Announcement reposted from Amazon Japan:
We’re updating our Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) inventory reimbursement policy to provide you greater transparency and more predictability in how reimbursements are calculated for items that are lost or damaged before a customer order.
Effective March 11, 2025, we’ll reimburse you based on the product manufacturing cost of the affected inventory. “Manufacturing cost” means your cost to source a product from a manufacturer, wholesaler, reseller, or produce the item if you are the manufacturer. It excludes costs such as shipping, handling, customs duties, or other costs.
To provide you greater control and accuracy, you can choose how we determine the manufacturing cost for your products:
- We will provide a manufacturing cost estimate for you. This estimate is based on a comprehensive evaluation of comparable products sold by Amazon, by other sellers, and through wholesale channels.
- You can provide your manufacturing costs directly. If you don’t provide your own costs, we’ll automatically apply our estimate which you can change when you’re ready.
To help you prepare, you can view and manage manufacturing costs in a new Inventory Defect and Reimbursement portal starting in late January using a new Manage Your Manufacturing Cost page.
We are constantly refining our operations and processes to prevent products from being lost or damaged and having to be reimbursed. For cases where reimbursement is necessary, we are focused on ensuring timely compensation. We will offer automatic reimbursements for items lost in our fulfillment centers starting January 10, saving you time and eliminating the need for you to submit a claim to receive reimbursement (announced via email on October 10).
For items that are lost or damaged after a customer order in Amazon’s store, we will continue to reimburse you for the sales price on the original order minus applicable fees and consumption tax.
For more information on the policy change, visit the Changes to program policies.