Amazon's Chargeback Update for Expiration Dates

Amazon is implementing some chargeback updates that will impact many product categories. This includes a new chargeback called "Invalid Expiration Date Chargeback," that will be a sub-type of the ASN Accuracy chargeback, and an update to the fee structure for the “Missing Expiration Date Chargeback." The products that will be most impacted by these changes are those that have a “Freshness,” “Use by,” or “Best by” date that may not necessarily be considered expired by that date, but going forward Amazon will be treating it as an expiration date. This is to the benefit of end customers, to avoid the negative experience of receiving a product that has a date in the past. If vendors have products with any date at all printed on the product, it will be required to be entered as an expiration date.

Here is the notice from Amazon:

Chargeback Update for Expiration Dates

Starting January 27, 2020, we are soft-launching a new Invalid Expiration Date Chargeback on most consumables products that require expiration dates (which may include products with Best Before, Use By Dates, Freshness dates, etc).

The chargeback is a new sub-type within the existing ASN (Advanced Shipment Notification) Accuracy chargeback and is applicable to products that require expiration dates in these categories: Luxury Beauty, Beauty, Pantry, Grocery, Baby, Health and Personal Care and Personal Care Appliances categories (excluding Amazon Fresh / Prime Now/ Amazon Go).

Please note that during the first 60-days after launch, the chargeback will be visible on Vendor Central via the Operational Performance dashboard but no charges will be applied.

Beginning on March 27, 2020, the new Invalid Expiration Date Chargeback will charge a fee if the expiration dates listed on the ASN at the time of receive are 1) in the past; 2) too close to the receive date or 3) too far in the future.

The chargeback use cases and the fee structure are detailed in the Help topic under Support > Help > Vendor Operational Performance > Chargebacks - Problems With ASN > About ASN Accuracy.

Missing Expiration Date

ASN Accuracy already assesses for a chargeback sub-type related to expiration dates called Missing Expiration Date, triggered when an expiration date is not provided on a product that requires it.

Also on March 27, 2020, the chargeback fee for Missing Expiration Date will increase by 1% for each tier over the current fee structure.

The new values will be 2% or 4% or 6% of the cost of goods (COGS) of units received, depending on your trailing 4 weeks overall ASN compliance.

These increased fees are necessary to cover the costs of resolving missing expiration date issues in our supply chain due to insufficient current fees.

These chargebacks are only applicable if you sell products that require expiration dates in the same Consumables categories as above.

We are committed to helping you through these changes and look forward to your collaboration in the minimization of ASN defects to provide an excellent experience to our mutual customers.