Amazon Compliance glossary.
10 account health and compliance terms defined for Amazon sellers.
- Account Health Rating — Account Health Rating (AHR)
- ODR — Order Defect Rate
- Late Shipment Rate — Late Shipment Rate (LSR)
- Valid Tracking Rate — Valid Tracking Rate (VTR)
- IP Complaint — Intellectual Property Complaint
- POA — Plan of Action
- Gating — Category & Brand Gating
- Transparency — Amazon Transparency Program
- Project Zero — Amazon Project Zero
- Responsible Person — EU Responsible Person (GPSR)
- Account Health Rating — Account Health Rating (AHR)
- Amazon's composite score of an account's policy compliance, shown in the Account Health dashboard and driven by violations weighted by severity and recency. Falling too low risks deactivation. The dashboard is the canonical place to track standing.
- ODR — Order Defect Rate
- The share of orders over a trailing window with negative feedback, an A-to-z Guarantee claim, or a chargeback. Amazon's headline seller-performance metric: exceeding the published target threatens the account regardless of sales volume.
- Late Shipment Rate — Late Shipment Rate (LSR)
- The share of seller-fulfilled orders confirmed late against the expected dispatch date. An FBM-side metric with a published target. Sustained breaches bring listing-level and then account-level enforcement, while FBA orders are exempt because Amazon controls the handoff.
- Valid Tracking Rate — Valid Tracking Rate (VTR)
- The share of seller-fulfilled shipments carrying valid carrier tracking. Amazon requires it above a published threshold for most categories. A low VTR suppresses seller-fulfilled offers well before it escalates into an account-level problem.
- IP Complaint — Intellectual Property Complaint
- A trademark, copyright, or patent infringement report filed against a listing by a rights owner or raised by Amazon's own detection. It creates an Account Health violation that generally requires a retraction from the rights owner or a successful appeal to clear.
- POA — Plan of Action
- The structured appeal document Amazon expects after a suspension or violation. It lays out the root cause, then the corrective and preventive steps. Plans that get accepted are specific and evidenced. Generic templates are routinely rejected.
- Gating — Category & Brand Gating
- Approval requirements that control who may sell restricted categories, brands, or products. Ungating typically requires invoices or brand authorization. Requirements differ by marketplace and keep changing, so the current application flow is the only reliable reference.
- Transparency — Amazon Transparency Program
- Amazon's serialization program: each enrolled unit carries a unique code that Amazon checks at the fulfillment center, and units without valid codes are blocked. Strong counterfeit protection with a real operational cost, since every sellable unit must be labeled.
- Project Zero — Amazon Project Zero
- A brand-protection program that combines automated counterfeit detection with self-service removal of infringing listings by the brand itself. Access requires Brand Registry and a clean track record, and the self-service removals are audited.
- Responsible Person — EU Responsible Person (GPSR)
- The EU-established contact that product-safety regulation requires for many goods sold into the EU, displayed on the listing. Amazon blocks non-compliant listings in EU marketplaces, so appointing one is a launch prerequisite there. Rules differ by product type.