The 2025 Guide to MAP Pricing (Minimum Advertised Price)

E-commerce is a crowded space. By some estimates, there are between 12 million and 24 million online sellers worldwide. And because it's so easy to open an online store and gain access to products, more sellers join that number every day. Sounds good, right? More sellers mean more opportunities for brands to reach consumers. However, it's not so cut and dry.

The more retailers enter the market, the harder it becomes for any single seller to stand out—leading to a race to the bottom in pricing. While price competition might seem like fair play, it can hurt everyone: the brand, the retailer, and the consumer.

To protect margins and maintain brand equity in this competitive environment, manufacturers (we’ll refer to them as brands throughout this guide) use a strategy known as Minimum Advertised Pricing, also known as MAP pricing.

MAP stands for Minimum Advertised Price—the lowest price a retailer is allowed to publicly advertise for a product. Retailers may ultimately sell the product for whatever price they want; however, if they also want to keep working with the brand as an authorized seller, the sticker price cannot be a lower amount than the MAP price.

The main goal of MAP pricing is to create stable profit margins and protect brand value, which benefits the brand, the retailer, and the consumer. If retailers cannot have stable margins, then they pressure the brand to lower the wholesale cost, causing a reduction in quality. If the brand doesn’t lower the cost, then the retailers stop carrying the products. Both consequences can negatively affect consumers by providing less selection and sometimes poor-quality, perhaps even dangerous, products.

By maintaining stable, predictable profit margins with MAP policies, brands can continue developing high-quality products. That, in turn, gives retailers a level playing field through which they can sell the products to consumers, who benefit from a larger selection of high-quality products.

A brand sets a MAP pricing policy and distributes it to authorized resellers. The policy outlines acceptable pricing practices and defines what constitutes a MAP violation—like advertising below the minimum price or offering unapproved discounts (e.g., “10% off in cart”).

Many brands use a three-strike MAP enforcement strategy: two warnings followed by account termination. MAP monitoring tools—like MAPP Trap—help brands track violations across marketplaces like Amazon, Walmart, and eBay. These tools enable fast enforcement and ensure pricing compliance across retail partners.
 

MSRP (Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price) is a pricing benchmark that conveys perceived value and potential profit for retailers. Luxury brands generally have higher MSRPs when compared to similar products. Think of the different MSRPs for watch brands, women’s handbags, or automobiles. The higher the retail pricing, the greater the perceived value. You wouldn’t expect to buy a Rolex watch for the same price as a Timex, right?

MSRPs are also intended to show retailers how much money they can make when selling a product. Since the wholesale cost (the price a retailer pays for a product) is a set price, an MSRP gives a profit target. Retailers can, of course, sell products for more than the MSRP but it sets a baseline profit, even if not always met. 

By contrast, MAP pricing restricts how low a product can be advertised but not necessarily how much it's sold for. This distinction helps brands maintain price integrity while still allowing retailers some flexibility at the point of sale.

What About MRP and iMAP?

MAP isn’t the only acronym in the pricing toolbox. Two others—MRP and iMAP—are often confused with MAP but serve slightly different purposes. Both aim to control how products are priced and sold, especially in highly competitive markets. The key differences lie in how the prices are applied and enforced, particularly across online and offline channels.

Implementing MAP pricing can seem complicated, but the proper guidance will lead to success. The first step is deciding to implement the policy, but once a brand has decided to apply a MAP policy to its products, it needs to consider several important factors. 

4 Factors to Consider Before Implementing a MAP Policy 

 

• Which products should fall under the MAP? This is one of the most misunderstood areas. A brand does not have to apply MAP to all of its products. As a unilateral pricing policy, they get to decide. MAPP Trap generally recommends that brands only apply MAP to their new and/or most important products. Since it’s their policy, they can change which products (and what prices) are included whenever they want.

• What is the MAP pricing and how can they create a formula to keep that consistent? Some brands use MSRP as their MAP. Others will use a slightly lower price than MSRP. Still others may add a fixed percentage to their cost or their wholesale price. MAPP Trap has helped many brands to understand the online value of their products and create appropriate pricing from that. No matter what, having a consistent, repeatable way of determining the MAP price is important.

