permits, so it cannot produce authorisation or the invoices that five separate systems require. That is the structural argument against arbitrage as a long-term model.

Sources

1. How to get brand approval on Amazon (brands requesting gating to protect against counterfeits, maintain pricing control and ensure quality customer experiences; brand gating against category gating), Catalist accessed 2026-08-08
2. How to get ungated on Amazon: 2026 approval guide (the brand-direct route described as saving money and protecting the account against paid ungating services; invoice standard from an authorised distributor), Aura accessed 2026-08-08
3. Amazon restricted products: 2026 list and approval guide (letters of authorisation from brand owners as accepted documentation; invoices from authorised distributors rather than retail receipts), Red Stag Fulfillment accessed 2026-08-08
4. Amazon restricted categories ungating guide (brand approval centring on traceable invoices and supplier verification; additional documentation depending on the brand’s enforcement posture), Soldscope accessed 2026-08-08
5. How to avoid getting scammed importing from China (verification not being a one-time event; supplier status changing over time), ChineseCheck accessed 2026-08-08
6. Amazon seller account suspensions 2026 (retail receipts not accepted as proof of authorised sourcing), Ecommerce Fastlane accessed 2026-08-08