Guide
MAP Promotions & Exceptions Guide
The reference for the two tools that keep a review queue honest — promotions that lower the floor for a window, and exceptions that exempt a scope from judgment or enforcement — with the configuration decisions, the interactions, and the mistakes to avoid.
This is the configuration reference for promotions and exceptions. The shorter explanation of why they are two tools is in How Promotions and Exceptions Affect MAP Monitoring; this guide is for the person setting them up and deciding which to use when.
1. Promotions
What a promotion is
A promotion replaces the effective MAP for a scope of products with a lower floor between two instants. Observations inside the window are measured against the promotional floor. Observations outside it are measured against the policy's own floor. Nothing has to run at the end; an observation after the end instant simply no longer matches.
Fields
| Field | Rule |
|---|---|
| Brand | Required. |
| Name | For your team. "Spring sale", "Launch week". |
| Covers | The whole brand, a product group, or one product. |
| Marketplace, condition | Which listings the promotional floor applies to. |
| Starts, ends | Both required, read as UTC. The window is half-open: it applies at exactly starts and stops at exactly ends. |
| Promotional MAP | The floor during the window, in the policy's currency. |
| Reason | Recorded with the promotion. |
States
| State | Effect |
|---|---|
| Draft | Recorded, changes nothing. A Compliance Manager can draft. |
| Approved | In force for its window. A Brand Admin approves — the same class of act as activating a policy, because it changes what every seller in scope is measured against. |
| Canceled | Withdrawn from the cancellation instant. Observations already evaluated under it are unchanged. |
Precedence
When two approved promotions could cover one observation, the narrower scope wins: product over product group over brand. Two promotions at the same scope with overlapping windows are refused when the second is saved. Two amounts cannot both be the MAP, and a system that picked one would hide a real mistake behind a confident answer.
What a promotion does not do
- It does not dismiss candidates already in the queue from before it was approved. Those are dismissed by hand with the reason authorized promotion — and the lesson is to approve before the sale starts.
- It does not change the policy. When the window ends the policy's floor applies again.
- It does not exempt anyone. A seller advertising below the promotional floor is below policy.
2. Exceptions
What an exception is
An exception is an effective-dated instruction about what happens next for a scope. It never changes what was observed. It has one of two effects.
| Effect | Evaluation | Review queue | Enforcement |
|---|---|---|---|
| Exempt from policy | Not applicable, with the exception as the reason. Not judged. | Nothing reaches it. | Nothing. |
| Monitor only — never enforce | Judged and recorded normally, including below policy. | Nothing reaches it. | Never eligible. |
Exempt is deliberately not compliant. An offer nobody assessed does not raise the compliance rate.
Scopes
| Scope | Typical use |
|---|---|
| One seller, across the brand | A distributor under negotiation; a partner disputing a notice. |
| One seller, on one product | The narrowest, and the most common in practice: one relationship, one line. |
| One product, every seller | A product under legal review; a line being withdrawn. |
| A product group, every seller | A family being repriced. |
| The whole brand, every seller | Rare. A program-wide pause with a reason. |
Marketplace may be one channel or every channel; condition may be any or one.
Fields
Brand; scope (with a seller already observed, or a seller id typed directly, for the seller scopes); marketplace; condition; effect; from; until (optional, read as UTC); reason. Creating and revoking need the Compliance Manager role.
Combining
Any number of exceptions may apply to one observation. They combine in the safe direction: if any live exception exempts, the observation is exempt; otherwise if any live exception is monitor-only, enforcement is barred. There is no precedence and no tie.
What an exception does not do
- It does not erase an observation, an evaluation or an evidence package.
- It does not close a breach period. A monitor only exception created while a period is open stops future enforcement; the period still closes only on cure.
- It does not classify the seller. Standing is set on the Sellers page, separately.
- It does not stop monitoring. Scans continue; that is the point.
3. Interactions worth knowing
Promotion and policy version. A promotion applies over whichever policy version is in force during its window. Appending a version does not cancel a promotion; the promotional floor still replaces the new version's floor inside the window.
Promotion and tolerance. Tolerance applies to the effective floor, promotional or not.
Exception and the enforcement gate. An active exception on a case is one of the named blockers a notice shows: an active exception applies. A notice cannot be approved while it stands.
Exception and cure. A period under a monitor only exception can still cure — enough compliant observations close it — and can still relapse. The history is intact; only enforcement is barred.
Exception and candidate eligibility. A below-floor observation held back by a monitor only exception is recorded with the reason enforcement suppressed by exception, so "why is this seller not in my queue" is answered by a fact.
4. A decision table
| Situation | Use | Why |
|---|---|---|
| The brand is running a sale | A promotion, approved before the sale starts | The floor is genuinely lower for the window. |
| A distributor has been given a permanent lower price | A new policy version, or a narrower policy for that scope | Not a window; a floor. |
| A distributor's contract is being renegotiated | A monitor only exception on the seller, with an end date | Keep the measurement, suspend the consequence. |
| A partner disputes a notice | A hold on the case (short), then a monitor only exception if it runs long | A hold pauses the workflow; an exception is a standing decision. |
| A product is under legal review | A monitor only exception on the product | You still want to know what it sells for. |
| The brand's own storefront | Classify the seller as brand internal; add an exempt exception if its offers should not count at all | Exempt removes it from the figures. |
| A liquidator with agreed closeout terms | Classify as exempt, and a monitor only exception on the seller-and-product | Measured, never enforced, and the reason is recorded. |
| A seller keeps showing up as a false finding for a reason you cannot fix | Not an exception. Fix the catalog or the treatment rule. | An exception here hides a defect. |
5. Mistakes to avoid
- Approving the promotion after the sale started. The first hours of a sale reach the queue as candidates.
- A promotion with a far-future end date as a permanent price change. Append a policy version instead.
- Exempting a partner to stop the queue filling. Monitor only keeps the measurement; exempt throws it away.
- Exceptions without end dates. Most reasons for an exception have a horizon. Put it on the exception.
- Using an exception to fix a catalog problem. A wrong ASIN or a treatment-rule mismatch is a configuration defect, not a relationship decision.
The mechanics in MapProtector are on Promotions and Exceptions.