• What constitutes a MAP violation? Does it apply to physical stores as well as ecommerce (this is called an iMAP)? Is the offer of free shipping a violation? Can a retailer state, “call or click for price?” or “10% discount applied at checkout?” As a standard rule of thumb, the ‘keep it simple’ concept is best. Monitoring retailers for highly detailed nuances in price can be difficult.

• What are the penalties for non-compliance? This is a very important decision because suspending customers reduces top-line sales. And even though the purpose of minimum advertised pricing is to protect margins and brand equity, it’s still a hard decision. Some brands make it simple: one strike and you’re out. This means that a single infraction results in account termination. But some companies try to mitigate the loss by giving a couple of warnings before cutting a customer off. They may even try to enforce MAP on the product level, rather than the entire catalog.

Seek Legal Guidance

After deciding on these areas, the brand should hire an attorney to write the policy. Even if your policy is well written, poor enforcement or vague communication can lead to legal and business risks. Consulting a qualified attorney helps ensure that your minimum advertised pricing policy complies with both federal and state laws.
A legal expert can also help you:

While it’s a common practice to look at the policies of competitors, using them verbatim is a bad idea. Every company is different, so MAP policies should reflect each brand’s reasons for adopting the policy and be a statement of their values and risk tolerances.

Enforcing MAP Pricing Policies  

A MAP pricing policy only works if it’s enforced. Yet, many brands claim to have policies and never enforce them. Maybe the brand has limited resources that prevent effective policy enforcement. Or maybe the brand only created the policy to placate complaining retailers. The brand could also be operating under the false assumption that a MAP policy will hurt sales. Whatever the reason, an unenforced policy can do more harm than good. It weakens credibility and may even create legal risks.

Enforcement becomes even more complex when unknown or unauthorized sellers are involved. It's important to remember that MAP policy applies only to authorized retailers. If a seller isn't authorized, the advertised price is irrelevant because they shouldn't be advertising at all. Instead, the focus should shift to removing them altogether. In those cases, it’s more effective to cite unauthorized use of intellectual property (such as copyrighted material or registered trademark infringement) than to rely on MAP enforcement alone.

MAP pricing is legal, but with some stipulations. A minimum advertised pricing policy is considered a unilateral policy in the U.S. and Canada—it does not require agreement or signatures from resellers. Because of this, it avoids antitrust concerns and is not categorized as price fixing. However, such policies are currently not legal in the European Union.

That said, MAP policies aren’t legally enforceable through the courts. If a retailer violates the policy, a brand can’t sue. Instead, it can terminate or restrict the relationship. But that only works when the seller is known and reachable—something that’s increasingly difficult in today’s digital landscape. This is where MAP enforcement software becomes essential.

MAP Policy Enforcement Tools

There are thousands of companies that create and sell software to enable e-commerce sales. Most of that software is dedicated to the retail side. Products that assist with inventory, online store creation, and price management make today’s online sellers very streamlined. Price management software, in particular, allows the automated updating of prices. Retailers use these tools to make sure their prices are competitive with other retailers. Unfortunately, the widespread use of these repricing algorithms leads to a fast — and automated — race to the bottom.

To counter this, brands need their own set of tools. A MAP pricing strategy supported by software like MAPP Trap gives brands a scalable way to enforce minimum advertised prices and protect long-term margin.

Here’s how it works:

PRICE MONITORING: The ever-growing population of individually owned online stores, coupled with tens of millions of Amazon, eBay, Walmart, and other marketplace sellers, makes price monitoring a Herculean task that cannot be done manually. MAPP Trap has powerful price monitoring software that watches brands’ products across the internet. The software not only looks for codes (UPC, GTIN, SKU, etc.) but also emulates the way consumers search for products and has rigid filters to avoid false positives.

