Is this retailer authorized? Ask the brand.

Free for brands, and no team required: one person who knows your distribution can run it. authorized-retailers.json is an open format, and registering, verifying your domain and publishing your list cost nothing. Every brand sees its agent activity during early access; a summary stays free, and the deeper analytics will be part of a paid plan later, with plenty of notice. Seller detection, a search for sellers carrying your brand, is coming soon.

Only the brand, once it has verified that it controls its domain and we have approved it. Sellers can request authorization, but nothing counts until you approve it. The registry signs your list, but it never changes it on its own, and every change is logged.

Add one DNS TXT record. It works on every site platform, including Shopify, Wix and Squarespace. We check automatically and email you when it's found. Once you're verified, you can also publish an optional pointer file at /.well-known/authorized-retailers.json. It holds your brand name and domain, a verification token and your list's URL, and no authorization data, so you set it once and leave it. The DNS record proves you control the domain. The pointer only helps software find your list.

No. With a private list, agents can check one retailer at a time, but nobody can download the full list.

Yes. Declare a seller unauthorized, a diverter you've found with a test buy, say, and agents are told "unauthorized" for specific products or all of them. Declarations are never published. They are only returned to an agent checking that exact seller. The seller can dispute one. While the dispute is open, agents are told "disputed" and you have 30 days to reconfirm or withdraw it. Reconfirm and agents are told "unauthorized" again at once. Withdraw and the seller is unlisted. If you do neither, the dispute closes after 30 days and the answer goes back to "unauthorized".

Until you revoke it, unless you give it an end date: 30 days for a trial, a year, any date you like. We remind you before an end date arrives, and one confirmation renews every authorization you select.

The retailer drops out of verify answers within a minute. An agent that saved an earlier answer can use it for 15 minutes at most.

Not yet. An authorization names a retailer by an identifier the platform issues and agents can read: a seller ID on Amazon, Walmart and eBay, or a store's own domain on the web. Those platforms show a shop name, and a name isn't something we can verify or an agent can match. When a platform gives each seller a stable identifier agents can read, it can be added as a channel type. Until then, a retailer that also sells on its own site can be listed by that domain.

It doesn't do takedowns or test buys, and it doesn't replace enforcement or supply control. It's the source of truth for who you've authorized: one signed, logged record that your enforcement team, counsel and providers can all work from. It works on the buyer side, so the diverter you found with a test buy can become an "unauthorized" answer for every agent that asks.

Yes. Sign up with your work email and tell us about the agent you're building, and you get a key. Send it as Authorization: Bearer on every verify and resolve call and on the MCP server. A missing or invalid key gets a 401: treat the seller as unconfirmed.

The identifier of the seller actually taking the order: the seller ID on the offer for Amazon, Walmart and eBay, or the store's domain for a web store. Never a display name, because names aren't unique and anyone can type one. The ID is usually in the seller's storefront link even when the page shows only a name, and on eBay the username is the ID. If a platform shows only a name and there is no ID or store domain to be had, that channel isn't supported yet: treat the seller as unconfirmed, never as authorized.

Treat the seller as unconfirmed, never as authorized. The registry only answers for channel types where it can match the identifier you send: a seller ID on Amazon, Walmart and eBay, or a store domain. A platform that shows only a shop name isn't a supported channel yet. New channel types are added in the spec, and the changelog says when.

The brand is registered but hasn't authorized this seller for this scope. It isn't a finding that the seller's goods are counterfeit.

Unlisted means the brand hasn't put the seller on its list. Unauthorized means the brand has declared this seller unauthorized. An agent never buys there on its own: only if the shopper confirms, told that the goods may be materially different or counterfeit and that your warranty may not apply.

Every answer is signed. Check the signature against our public keys at /.well-known/jwks.json, and you'll know the answer came from the registry and wasn't changed on the way.

Until its valid_until time, 15 minutes at most. If the verify API is unreachable, you may use an answer you already hold until its stale_until time (24 hours), marked as stale, but only after checking it against a signed revocation feed issued after the answer. An answer is never usable as authorized past the authorization's own end date, its expires, even if valid_until is later. Otherwise treat the seller as unconfirmed, never as authorized.

No. Send the product's UPC, EAN, Amazon ASIN or Walmart item ID with the seller, and the registry finds the brand from the product lists brands upload. A UPC or EAN works on any channel. An ASIN on its own works only on an Amazon marketplace, and a Walmart item ID only on walmart.com. The answer also says whether the product is in the brand's catalog and whether it's been recalled.

It doesn't count. Only lists signed by the registry do, so a brand that hasn't registered with us is answered brand_not_registered. That stops a look-alike domain from vouching for sellers.