Hi everyone,

I’m reaching out as a brand owner and exclusive seller of my own private-label products on Amazon. I’ve encountered a frustrating issue that I believe stems from a systematic flaw in Amazon’s “Competitive External Price” algorithm. I’ve already contacted Seller Support, but I’m bringing this to the forums to raise visibility and get deeper insights.

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🧵 The Issue:

✅ ASIN 1: B07GGZWRK6 – Gear Doctors Self-Inflating Sleeping Pad

• Amazon List Price: $49.99

• Amazon Current Sale Price: $34.99

• Buy Box Suppression Reason: “Competitive External Price” – $27.99

• Shopify Price: $50 (List) / $42 (Sale)

✅ ASIN 2: B09YV2JG3L – Gear Doctors Artemis 3D Pad

• Amazon List Price: $119.99

• Amazon Current Sale Price: $101

• Buy Box Suppression Reason: “Competitive External Price” – $86.39

• Shopify Price: $109

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🔍 Root Cause:

This problem began after running time-limited deals on Amazon itself. Those internal discounted prices are now being incorrectly treated by the system as external competitor prices — causing Buy Box suppression based on a nonexistent external offer.

To be crystal clear:

• I am the brand owner and the only seller of these products.

• There are no lower prices anywhere online, including my own website.

• Yet Amazon’s Buy Box algorithm is referencing its own historical deal price as if it were a current external competitor.

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📉 Impact:

This has resulted in:

• Immediate Buy Box suppression.

• Significantly reduced sales velocity.

• Forced price cuts to below cost just to regain visibility.

• No actual competitor or lower external listing to compete against.

This is effectively punishing brand owners for running deals on Amazon — and allowing the system to lock in those deal prices as the “external competitive price” moving forward.

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🛠 What I’ve Tried:

• Opened cases with Seller Support → Response was templated and unhelpful.

• Manually verified that no external site lists these products at or below the suppressed price.

• Monitored Shopify, Google Shopping, eBay, Walmart, etc. → No matches found.

• Verified there are no other sellers or listings.

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🧠 Community and Amazon Mods – Please Help:

1. Is there a documented fix for resetting the Competitive External Price suppression when the external price was falsely inferred from a past internal Amazon deal?

2. Can the Pricing or Catalog team manually review and clear these ASINs from Buy Box suppression?

3. What can brand owners do to avoid being penalized by their own temporary promotions?

I’m confident this is a misfire of Amazon’s otherwise valuable price parity mechanism, but it’s severely hurting legitimate sellers and brand owners who are playing by the rules.

Any input, advice, or Amazon attention would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance

@Michelle_Amazon@Dominic_Amazon @Troy_Amazon @Dougal_Amazon @Atlas_Amazon @Danny_Amazon @Stevie_Amazon