SELLER IDENTIFICATION: It’s not just about prices—it’s about who is violating your policy. The identification process can be tricky because many sellers don’t stock the items they advertise. They rely on third-party fulfillment or hide behind aliases. MAPP Trap helps identify unauthorized sellers and uncover how they’re sourcing inventory—whether through gray market distributors, liquidators, or even your own customers.

MAP ENFORCEMENT: Once a violation is identified and the seller is known, the next step is to contact the violator with a non-compliance notice. While this can be a time-consuming task, MAPP Trap streamlines the process with automated notifications, documentation, and tracking. Brands can customize their MAP enforcement process and keep records of every interaction—so they know who’s been warned, who’s been removed, and who’s still out of compliance.

The Future of MAP Pricing: 2025 and Beyond  

As e-commerce evolves, MAP pricing strategy must adapt. Online marketplaces, social commerce, and influencer marketing are all introducing new challenges.

Challenges of Online Marketplaces 

Online marketplaces often rely on third-party sellers, price automation tools, and algorithms that prioritize the lowest price. This makes it difficult for brands to track where their products are listed—and at what price.

Adding to the challenge, some platforms have their own pricing policies that may not align with manufacturer-set MAP. Without the right tools, brands risk losing visibility and control over how their products are positioned across the web.

Influencer Marketing and Social Media 

Influencers often advertise products at discounted rates in stories or posts. These promotions can bypass traditional sales channels and undercut your MAP pricing, often unintentionally. As this trend grows, brands will need to update their policies to cover new ad formats and influencer relationships.

Professional MAP Policy Support

Maintaining a MAP policy, monitoring compliance, and chasing violators—all while running a business—isn’t realistic for most in-house teams. That’s why more brands are partnering with MAP pricing software providers.

Here at MAPP Trap, we have the knowledge, experience, and expertise to protect your brand to the fullest. In addition, we do everything we can to keep our MAP pricing strategies fresh and updated as retailers continue to evolve.

Hundreds of brands across various industries rely on MAPP Trap to identify their weaknesses while creating and managing MAP policies and Authorized Reseller Programs to protect their brand equity. Here are a few examples of our work in action:

FL!PPER Aquarium Products  

FL!PPER Aquarium Products develops innovative solutions for aquarium hobbyists to make owning an aquarium even more enjoyable. By late 2023, online prices for their products had dropped below MAP, and resellers were struggling to stay profitable. FL!PPER engaged with MAPP Trap’s Complete Compliance, white-glove service to help right the ship. Despite having a MAP policy, FL!PPER didn’t have the capacity to enforce it consistently.

With MAPP Trap, FL!PPER: 

 

Results within 6 months: 

EARTHWHILE ENDEAVORS

This leading manufacturer of eco-friendly pet shampoos, grooming wipes, and spritzes approached MAPP Trap to help the brand regain control of its ecommerce pricing. MAPP Trap created an extensive market assessment, and then developed, implemented and administered strategies (including MAP and Authorized Reseller Policies) to correct a market that was out of control.

Over the course of nine months the following actions and more were taken:

The results of this combined effort of MAPP Trap and Earthwhile Endeavors were extremely successful.

Rev-A-Shelf

This market leading cabinet and lighting company came to MAPP Trap to help them launch their IMAP policy. Rev-A-Shelf had never established an IMAP program and were starting to get pressure from their merchants to reduce their wholesale prices to deal with sellers racing to the bottom or else they would be forced to stop carrying Rev-A-Shelf products.

MAPP Trap created an extensive market assessment, then developed, implemented and administered strategies (including MAP and Authorized Reseller Policies) to meet the following objectives:

Within twelve months, the results were impressive:

Build MAP Compliance Into Your Brand Strategy

Creating a MAP pricing policy is only part of the equation. Enforcing that policy—and doing so consistently—is what protects your margins and brand integrity over time.

Monitoring tools like MAPP Trap give brands real-time visibility into who’s violating the policy, where the violations are happening, and how often. Without this level of insight, it's almost impossible to act with confidence. A well-structured MAP pricing policy, paired with reliable enforcement tools and legal oversight, helps brands grow without sacrificing value or trust.