A withheld penalty in your report, reviews that vanished, impressions that collapsed — once Wildberries has detected buyouts, a seller has a short window to keep a financial penalty from turning into a ban. This guide is an action plan for the first 48 hours and for the recovery period that follows.
The penalties themselves and their size are covered in a separate guide on fines for buyouts. This one is about what to do once it has already happened.
How to Tell That WB Has Caught You
The signals arrive in this order, sometimes one at a time:
- reviews disappeared — the algorithm wiped the ratings it judged to be faked, and your rating was recalculated downward;
- a deduction in your financial report — a penalty stating the violation and the period it covers;
- impressions collapse with no notice — the product card has fallen under a shadow ban: rankings drop and advertising gets more expensive;
- the product card or the item is restricted — this is already an escalation, and it is broken down in the guide on what gets you banned on WB.
The First 48 Hours: What to Do
- Stop all buyouts immediately. Continuing activity after the first penalty is the main trigger that escalates money into bans.
- Record the evidence. A screenshot of the deduction with its wording and period, the trend in impressions and rankings, and a list of the reviews that disappeared. This is the basis for both a dispute and an audit.
- Ask your buyout service for receipts and shipment IDs (SRIDs) for every operation. If the contractor cannot show them, you were paying for an imitation, and some of those buyouts may never have existed at all. How to pick a service that will survive such a request is covered in the guide on buyout services.
- Decide whether to dispute it. You have 30 calendar days to file. You only have a chance where real sales were caught by the penalty: a wholesale order from a single buyer, or a regional wave after an ad campaign. The procedure is in the guide on disputing penalties.
- Check the product card for a shadow ban following the instructions in the dedicated guide — a penalty often comes bundled with throttled impressions.
What Not to Do
- Do not keep buying to compensate for the drop. Every new wave after a penalty reads as a repeat offense.
- Do not open a second seller account. WB links accounts by bank details, tax ID, addresses, and devices; a new account with the same products inherits the suspicion, while the old one picks up another flag.
- Do not dispute without evidence. An emotional appeal along the lines of we did not do anything, filed while the platform holds a pattern of operations, only cements the rejection.
- Do not overhaul the product card in the heat of the moment. Moving the item to a new card loses the signals it has accumulated and does not clear the flag on the account.
Recovery After a Penalty
A realistic horizon is weeks, not days:
- Rating — rebuild it with legal tools: reviews for points, work on genuine first reviews, and fast replies to negative feedback.
- Impressions — build them back with honest behavioral signals: advertising with ad spend share (DRR) under control, work on product card conversion, and participation in promotions.
- Buyouts — if you go back to them, do it only with a proper methodology, a plateau schedule, and lifelike behavior (see the pillar guide); a second penalty almost always means bans.
FAQ
"Wildberries detected buyouts — will my account be banned?" A first offense almost always ends in a fine and a review purge, not a ban. The account is at risk on repeat violations after that first penalty — which is why the main rule is to stop buyouts immediately.
"Will the fine be refunded?" Only through a dispute filed within 30 days, and only if real sales were caught by the penalty. WB practically never reverses fake activity with a recognized pattern.
"How long does a shadow ban last after a fine?" There is no fixed term: impressions come back as the product card rebuilds its behavioral signals. In practice you are counting in weeks.
"Can I just open a new seller account?" Risky: WB links accounts by bank details, tax ID, and devices. A new account with the same product range inherits the flag, and trying to get around a ban is a separate breach of the platform agreement.
"The buyout service promised safety — can I recover the fine from them?" Realistically, no: the contract with WB is signed by you, not by the service. The most you can do is refuse to pay for the rest of the package. Demand receipts and SRIDs before the work starts, not after the penalty lands.
