Yesterday, a Content Egg user reached out with a strange new Amazon API error:
“AssociateNotEligible (403) – Your account does not currently meet the eligibility requirements to access the Product Advertising API.”
That’s new. I’d never seen it before — and it immediately raised some eyebrows.
What’s Going On?
Naturally, I checked Amazon’s official documentation. Here’s what it says now:
“This error occurs when the account associated with the access key fails to meet the eligibility requirements for accessing the Product Advertising API. The current eligibility criteria to access the Product Advertising API is that the account must have made 10 qualified sales in the trailing 30 days.”
Wait, 10 sales? 😳
That’s a big jump! It used to be just 1 sale to stay eligible.
Confusing and Inconsistent Info
Here’s the strange part — this “10 sales” rule doesn’t appear anywhere else in the usual Amazon documentation.
For example, Amazon’s API Usage and Rate Limits page still says:
“Note that your account will lose access to Product Advertising API 5.0 if it has not generated qualified referring sales for a consecutive 30-day period.”
That’s the old rule, referring to “some sales” (not specifically 10).
And normally, when that happens, the error you’d get is TooManyRequests (throttling), not AssociateNotEligible.
Even more curious — there hasn’t been any official announcement about this change.
But I checked the documentation history with the Wayback Machine, and sure enough, this new error message was added recently.
Reports from the Community
The only other mention I found was from a Japanese social media post, where someone shared a response from Amazon support:
“As of November 12th, the policy has changed. You must have 10 qualifying sales within the past 30 days to access the PA API.”
That lines up perfectly with what we’re seeing.
Why the Change?
Honestly, it fits with Amazon’s broader trend — tightening API and affiliate access, trimming smaller partners, and focusing on higher-volume affiliates.
For many smaller sites or new affiliates, this new 10-sales threshold could be a serious barrier.
What We Know So Far
Here’s the current picture:
- A new API error: “AssociateNotEligible”
- The error points to new eligibility rules (10 sales in 30 days)
- The change isn’t reflected in all documentation yet
- It’s unclear if this affects all locales or just specific regions/accounts
We’re reaching out to Amazon for official clarification and will update this post as soon as we get confirmation.
Tip for Content Egg Users
If you’re affected by this and can’t access the Amazon API, don’t panic!
Content Egg includes a NoAPI module for Amazon — letting you add product blocks and import items without needing API access.
So you can keep your affiliate site running smoothly while we all wait for Amazon to clear this up.