You can buy and sell just about anything on Amazon, right? Well, actually, there are still a few products that can’t be traded on the Amazon platform. In recent years, the attitudes people have regarding CBD and other cannabis-derived products have changed completely. The legality of the products has also changed across much of the U.S., but that doesn’t mean you can sell CBD products on the Amazon platform.
In this guide, we explore the restrictions, alternatives, and the reasons why the sale of CBD is currently prohibited. We also look at the prospects for the future, and alternatives where you can sell your CBD oil and other products.
- CBD has grown in popularity in recent years as people have woken up to all of its benefits.
- CBD is the term used to shorten cannabidiol, one of the compounds found in cannabis plants. It does not get you high, and only contains THC in small amounts. THC is the active ingredient that causes a feeling of euphoria when you consume it, and the trace amounts in CBD tend to be tiny.
- CBD has loads of other benefits. It is a powerful anti-inflammatory and has been used to treat everything from depression to Parkinson’s Disease. While you can buy it from cannabis dispensaries, you can also pick it up in many health stores.
Within Amazon Seller Central, CBD products are explicitly banned from sale.
“Listings for products containing cannabidiol (CBD) are prohibited, including but not limited to:
In fact, these terms and conditions are listed under the “drugs & drug paraphernalia” page.
You can walk down the street in many parts of America and find stores selling CBD oils, edibles, and loads of other products, so why can’t you buy and sell on Amazon?
As Amazon operates across the States, it is bound by federal law rather than just state law. The company ships its products all over the U.S. and this means that they have to comply with federal rulings. Under federal law, CBD, and anything else that is cannabis-derived, is a controlled substance.
CBD oil can be sourced from hemp, a cousin of the marijuana plant, but this still puts Amazon on dodgy ground. There is only one FDA-approved CBD product on the market, and it would be a huge risk for Amazon to stock others. On top of this, to classify as CBD rather than cannabis, it has to have less than 0.3% THC. Without lab testing all suppliers, Amazon can’t verify this for every product sold.
For now, they’ve deemed that the risk is too high.
If you perform a search on Amazon looking for CBD products such as CBD oil, you will likely find that the results you get are hemp oils. At a glance, you might even think they are the same thing, but this is not the case.
It is allowed for sellers to provide hemp oil on Amazon and sell through their Seller Central account. It is not the same as CBD, even though it comes from the same plant family.
Hemp oil comes from the seeds. There is no THC at all, so no risk of getting high. It also contains virtually no CBD, though there may be some in trace amounts.
It’s still good for you. Hemp seed oil has fatty acids, and natural antioxidants, as well as vitamins B and D in abundance. It can be used to treat some ailments, but doesn’t have the exact same effects as CBD.
According to Medical News Today, benefits can include improving the quality of your skin, treating constipation and even boosting your cardiovascular health.
If you want to sell hemp oil or hemp seed oil, there is certainly a market there, but it hasn’t grown in the same way as CBD in recent years.
Nobody can predict exactly what is going to happen in the future. It might be the case that Amazon decides it wants nothing to do with the CBD market. However, we don’t think this is likely.
In the UK in early 2021, Amazon started a pilot scheme where they worked with specific invited suppliers to stock CBD products.
Amazon is quiet about its exact plans in the United States. However, the fact that they chose to dip their toe into the UK market shows that it is at least in their thoughts. A federal law change, or a change in the FDA’s stance could be the catalyst for people to start to sell CBD products on Amazon.
If the sale of CBD is allowed under your state law, you may still wish to move forward and sell the products. It is down to you to check local state regulations, and some states will still class this as a cannabis product, requiring you to provide documentation or even have a license to sell. Importing can be a little bit tricky.
If you do wish to move forward and sell CBD, options include:
It can be frustrating not to be able to sell such a fast-growing product on the world’s biggest platform, but there are still options out there for you, and places you can sell CBD oil. Alternatively, products like hemp oil can be sold on Amazon, and this may provide a simpler route to market for some sellers. Ultimately, the local laws and constantly-changing regulation mean that selling CBD has plenty of challenges.
