Amazon Letter of Authorization (LOA): What It Must Include to Get Approved

An Amazon Letter of Authorization is only valid if it contains five specific terms — Licensor, Licensee, Grant, Term, and Territory. Miss one, and Amazon treats the letter as if you never submitted it.

That's the part most sellers get wrong. They ask the brand for "a letter saying we're authorized to sell this," get back a friendly paragraph on company letterhead, upload it, and watch Amazon reject it anyway. The letter wasn't fake. It just wasn't an LOA — not in the way Amazon's system reads one.

What actually counts as an Amazon LOA

A Letter of Authorization is a licensing document: the brand or IP owner (the Licensor) formally grants a seller (the Licensee) permission to use their trademarks, logos, or copyrighted content on Amazon. It's not a friendly endorsement — it's a legal grant of rights, and Amazon reads it that way.

From Amazon's side, the letter has to answer one question without ambiguity: does this specific seller have permission to use this specific IP, on this specific marketplace, right now? Anything short of that gets treated as unverified.

The five terms Amazon actually checks for

• Licensor — the brand or rights owner, named exactly as registered
• Licensee — your business, matching your legal entity in Seller Central character for character
• Grant — which trademarks, logos, or copyrighted assets you're authorized to use, named specifically
• Term — the authorization period, with a start date and either an end date or explicit "perpetual" language
• Territory — which Amazon marketplaces the authorization covers (Amazon.com is not the same as Amazon.co.uk)

Miss the Grant or Territory line and the letter looks perfectly valid to a human and still gets rejected by Amazon — those two are the terms sellers forget most often.

When Amazon actually asks for one

Amazon asks for an LOA when it can't already tell you're allowed to use a brand's intellectual property — during KYC verification for accounts selling under someone else's brand, after an IP complaint naming your listing, or when a performance notification asks for "proof of authorization" following a suppression.

• Your Seller Central account name and the brand on your listings don't match
• A trademark or copyright complaint cites your ASIN
• Amazon's Automated Brand Protection system flags a listing using a registered mark
• Account Health requests brand authorization proof directly

What Amazon won't accept as an LOA

An invoice, a purchase order, a distributor agreement, or a wholesale account confirmation is not an LOA — even if it proves you legitimately bought the product. None of those documents grant IP usage rights; they prove a transaction happened, not that you're allowed to use the brand's trademark or images.

This is the gap that catches genuine resellers off guard. You bought real product through a real distributor, so the rejection feels unfair — but Amazon isn't asking whether the product is authentic, it's asking whether you have permission to use the brand's IP on the listing. Those are two different questions with two different documents.

Why LOAs get rejected

• Licensee name doesn't match your Seller Central legal entity exactly
• The letter grants "resale rights" generally but doesn't name the specific trademarks or images on your listing
• It covers Amazon.com but the complaint is on Amazon.co.uk or another marketplace
• The authorization period expired before the complaint was raised
• It's signed by someone without visible authority to grant IP rights — a support inbox or a junior contact on a free email domain

Every one of these is fixable by going back to the brand with a specific request — not by resubmitting the same letter and hoping Amazon reads it differently the second time.

LOA vs Brand Registry — not the same thing

Brand Registry proves you own the brand; an LOA proves someone else's brand has authorized you to use it. If you own the trademark yourself, Brand Registry access generally resolves IP-based enforcement without a separate LOA. If you're selling someone else's brand — as a reseller, distributor, or licensed partner — Brand Registry doesn't apply to you, and the LOA is what stands in for it.

How Complymerce can help

We review your current authorization documentation, identify which specific term is missing or mismatched, and help you go back to the brand with a request that actually produces an acceptable letter — instead of a second rejected one.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is allowed to sign an Amazon Letter of Authorization?

Someone with actual authority to grant IP rights on the brand's behalf — typically a brand owner, legal representative, or authorized distributor with signing authority, not a general support contact. Amazon looks at whether the signer's role plausibly matches the authority being claimed.

Can one LOA cover multiple products or ASINs?

Yes, as long as the Grant section names the specific trademarks, logos, or product lines covered — a blanket "all products" grant without specifics is one of the more common reasons a letter gets rejected.

How long is an Amazon LOA valid for?

Whatever the Term section says — some are issued for a fixed period, others as "perpetual" until revoked. If the letter doesn't state a term at all, Amazon typically treats it as invalid rather than assuming it's open-ended.