Minimum Advertised Price(MAP)

MAP (Minimum Advertised Price) is the lowest price a brand permits its retailers to advertise. The retailer can sell the product for any price they want at the register, but advertised promotion below the MAP threshold violates the brand's policy and triggers consequences (typically a warning, then a temporary stop-ship, then a permanent delist).

MAP policies exist to protect retail partners from being undercut by a single rogue seller (often on Amazon) running aggressive discounts that compress everyone's margins. Without MAP enforcement, a single 30%-off ad on a third-party Amazon seller can wreck a brand's pricing across every channel.

The legal mechanism in the US is the Colgate Doctrine: a brand can unilaterally set a MAP policy and refuse to do business with retailers who violate it, without running into antitrust trouble, as long as the brand isn't negotiating the policy with the retailer or with other retailers.

Modern MAP enforcement is done with automated price-monitoring software (Profitero, NetRivals, Trackstreet) that scans every listing across the web every few hours and flags violations.

For founders and growth-stage brands, MAP is one of the first commercial-policy decisions to formalize once distribution reaches multiple chains plus Amazon. Without it, the brand effectively loses control of its own pricing within months.

Roles where this matters: Sales, eCommerce, Trade Marketing, GM.