Unknown sellers

Every seller starts as Unknown. It means exactly one thing: your brand has not yet said what its relationship with this seller is. It is the honest default, and the product will not move a seller out of it on its own.

Unknown is not unauthorized

The two words are used interchangeably in a lot of MAP conversation, and MapProtector does not. Unknown is the absence of a decision. Unauthorized is a decision your team made, with a reason, on the record. Sealed evidence records which of the two was true at capture, a notice template can name either, and the difference is exactly what a seller who turns out to be a legitimate sub-distributor will point to.

Working the list

1. Open Monitoring › Sellers and filter by standing Unknown, or open Observed sellers to decide about on the network page.
2. For each seller, open its history. First seen, last seen, the products it has been observed on, and whether any of its prices have been below policy tell you whether this is a partner you forgot, a sub-distributor of a partner, or a storefront you have never dealt with.
3. Record a standing with a reason: Authorized (and add them to the network so the standing is explained by an entry), Unauthorized, Brand internal, Exempt — or leave them Unknown until you know.

Unknown sellers and the review queue

A below-policy observation from an unknown seller still becomes a violation candidate; the queue shows the standing beside the finding. Reviewers commonly classify the seller in the same sitting as they confirm or dismiss the candidate, and a filter on seller authorization keeps the two kinds of row apart.