The Amazon platform does not have explicit and direct regulatory requirements for the charging models of influencers, but there are indirect regulations and norms in the following aspects:
Rules related to the Amazon Associates Program
Limitations on the range of commission percentages: If influencers earn commissions for promoting products through the Amazon Associates Program, their commission percentages are within a certain range, usually between 1% and 20%. This means that the income influencers obtain from promoting Amazon products needs to be within this established framework and cannot exceed the upper limit at will.
Prohibition of manipulating sales rankings: Influencers cannot improve the sales rankings of products by means of false purchases, inducing fans to conduct unnatural searches, etc., and then obtain higher commission income. Once such manipulative behaviors are discovered, not only will the influencers be punished, but the sellers who cooperate with them may also face risks such as account suspension.
Constraints on the Code of Conduct for Sellers
Prohibition of inducing false reviews: Sellers cannot ask influencers to write false product reviews or delete or change existing genuine reviews by paying fees or providing rewards to influencers. This indirectly affects some charging models and behaviors of influencers. For example, they cannot accept additional payments from sellers on the condition of writing favorable reviews.
Restrictions on incentive-based promotions: Sellers cannot prompt influencers to conduct untrue or exaggerated product promotions in an overly incentivized manner to mislead consumers into making purchases. This requires influencers to follow the principles of truthfulness and objectivity when charging for promotions and not conduct false propaganda due to high charges.
Requirements for the content and authenticity of advertisements
Authenticity review of content: Amazon requires that the promotional content published by influencers must truly and accurately reflect the actual situation of the products. If influencers exaggerate key information such as the efficacy and performance of products to obtain higher promotion fees, once complained by users or discovered by Amazon, the relevant content will be required to be rectified or deleted.
Specification of advertising identification: In some cases, if the promotional content of influencers is identified as advertising in nature, it may need to be clearly marked in accordance with Amazon's regulations to distinguish it from ordinary user-sharing content, ensuring that consumers can clearly identify advertising information and avoid unnecessary consumption due to misinformation.
