Amazon Affiliates Program: What's Changing in October 2025?

Amazon is updating the rules for its Associates Program (the affiliate program where you earn money for recommending products). These changes affect how you work and how you get paid, and they officially begin on October 15, 2025.

Here's what's changing and how it affects you if you are an Amazon Affiliate.

1. 🔒The Copyright Rule: Ask Before You Use

This is the most important change that affects your content.

• The Problem: Many Associates use images, logos, or unique product descriptions created by third-party sellers on Amazon (the companies that actually make the products). This is called using "copyrighted material."
• The New Rule: You cannot use any of this copyrighted material from third-party sellers unless you have written permission from them first.
• The Bottom Line: Don't just grab photos from a product page. You must get approval in writing from the seller if you want to use their stuff in your reviews or promotions. This protects you legally.

2. 💰 How Amazon Calculates Your Commission (The Rounding Change)

Amazon is making the math for your payments clearer.

• The Change: Your commission will now be rounded to the nearest cent (or the smallest amount of your local money) for every single sale.
• What This Means for Your Pay: If your commission is calculated as, say, $0.534, it will be rounded to $0.53. This rounding happens for each purchase, which might make your final, overall commission rate look slightly different than the exact percentage Amazon lists. It helps Amazon with clean accounting.

3. 🛑 Amazon Controls the "No-Pay" List

The Associates Program has a list of products that don't earn a commission (called excluded products).

• The Change: Amazon is clearly stating that they have the full power to decide exactly which products are on this "no-pay" list.
• The Effect: Amazon can add or remove products from the excluded list whenever they need to, and the rules confirm this right.

4. 💳 New Maximum Limits for Gift Card Payments

If you choose to be paid with Amazon Gift Cards instead of getting a bank deposit, the payment limits are changing.

• The Change: Amazon is adjusting the rules to include a maximum amount you can receive via gift cards. In the past, there was only a minimum.
• What You Should Do: If you use gift cards for payment, check the new rules to make sure you don't earn more than the maximum limit allows.

5. Administrative & Geographic Clean-Up

These are small changes to keep the program legally tidy around the world:

• Free Books in Canada: The rules about promoting free books for Canadian Associates are being updated to match the rules used in all other countries.
• European Legal Name Change: For Associates in the European Union, the official legal name of the Amazon company on all documents is being updated to Amazon EU Sarl. This is just a paperwork update.

What You Should Do Now

The most critical thing is to review all your existing content. Make sure you are either using your own images or have written permission for any content that belongs to another seller.