Amazon Vendor Central Insurance Requirements: 1P vs 3P
Selling to Amazon through Vendor Central puts a different contract behind your insurance than selling on Amazon through Seller Central. Here is how the two compare and what a vendor should check.
1P and 3P are different businesses
In a first-party (1P) relationship, your company sells inventory to Amazon at wholesale through purchase orders in Vendor Central. Amazon takes ownership of the goods, sets the retail price and sells to the shopper. Vendor Central works by invitation, so most brands start as third-party (3P) sellers in Seller Central, where they keep ownership of the inventory and sell to customers themselves.
Who owns the goods drives the insurance. A 3P seller is the seller of record and carries the marketplace insurance rule that comes with that role. A 1P vendor sells to a retailer, and its obligations to Amazon come from the vendor contract rather than from the marketplace rules.
We work with hundreds of Amazon sellers, and brands adding a vendor account often assume their Seller Central policy settles the matter. It is a sound starting point, and the vendor paperwork decides the rest.
The 3P rule, briefly
Third-party sellers follow section 9 of the Amazon Services Business Solutions Agreement. Once gross proceeds on Amazon.com pass $10,000 in a month, the seller has 30 days to carry commercial liability insurance of at least $1,000,000 per occurrence and in the aggregate, written by an insurer rated A- or better, with Amazon named as additional insured by endorsement. The certificate goes into Seller Central.
From November 2, 2026, sellers of products in Amazon’s enhanced safety categories, such as children’s products, cosmetics, ingestibles and lithium battery goods, need that policy whatever their sales. The full detail sits on our Amazon seller insurance requirements page.
The seller rule also fixes the details Amazon checks at upload: the insured name must match the legal entity on the account, the insurer named in Seller Central must match the certificate, and any deductible must appear on it. Adding a vendor account changes none of that, which is why brands with both accounts do well to keep the two sets of insurance paperwork in separate folders.
Where a vendor’s insurance terms come from
A vendor accepts Amazon’s Vendor Terms and Conditions when it opens the account, and each purchase order runs under them. Larger suppliers sometimes sign a negotiated supply agreement on top. One such agreement between Amazon and a manufacturer, filed publicly with the SEC, says its own terms apply notwithstanding anything to the contrary in the Vendor Terms, which shows how a negotiated contract can displace the standard wording.
Vendor agreements commonly ask the vendor to defend and indemnify the retailer and to take back defective or recalled goods at the vendor’s cost, so read the indemnity and returns terms in your own agreement before you choose limits. Limits, additional insured wording and certificate instructions sit in the insurance clause of whichever contract governs you. Download the version you accepted in Vendor Central and read the insurance and indemnity sections before you ask for a quote.
When your vendor manager asks for a certificate, get the exact holder and additional insured wording in writing. Reusing the Seller Central wording out of habit is the shortcut we see cause the most back-and-forth on vendor accounts.
Why product liability still reaches the vendor
When Amazon buys and resells your product, it sits in the chain of distribution as a retailer. Under strict product liability an injured customer can sue each business in that chain, and a retailer that gets sued looks upstream to the manufacturer or importer for indemnity. California’s Bolger decision held Amazon could be strictly liable even for a third-party product it stored and shipped, which shows how readily courts place Amazon in the chain when it handles the goods.
For a vendor, a claim against Amazon over your product usually turns into your claim through the indemnity clause. Your policy needs products and completed operations coverage, plus contractual liability that responds to the indemnity you signed. A vendors endorsement, which adds a retailer as additional insured for the products you supply, is the usual way to extend your policy to Amazon. Our guide to additional insured endorsements explains how those endorsements work.
Vendors that import the goods face the same exposure a private-label seller does: the overseas factory is often beyond the reach of a US court, so the importer stands where the manufacturer would. Our page on private label and importer liability goes into that in more depth.
Running a vendor account and a seller account together
Plenty of brands sell some products 1P and others 3P, or move a product between the two channels. One liability policy can serve both accounts when it names Amazon as additional insured in the form each contract asks for and lists every product, whichever channel sells it.
Tell the underwriter about both channels. Vendor revenue is wholesale sales to Amazon, seller revenue is retail sales to customers, and premium follows sales. A submission that reports only Seller Central proceeds understates the products in circulation, and one that adds the two figures without labeling them overstates them.
Keep the Seller Central certificate current even when most volume shifts to 1P. The seller account still has to meet section 9 for as long as it has active listings.
Recalls and the costs a liability policy leaves out
The standard commercial general liability form excludes the cost of recalling products, often called the sistership exclusion, so the expense of pulling goods from Amazon’s shelves after a safety alert sits outside the liability policy. Under vendor terms that let Amazon return recalled goods at your expense, a 1P recall reaches inventory Amazon already paid you for, which raises the stakes compared with a 3P listing where the stock is still yours.
Product recall insurance is written separately to address recall expenses, and some forms extend to replacing the goods. Chargebacks and shortage deductions are contract costs rather than insurance matters, so budget for them in your vendor pricing. Read our product recall guide, listed below, before you accept a large first purchase order.
What to send for a vendor quote
Send the insurance and indemnity sections of your vendor terms or supply agreement, a product list with the country of manufacture for each item, and annual wholesale sales to Amazon alongside any Seller Central sales.
Add test reports, labels and instructions for each product, your current policy with its endorsements, and five years of loss history where you have it. With that file we can quote one policy that answers both the vendor contract and the seller rules. For the rest of our Amazon guidance, visit the Amazon seller insurance hub.
A few useful answers
Common questions
Do 1P vendors upload a certificate of insurance in Seller Central?
No. The Seller Central upload belongs to the seller account under section 9 of the Business Solutions Agreement. A vendor sends proof the way its vendor terms or vendor manager directs.
Does the $10,000 monthly trigger apply to Vendor Central?
That trigger comes from the seller agreement and is measured on marketplace gross proceeds. A vendor’s insurance obligations come from the vendor terms and any supply agreement it signed.
Can one policy serve my Vendor Central and Seller Central accounts?
Yes, when it lists every product, reports sales from both channels and carries the additional insured wording each contract asks for. Ask for the endorsements by name so both appear on the policy.
What is a vendors endorsement?
It adds a retailer or distributor as additional insured for claims arising from your products sold in the ordinary course of its business. Amazon reselling your goods as a 1P buyer is the situation it was written for.
Does Amazon's November 2026 category rule apply to 1P vendors?
Amazon announced it to sellers for their Seller Central accounts. If you also sell 3P in one of those categories, that account needs the policy from November 2, 2026. For 1P products, follow your vendor terms and confirm with your vendor manager.