GUIDE · MAP AND PRICE FLOORS
How to monitor resellers against your MAP, and keep proof.
Make a list of every page that sells your product, check those pages on a schedule, compare the advertised price with your floor, and save a record of each violation that shows the page, the price and the time, in a form nobody can quietly edit.
1. Build the page list
Start with each authorized reseller's product page for each item your policy covers, then add the marketplace listings you find by searching your product names and model numbers. Keep one row per URL with the seller's name and your floor for that item. Most of the work in MAP enforcement is keeping this list current.
2. Decide how often to check
Sellers sometimes drop a price for a few hours and then put it back. A weekly or daily look misses those windows; checking every few hours catches more of them. Match the frequency to how often your sellers actually move prices.
3. Compare the advertised price
A MAP policy covers the price a seller advertises, which is what the page displays. Read your own policy for how it treats "add to cart to see price", coupons and bundles, and compare against that rule, not just the number on the page.
4. Record each violation so it holds up
For each violation, keep:
- The page address, and the address it ended up at after any redirects
- The date and time, with time zone
- The advertised price and the seller's name
- A copy of the page itself, not only a screenshot
A screenshot is easy to take, but it is also easy to edit, and nothing in it proves when it was taken. A stronger record adds two things: a fingerprint of the saved page (a SHA-256 hash, which changes if a single character changes) and a timestamp from an outside authority over that fingerprint (the RFC 3161 standard). With both, someone else can check that the record existed at that time and has not changed since.
Doing it by hand
For a handful of pages, a spreadsheet, a calendar reminder and your browser's "Save page as" work. The Internet Archive's Save Page Now creates a public, dated copy on a third party's site, though some stores block it and the copy is visible to anyone. Past a few dozen pages, the checking itself becomes the job.
Limits that apply to any automated checker
A checker sees what the site sends to it. Sites can show different prices by location, device, login or cart contents, so a record shows what that request received, not what every shopper saw. Prices drawn in by JavaScript after the page loads are missed by tools that read only the HTML (FluxProof is one of them; it reads the price a page declares in its HTML or Shopify's public product data). Some large marketplaces block automated requests altogether. This page is general information, not legal advice.
IF YOU WANT IT DONE FOR YOU
How FluxProof does this
You paste your page list and set a price floor per page. FluxProof checks each page on a schedule, flags the page on your dashboard when the advertised price drops below your floor, and saves a proof packet: the exact page as served, its SHA-256 fingerprint, an RFC 3161 timestamp from DigiCert or FreeTSA, and FluxProof's signature over the record. No subscription:
- Evidence Starter: up to 25 pages, each checked every 6 hours, $29 for 30 days, paid once.
- Evidence Pro: up to 150 pages, each checked every hour, plus signed webhooks, $99 for 30 days, paid once.
See the plans and check whether FluxProof can read one of your pages, free, or download a real sample packet.