> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.merchantops.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# MAP policies
> Minimum Advertised Price policies as legal/compliance data, with per-organization sharing off by default.
A MAP (Minimum Advertised Price) policy is the legal document a brand issues that
sets the floor a product may be advertised at. In MerchantOps a policy is
compliance data: it is reviewed under a governance workflow, kept separate from
your catalog price records, and — unlike most reference data — **not shared across
organizations by default**. This page is for merchandisers and compliance owners.
For MAP as a price *record*, see [Price records](/pricing/price-records).
## Policies vs. prices
A **MAP policy** is the document for a brand. It contains many **MAP prices** —
one per product identifier — that state the minimum advertised price. Policies
are versioned: when a brand issues a new one and it is approved, it supersedes the
previous active policy for that brand.
Each policy carries a status:
| Status | Meaning |
| ---------------- | ------------------------------------------------------- |
| `pending_review` | Extracted and awaiting a governance decision. |
| `accepted` | Approved and active for the brand. |
| `rejected` | Declined; preserved but filtered out of default views. |
| `superseded` | Replaced by a newer approved policy for the same brand. |
| `archived` | Retired from active use. |
MAP policies are usually ingested from a brand's uploaded file. A per-brand parser
template maps that file's columns and date format so future uploads for the brand
extract consistently.
## Sharing is off by default
MerchantOps is multi-tenant, and most reference data (brands, product knowledge)
is shared across organizations. **MAP policies are the exception.** Because a MAP
policy is a legal agreement between a specific brand and a specific reseller,
sharing it across organizations carries legal and compliance risk. So MAP-policy
sharing is **off by default**: a policy you contribute stays private to your
organization unless sharing is explicitly enabled.
Changing the MAP sharing setting affects **future** contributions only. Policies
already stored keep the sharing decision they were saved with.
## Governance
MAP policies follow a review workflow with roles and organization-scoped rules:
Approving or rejecting a policy requires the MAP approval permission. Approving
a policy supersedes the brand's previously active policy. Rejecting requires a
reason; rejected data is preserved and flagged, and the contributing
organization can fix and resubmit or delete it.
Only policies in `pending_review`, `rejected`, or draft states can be deleted —
an approved (active) policy cannot. Only the organization that contributed a
policy can delete it. Deleting a policy removes its prices but never touches
your products.
Policies can also be archived or deleted in bulk, subject to the same per-policy
rules.
## Detecting changes
When a brand issues a new policy, you can compare it against the brand's currently
active policy to see exactly which prices were added, changed, or removed before
you approve. Once you accept a new policy, run a
[comparison](/pricing/comparison-proposals) to find where your catalog prices now
fall out of line and generate proposals to fix them.
Compare a policy against your catalog and review changes.
MAP as a per-variant price record.