For sellers running US operations, the compliance calendar just gained another red circle. On September 3, 2026, Amazon updated its Seller Central announcement and the Commercial Liability Insurance Requirements help page, with two significant changes to the liability insurance rules taking effect on November 2, 2026. With a little over a month to go, the window collides with Black Friday stocking and listing schedules; the sooner the rules are clear, the smaller the risk of a suspension in peak season.

Set the current rules first. On Amazon.com, sellers whose monthly sales exceed $10,000 must obtain commercial liability insurance within 30 days of crossing the threshold, with single-incident and aggregate coverage of at least $1 million. The November 2 changes add two hard requirements on top, and they apply to the Amazon.com marketplace.

Change one, 11 categories lose the sales threshold

The first change targets enhanced safety requirement categories. The 11 categories on the list no longer carry a sales threshold; no matter the monthly sales figure, they must hold a $1 million liability policy, and it applies to new listings and existing products alike. The old logic of checking sales volume before buying insurance is gone for these categories; a compliant policy now functions as part of listing eligibility, and scale is no longer an exemption.

Publicly named categories include children's products, dietary supplements and ingestible products, cosmetics and skincare, lithium battery products, small appliances, mattresses and sleep products, car and motorcycle tires, fire protection related products, home medical devices, and more. The list updates dynamically, with the final word in Seller Central's Account Health prompts; do not rely on a static list from a media repost.

For multi-category sellers, the practical effect is a dual track. Everything outside the list keeps the $10,000 threshold; the listed categories are judged by category alone, whatever the sales figure. Sellers running both kinds of products should check the two tracks separately.

Change two, mainland China sellers must go through AIA

The second change targets the policy channel. Sellers registered in mainland China must purchase newly submitted policies through the Amazon Insurance Accelerator (AIA); new policies from other channels will be rejected. Existing policies are not voided across the board; those submitted and compliant before November 2 can run to expiry, but renewals must also go through AIA.

For sellers used to working with local insurance brokers, this change needs planning ahead; quotes, underwriting, and document validation have a new entry point, and last-minute workarounds have less room than before.

Already-insured sellers can stay calm for now. Whether an existing policy carries forward depends on two conditions together, submission timing and policy compliance; run the six standards below as a self-check, and if both pass, use the policy to expiry and switch channels at renewal.

Policy standards stay the same

Whichever channel you use, the policy standards match the current rules; check them one by one. Occurrence-based coverage; deductible of $10,000 or less; Amazon.com Services LLC and its affiliates named as additional insured; the insured name matching the legal entity registered in the backend; a carrier with global claims capability; and no sunset clause.

If any single item fails, the policy can be ruled non-compliant. These are the first items worth checking before submitting documents; sellers operating through multiple entities should look especially at the additional-insured and entity-matching items.

Key dates and the action list

Lay out the timeline. The announcement landed on September 3; the new rules take effect on November 2; policies submitted and compliant before November 2 can run to expiry; renewals all go through AIA.

The action list has four steps. First, verify whether live ASINs fall into the enhanced safety list, with Account Health prompts as the final reference. Second, check existing policies' coverage and expiry dates, and flag the ones needing renewal. Third, get AIA quotes early and run through the document validation flow, rather than starting days before an old policy lapses. Fourth, budget the buffer time, so no gap opens between expiry and the new policy taking effect, a gap that can pause sales. On documents, have the store and entity registration records, any existing policy text, and carrier qualification materials ready in advance, and check above all that the insured name matches the registered entity, so validation does not loop on missing paperwork.

One companion reminder is easy to miss. Insurance is only one part of Amazon's enhanced safety requirements; the categories involved usually also carry third-party testing and random ongoing testing after listing. Schedule insurance and testing together; a policy alone without testing still fails the compliance check.

What to do now

If you sell in these 11 categories, the four steps above are worth doing this week; if you are unsure whether your category is on the list, check the Account Health prompts first, then decide whether to start the insurance process. With more than a month to November 2, the pre-peak-season window is worth spending on compliance, ahead of the stocking checklist. Media coverage serves as an index; category coverage and dates ultimately follow the backend announcement and Account Health prompts.

Zooming out, the past half year of cross-border e-commerce compliance updates reads as one chain. In September, Google Merchant Center merged its Shopping ads and free listings policies into one set and Google removed free product listings and carousels in the EEA; earlier, the store setup stage has the Shopify fall 2026 setup checklist and the Shopify store setup guide for reference. Compliance lives across every stage; scheduling it early avoids the last-minute scramble.