Amazon have announced that bladed articles which require age verification under the new Offensive Weapons Act 2019, including kitchen knives and chef’s knives, will no longer be permitted to list on Amazon.co.uk through seller-fulfilled orders.
Currently, certain knives are allowed to be sold, subject to being shipped with a permitted age verification on delivery method. A permitted age verification on delivery method is where a signature on delivery and ID is requested if the recipient appears to be under the age of 21.
Reading between the lines, Amazon are being ultra cautious and appear to have decided that they can’t rely on merchants to ensure that age verification on delivery is carried out. This means that if you wish to sell bladed articles on Amazon that you’ll have to use FBA. Even when selling with FBA you should ensure your products carry the ‘Not for sale to people under the age of 18’ flag.
Process for flagging bladed products
For existing ASINs on Amazon.co.uk, check to see if the ASINs are already flagged. Check there is an “over-18 knife” warning on the detail page.
If the ASIN is already flagged, there is no need to follow the process below. If you need to update an existing ASIN with the flag or create a new ASIN with the flag, either by manually flagging ASINs in Seller Central – Manage inventory, or by flagging ASINs in bulk through Flat Files
