Our brand is registered on the main account. We have two sub-accounts (A & B) set up as resellers, and they used to be able to create parent ASINs, merge variations, split variations — no problem at all.
Now all of a sudden, when A or B try to merge variations, we get hit with this:
“Deleted suppressed ASIN information. To ensure a good customer experience, only the brand owner can create ASINs.”
Old variations that were merged before still work fine. But new ones? Sub-accounts can’t create or edit variation structures at all. Only the main brand account can do anything.
We don’t want to mess with variation changes on the main account too much to avoid red flags, so we really prefer using sub-accounts for that.
A few questions for anyone who’s seen this:
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Did Amazon quietly tighten permissions for reseller accounts? Is this a new policy?
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Can reseller accounts no longer create or merge variation structures at this point?
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For those running multiple accounts under one brand — how do you handle variations? Do you just do all structure work on the main account and let sub-accounts only sell? Any stable workarounds?
Would love to hear what others are doing. Appreciate any input.
Answers (5)
After changing to Brand Rep, permissions don’t always update right away.
Wait a few hours, log out and back in. Also check if any child ASINs are suppressed — that will block merging too, even with correct permissions.
Safest long-term setup if you don’t want to risk the main account:
No issues, no flags, no permission headaches.
Same thing happened to us.
Easy workaround:
You don’t need high permissions 24/7, just long enough to make the change. Some risk, but everyone I know does it.
Your error is classic 8040 behavior.
Quick breakdown:
Fix path:
Amazon’s definitely cracking down on brand permissions lately.
There are two layers you need to watch:
If your sub-accounts are only Reseller, they lose most brand tools: Vine, Stores, variation editing, SB/SD ads, Brand Analytics — all gone.
From what I’ve seen, you now need at least Brand Representative to create or merge variations.
Quick fix: Temporarily switch sub-accounts to Brand Rep, do your merge, then switch back to Reseller. Works for most sellers.