KYC is the abbreviation of Know Your Customer. In accordance with the relevant requirements of the EU Anti-Money Laundering Law, Amazon verifies the identity of sellers who open stores in EU sites such as the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain (Note: the UK has officially left the EU in 2020). This process is called “KYC audit”. Simply put, KYC audit is the process of confirming and filing the identity of Amazon account holders. This policy is used to prevent corruption and anti-money laundering. Therefore, sellers who open stores in various EU sites can only make compliant sales after confirmation by Amazon’s audit team.
When the seller’s sales on the European site reach 5,000 euros or more or change the background information, the KYC audit may be triggered in advance. If you do not participate in the KYC audit, when the sales reach 15,000 euros, there will be no more goods for sale. Therefore, new sellers can start preparing for the KYC audit at the beginning of account registration to prevent temporary suspension of business due to the KYC audit after the sales reach the amount required by the platform.
Regarding the materials required for KYC review, since the registration information of each account is different, the materials required for each seller are different. The specific requirements can be found in the “Required Documents” received in the background.
The materials required for KYC review are as follows.
(1) Scanned copy of the original (copy) of the company’s business license (individual sellers do not need to provide it).
(2) Scanned copies of the passport or ID card (front and back) of the company’s main contact person and each beneficiary, and scanned copies of the personal page of the household registration booklet. The beneficiary here refers to a natural person or legal representative who holds a stake of greater than or equal to 25% in the company.
(3) Personal expense bills of the company’s main contact person and each beneficiary, including water, electricity, gas, television, mobile phone and other expense bills, Internet expense bills, personal credit card bills, etc., with the expense incurred date and invoice date within 90 days. The bill must be issued by a formal institution (public utility, bank, etc.) and printed with the name and detailed residential address of the family. If the bill is in the name of the spouse, the marriage certificate must be submitted at the same time; if the bill is in the name of the landlord, a formal house rental contract (the second party to the contract must be a company, not an individual) is required to prove the relationship.
(4) Company daily expense bills, including water, electricity, gas and other expense bills, Internet expense bills, bank statements, etc., with the expense incurred date and invoice date within 90 days. The bill must be issued by a formal institution (public utility, bank, etc.) and printed with the company name and detailed address (the company name and address must be consistent with the business license). If the seller’s operating address is elsewhere, the address on the bill should be the actual operating address.
(5) Company public bank statement. A company public bank account opening license or public bank statement with a validity period of less than one year is required. Any bank can be selected. The bill must have the company name and must be consistent with the company name on the business license; the bank name or logo must be clearly visible and the bank account number opened at the bank must be visible; the bill can be issued with or without a date. If it is, the bank statement must be issued within 6 months (if there is an account opening license, the issuance date must be within 12 months).
(6) Overseas bank account for receiving payments. It is recommended that sellers use the company’s public account or the personal account of the company’s beneficiary as the receiving account. Amazon’s backend accepts bank accounts opened in the United States, the United Kingdom, EU countries, Australia and other places as receiving accounts, and also accepts overseas accounts opened by agents.
(7) Authorization letter. Only when the primary contact is not a corporate legal person or beneficiary, the seller needs to provide an authorization letter from the corporate legal person authorizing the primary contact to actually operate the account.
Pay special attention here: When filling in KYC information, it is recommended to fill it in all in Chinese pinyin, and do not use English names that are similar to Chinese pronunciations that you translated yourself; if you fill in an error during the registration process, you can modify it by submitting proof materials or documents; the submitted materials, whether text or pictures, cannot be modified using Photoshop software, but you can use Photoshop software to put the front and back of the ID card in one picture; be sure to fill in the company and personal information truthfully. Once the information is identified as false, the KYC review will fail and there will be no opportunity to appeal; if you are a global store seller, you can find a business manager to review and verify before submitting to ensure that there are no errors before submitting.