When brand gating was introduced on a large scale in 2016, Amazon required sellers to submit an “application fee” to apply for brand approval.
This could range from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars and was – unsurprisingly – very unpopular with sellers. It would require a large sales volume to make the fee economical, and as it was non-refundable sellers would be even more out of pocket if their application was rejected.
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The good news is that we haven’t seen Amazon request an application fee for brand approval in a while. Amazon is treading more carefully when it comes to seller relations, and charging a fee to sell certain brands could look like it’s controlling competition.