Success on Amazon is all about finding the right products. When you identify items customers want that aren’t too competitive to make a profit from, it feels like hitting the jackpot. But sometimes products with low competition are that way for a reason.

If the lucrative product you’re ready to start selling falls into one of Amazon’s restricted product categories, listing it without taking the proper steps first could come at a high cost to you. Here's what you need to know about Amazon restricted products and how you can go about selling some of them.

What is an Amazon Restricted Product?

An Amazon restricted product is any product that Amazon either doesn’t allow sellers to list at all or requires sellers to apply for approval to sell. This includes products that face legal restrictions in some geographic areas, like alcohol and gambling items. It also applies to those that have certain safety requirements, such as automotive parts and food products.

Amazon wants to make sure it stays on the safe side of all laws and regulations. For sellers, that means you have to be careful that nothing you list could get them (or you) into trouble. If you do list a restricted product without the right permissions, intentionally or not, it could impact your ability to continue selling on the platform.

Categories With Amazon Restricted Products

The list of product categories that include Amazon restricted products is long at first glance, but when you look closer most of them make sense. You can find the list with links to more details on each category on Amazon’s restricted products page, but here are the main ones to know about:

Alcohol
Animals & animal-related products
Art - fine art
Art - home decor
Automotive and powersports
Composite wood products
Cosmetics & skin/hair care
CPAP cleaning and disinfecting devices
Currency, coins, cash equivalents, and gift cards
Dietary supplements
Drugs & drug paraphernalia
Electronics
Explosives, weapons, and related items
Export controls
Food & beverage
Gambling & lottery
Hazardous and prohibited items
Human parts & burial artifacts
Jewelry & precious gems
Laser products
Lighting
Lock picking & theft devices
Medical devices and accessories
Offensive & controversial materials
Pesticides and pesticide devices
Plant and seed products
Postage meters and stamps
Recalled products
Recycling electronics
Refrigerants
Strike anywhere matches
Subscriptions and periodicals
Surveillance equipment
Tobacco & tobacco-related products
Warranties, service plans, contracts, and guarantees
Upholstered furniture, bedding, & other quilted products

In some of these categories, understanding what’s restricted is straightforward. For something like warranties or subscriptions, you simply have to make sure you go through the approval process with Amazon first.

For other categories, the nuances of what you can and can’t sell are more complicated. For Cosmetics and Skincare, there’s a list of prohibited ingredients and rules about packaging and labeling you have to follow, for example. And in addition to the lists above, Amazon has the more murky category of “Other Restricted Products” that includes a mix of product types ranging from real estate to Confederate flag memorabilia.

How to Avoid Accidentally Selling Restricted Products

You obviously don’t want to break any rules. But that list of categories with restricted products is long, and the explanations for each one can get complicated. You don’t want to inadvertently start selling products that could get you into trouble with Amazon (or the law). To avoid making an honest mistake, here are five smart steps you can take.

1) Get to know the laws and regulations in your product areas

You don’t have to memorize the legal details for every single product category listed above, but you definitely need to be familiar with those that include products you sell. Any Amazon seller listing products in a category with regulatory requirements, like food, cosmetics, or dietary supplements, needs to get really familiar with the rules relevant to each product listed.

Staying on the right side of the law is the first step toward staying on the right side of Amazon’s rules.

2) Employ legal counsel

Laws don’t always stay consistent, so knowing what’s allowed today could still get you into trouble in a year if you don’t stay on top of things. That’s where hiring actual legal counsel comes into play. Smart business owners should have a go-to lawyer to help them stay abreast of laws and regulations and ensure they learn quickly when something changes.

3) Make sure to get approval for products that require it

Not listing illegal products is important, but that’s just one type of restricted product on Amazon. For a lot of these product categories, you’re allowed to list restricted products as long as you get permission from Amazon first. In those cases, just make sure you take the steps required to apply for approval before you start selling the items on Amazon.

4) Stay aware of product recalls

This is another one of those ways you can slip into troubled territory without realizing it. If a product you sell gets recalled, it’s on you to know about the recall and remove your listings for unsafe versions of the product.

5) Remove any restricted listings

Accidents happen. But the moment you realize you’ve made a mistake and listed a restricted product that you don’t have permission from Amazon to sell, remove your listings from the site right away. Marking the product as “out of stock” while you figure out how to handle things isn’t good enough. It needs to be removed completely.

How to Apply to Sell Restricted Products on Amazon

For restricted products you can legally sell that require prior approval from Amazon, the process is fairly straightforward. If the product is one Amazon already has in its database:

Log into your Seller Central account, select Catalog on the home page, and then Add Products.
Do a search for the item you want to sell, then select the Show Limitations link next to the item.
Click on the Apply to Sell button, then follow the steps as prompted.

If you’re wanting to sell a new item that Amazon doesn’t have listed, you can find links on where to start the process of applying for approval based on the category your product falls into on Amazon’s Categories and Products that Require Approval page.

Stay Compliant

The possibility of short-term profits isn’t worth putting your seller account at risk. Make sure you understand any restrictions related to the products you carry, only list those that are allowed according to Amazon’s rules, and get the proper permissions for any restricted items you do sell.