February has been quite a challenging month for Amazon sellers. Commissions, FBA fees, returns, variant rules, and tax numbers are all changing. Some changes are beneficial, while others are indeed a "tightening" of the rules.

Yiju Overseas has organized all the new rules that have taken effect or are about to take effect in February according to their timeline!

1. February 1st: Multiple fees reduced for European sites

① Commission rates reduced for certain categories

Furniture items: For prices up to £20/€20, the sales commission will be reduced from 15% to 8%;

Pet clothing & food: For prices up to £10/€10, the sales commission will be reduced from 15% to 5%;

Food and vitamins, minerals, and supplements: For prices up to £10/€10, the sales commission will be reduced from 8% to 5%.

This significantly improves the gross margin space for sellers with low unit prices.

② Adjustment of FBA fees for low-priced goods

The scope of preferential rates for low-priced goods FBA will be expanded to include products priced at £20/€20 and below;

Newly included single-item FBA fees reduced by an average of £0.40/€0.45.

This is more friendly to high-volume, low-priced items, but return costs still need to be calculated.

③ Lower caps on promotional activity fees

The variable fee caps for "Z-deals" and "Lightning Deals" have been lowered:

UK reduced to £200

Germany reduced to €300

France, Italy, and Spain reduced to €100.

This lowers the threshold for participating in major promotions, suitable for testing new products or clearing inventory.

2. Starting February 8th, stricter return rules for the US site

Mandatory use of "Amazon Prepaid Return Label (APRL)"

Applicable to: All third-party sellers facing US consumers, regardless of the value of the goods

Seller impact:

Faster return节奏节奏更快，资金波动更明显；

Higher return rate categories need to prepare cash flow in advance;

Space for manual intervention in high-value returns for self-shipped sellers is compressed, and after-sales and risk control need to be front-loaded.

3. Starting February 12th, major changes to variant review sharing rules

Only variants with highly similar functions and attributes are allowed to share reviews.

If there are substantial differences in functions and attributes, reviews will be split and displayed independently;

Cross-category bundling and zombie links bringing in new products are explicitly prohibited.

Transition period: Continues until May 31, 2026.

Official advice: Check the existing variant classification logic through [Manage Inventory] and adjust as soon as possible.

4. Starting February 15th, adjustment of FBA removal and disposal charge method

Originally, a one-time charge was made after the entire removal order was completed; now, charges are made for each item processed.

Note: The rate remains unchanged, only the timing and granularity of the charges are changed, it takes effect automatically, no action required.

Sellers can view individual fees in [Payments] → [Transaction View].

5. Starting February 16th, shortening of the US SAFE-T appeal period

SAFE-T claim filing deadline: Shortened from 60 days to 30 days

Applicable to: US site self-shipped orders

Start time: Calculated from the later of the return warehouse scan or the completion of the refund, for lost items, the last logistics scan is used as the standard.

Platform reminder: Check for overdue cases in advance, the new rules do not affect claims currently being processed.

6. February 27th, latest warehouse entry time for European Spring Promotion FBA

European Spring Promotion (Spring Deal Days) event time: March 10th - March 16th

Covered sites: UK/Germany/France/Italy/Spain/Sweden/Netherlands/Poland/Belgium/Ireland

Latest warehouse entry time: February 27th

Promotion reporting deadline: Lightning Deals: Before March 6th, Z-deals: Before March 9th.

Logistics are prone to delays after the Spring Festival, inventory must be prepared in advance.

7. Countdown to Spanish EU tax number upload

Involves sellers with cross-border B2B transactions in Spain

Requirement: Upload and verify the Spanish EU tax number (ROI)

Consequences of non-compliance: Limited FBA functionality, suspension of the Pan-European plan, inability to automatically issue invoices.

Cutoff time varies by individual: Specifics can be checked in the backend notifications.

8. Italian VAT numbers begin to expire on a large scale

Non-EU companies need to: Register and maintain Italian VAT through a tax representative, providing a security deposit of ≥€50,000;

If the security deposit is not paid: The VAT is marked as invalid by VIES, and "Denied" is displayed in the Amazon backend.

Amazon has been notifying by email, if not corrected within 60 days after the tax office notice, the tax number will be completely invalidated.

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