Prohibited Content

The following list of prohibited products comprises two sections: Prohibited Content and Intellectual Property Violations.

Listing products that are prohibited or which violate intellectual property rights may result in the cancellation of your listings, or the removal of your selling privileges. Sellers are expected to conduct proper research to ensure that the items posted to Amazon.co.uk are in compliance with all applicable laws.

If we determine that the content of a product detail page or listing is prohibited, in violation of intellectual property rights, potentially illegal, or inappropriate, we may summarily remove or alter it. Amazon.co.uk reserves the right to make judgments about whether or not content is appropriate.

Prohibited Content
Intellectual Property Violations

Prohibited content

• Illegal and potentially illegal products: Products sold on the Amazon.website must adhere to all applicable laws. As sellers are legally liable for their actions and transactions, sellers must know the legal parameters surrounding any product they offer for sale on Amazon.co.uk. This includes the sale of products by individuals outside the United Kingdom.
• Offensive material: Amazon reserves the right to determine the appropriateness of listings posted to our site.
• Nudity: In general, images that portray nudity in a gratuitous or graphic manner are prohibited.
• Items that infringe upon an individual's privacy: Amazon holds personal privacy in the highest regard. Therefore, items that infringe upon, or have potential to infringe upon, an individual's privacy are prohibited.
• Advertisements: Listings that are intended wholly or mainly as "portals" to commercial or private websites for the purposes of advertising, or that offer contact information for non-Amazon.co.uk offers, particularly those with non-Amazon.co.uk ordering tools or information are prohibited.
• Products made available by digital download: Amazon prohibits the listing of products that are made available by digital download, including "codes" that can be used to access content on other websites or platforms.
• Region 1 DVDs: New region 1 DVDs are restricted products are prohibited for sale on Amazon.co.uk unless you have received pre-approval for such sales generally from Amazon.co.uk.  Only sellers resident in the USA or Canada who dispatch their products from the USA or Canada are eligible for pre-approval.  Only new region 1 DVDs which have been age-rated in Canada or the US may be sold through Amazon.co.uk, and the age rating must appear in the seller's region 1 DVD listing.  Sellers of new region 1 DVDs are prohibited from selling more than one copy of any new region 1 DVD to any customer, or from selling any new region 1 DVD to any customer who is purchasing the DVD for commercial purposes.
• Products that are not safe: All new toys and electrical equipment must be CE marked. All toys and electrical equipment, whether new or used, must be safe (that is, there is no risk that the equipment will cause death, personal injury or damage to property) and, where applicable, come with a UK standard three-pin plug. You must have used and refurbished electrical equipment tested by an expert prior to listing to verify that it is safe. You must not list any product that has been the subject of a product safety recall, regardless of branding. More information on current product recalls can be found here. Products not meeting these requirements are prohibited.
• Cigarette substitutes: Electronic cigarettes and other nicotine-based products are prohibited unless approved by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) as aids to smoking cessation.
• Animal products: Parts of or products from whale, dolphin or shark are prohibited.
• Plants, plant material and seed: Certain types of plants, seeds and other plant material are prohibited or regulated to ensure they are safe for pets, humans and the environment. You should seek advice from appropriate government authorities before (a) exporting, importing, receiving or transporting such agricultural or plant material, and (b) selling seed, as marketing regulations apply and licensing may be required (e.g. for vegetable and grass seed). The appropriate authority is the Food and Environment Research Agency (FERA) in the UK and the Department of Agriculture in the Republic of Ireland.

Intellectual Property Violations

• Counterfeit merchandise: Products offered for sale on Amazon.co.uk must be authentic. Any product that has been illegally replicated, reproduced or manufactured is prohibited.
• Unauthorised and unlicenced merchandise: All items offered for sale on Amazon.co.uk must be commercially produced and authorized or licenced for sale as a retail product.
• Recopied media: Media products (books, films, CDs, television programmes, software titles, videogames, and so on) that have been recopied, dubbed, duplicated, or transferred without permission of the rights holder are illegal to sell and are prohibited. This includes:
  • Books - Unauthorised copies of books are prohibited.
  • Music - Bootlegs, unauthorised live concerts, unauthorised soundboard recordings, unauthorised merchandise etc. are prohibited.
  • Films - Unauthorised copies of films in any format are prohibited. Unreleased/prereleased movies, screeners, trailers, unpublished and unauthorised film scripts (no ISBN number), electronic press kits, and unauthorised props are also prohibited.
  • Photos - Unauthorised copies of photos are prohibited.
  • Radio programmes & Concerts - Unauthorised recordings or copies of recordings of radio programmes are prohibited.
  • Software - Recopied or duplicated software in any format is prohibited. Academic, OEM, back-up, fulfilment, promotional, beta (prerelease), unauthorised freeware/shareware, and "softlifted" versions of software are prohibited. Read our rules for selling software.
  • Television programmes - Unauthorized copies of television programmes (including pay-per-view events), programmes never broadcast, unauthoriz=sed scripts, unauthorised props, and screeners are prohibited.
  • Video games - Video games sold on Amazon.co.uk must be full retail versions. Recopied and transferred video games are prohibited. Mod chips, silver disks, video game emulators, Sega bootdisks, game enhancers, unauthorised video game compilations, unauthorised bundles of video game products, and unauthorised accessories are also prohibited.
• Cross-border media and parallel imports: Genuine branded goods that infringe upon a rights owner’s territorial rights within the European Economic Area (EEA) are prohibited. For more information, visit our EU Imports and Cross-Border Sales help page (sign-in required).
• Transferred media. Media transferred from one format to another is prohibited. This includes but is not limited to: films converted from NTSC to Pal and Pal to NTSC, laserdisc to video, television to video, CD-ROM to cassette tape, from the Internet to any digital format, etc.
• Promotional media: Promotional versions of media products, including books (advance reading copies and uncorrected proofs), music, and videos (screeners) are prohibited. These products are distributed for promotional consideration and generally are not authorised for retail distribution or sale.
• Rights of Publicity: Celebrity images and/or the use of celebrity names cannot be used for commercial purposes without permission of a celebrity or their management. This includes product endorsements and use of a celebrity's likeness on merchandise such as posters, mouse pads, clocks, image collections in digital format, and so on.