Catalog required listings

A marketplace publication is required in the catalog if it is eligible with the tag catalog_listing_eligible and if the catalog product to which it will be associated has the field listing_strategy: catalog_required, in which case Mercado Libre will be able to moderate the publication requesting it to publish in the catalog by optin.
Some domains are allowed to publish products only from the catalog, this means that if the marketplace publication already has its corresponding catalog product associated, the original marketplace publication will be inactivated by Mercado Libre.

Recognize products previously

Before creating products in the catalog, recognize if the product exists and is active. To do this, do a GET to the /products/search resource with the status:active filter and review using the listing_strategy: catalog_required resource whether the product should be published in the catalog. In this case, you can:

• Publish directly to the catalog.
• Make a traditional publication and associate it to a catalog publication (optin).
• Mark a publication or variation (not found in the catalog to associate) avoiding its moderation.
• Call to recognize required products in the catalog where you can use the q, product_identified or parent_product_id to do the exact search:

curl -X GET -H 'Authorization: Bearer $ACCESS_TOKEN' https://api.mercadolibre.com/products/search?status=active&site_id=$SITE_ID&listing_strategy=catalog_required&q={q}

Request example:

curl -X GET -H 'Authorization: Bearer $ACCESS_TOKEN' https://api.mercadolibre.com/products/search?status=active&site_id=MLA&skip_cache=true&listing_strategy=catalog_required&q=Huawei Y6p 64 GB black

Short response example for a required product in the catalog:

{
    "keywords": "Huawei Y6p 64 GB black",
    "paging": {
        "total": 1,
        "limit": 10,
        "offset": 0
    },
    "results": [
        {
            "id": "MLA15996644",
            "status": "active",
            "domain_id": "MLA-CELLPHONES",
            "settings": {
                "listing_strategy": "catalog_required"
            },
            "name": "Huawei Y6p 64 GB  midnight black 3 GB RAM",
            "main_features": [],
            "attributes": [ ...
            ],
            "pictures": [
                ...
            ],
            "parent_id": "MLA15996641",
            "children_ids": []
        }
    ]
}

For new domains where publications are required in the catalog, we have implemented a way to recognize the list of all marketplace publications that must be published in the catalog before being moderated and thus avoid problems with the seller.
To identify them use the GET items/search feature filtering by the catalog_forewarning tag once identified, we recommend associating each publication with a catalog product (make optin) and avoid penalties.
Request:

curl -X GET -H 'Authorization: Bearer $ACCESS_TOKEN' https://api.mercadolibre.com/users/$USER_ID/items/search?tags=catalog_forewarning

Example:

curl -X GET -H 'Authorization: Bearer $ACCESS_TOKEN' https://api.mercadolibre.com/users/123456/items/search?tags=catalog_forewarning

Short response:

{
    "seller_id": "123456",
    "query": null,
    "paging": {
        "limit": 50,
        "offset": 0,
        "total": 15
    },
    "results": [
        "MLA887478882",
        "MLA830583442",
        "MLA830570458",
        "MLA835548382",
        "MLA835731852",
        "MLA837273858",
        "MLA833333835",
        "MLA833333341",
        "MLA700204505",
        "MLA703848375",
        "MLA703848388",
        "MLA708343730",
        "MLA703234381",
        "MLA712487522",
        "MLA712883748"
    ],
    "orders": [
      ...
    ],
    "available_orders": [...]
}

These marketplace publications will have an associated deadline date to be associated with a catalog product, after this date, if the seller has not made the optin (create the publication in the catalog), the process will be executed that will remove the catalog_forewarning tag and the publication will be moderated by the OP_OBEY filter, check this deadline date using the /catalog_forewarning/date resource.




Request:

curl -X GET -H 'Authorization: Bearer $ACCESS_TOKEN' https://api.mercadolibre.com/items/$ITEM_ID/catalog_forewarning/date

Example:

curl -X GET -H 'Authorization: Bearer $ACCESS_TOKEN' https://api.mercadolibre.com/items/MLA830570458/catalog_forewarning/date

Publication response with associate date:

{
   "status":"date_defined",
   "moderation_date":"2020-08-20T13:00:00Z"
}

Publication response that does not have the catalog_forewarning tag:

{
   "status":"date_not_defined",
   "moderation_date": null
}

Publication response with an expired date:

{
   "status":"date_expired",
   "moderation_date":"2020-06-10T13:00:00Z"
}

Exclusive catalog sales domains

Note:
This resource is not available in MPE or MEC. It is also not available in Mercado Shops all sites.



Some domains are catalog-exclusive, meaning that it can only be published and sold in the catalog product pages and not in the marketplace, so when you optin to a complete marketplace publication (all variations of the publication have their corresponding association to a catalog product), the marketplace publication is moderated with status: under_review and you can only sell and manage it through the catalog.
For a marketplace publication created on some catalog-only selling domain, you can recognize that it has been moderated using the catalog_only_restricted tag.

    "status": "under_review",
   "sub_status": [
       "forbidden"
   ],
   "tags": [
       "catalog_only_restricted",
       "poor_quality_picture",
       "test_item",
       "immediate_payment",
       "cart_eligible"
   ],

Please consider that:

• Marketplace publications with multiple variations are inactivated only after the complete optin of all catalog variations. If not it will remain active.
• The exclusive sales domain flow will only be available for new publications and when opting in, marketplace publications that are already in the domains will not be affected.

Moderations

Note:
- This resource is not available in MEP or MEC, as publications are not moderated.
- For other countries, it is available in the Marketplace and MShops channels, where for MShops exclusive selling domains are not yet available.

Recognize if a publication was moderated (paused) for not associating it in time with a catalog product by validating its reason (cause) and remedy (actionable). Remember, any change that alters the quality of the post may cause the moderation.

Request:

curl -X GET -H 'Authorization: Bearer $ACCESS_TOKEN' https://api.mercadolibre.com/moderations/infractions/$USER_ID

Example:

curl -X GET -H 'Authorization: Bearer $ACCESS_TOKEN' https://api.mercadolibre.com/moderations/infractions/1234567

Response to a moderate marketplace publication that does not belong to an exclusive catalog sales domain:

{
   "infractions": [
       {
           "id": "594794188",
           "date_created": "2020-10-28T01:43:32.414-0400",
           "user_id": "1234567",
           "related_item_id": "MLA1692147078",
           "element_id": "MLA1692147078",
           "element_type": "ITM",
           "site_id": "MLA",
           "reason": "La pausamos porque no ofreces el producto también en catálogo.",
           "remedy": "Publica tu producto en catálogo para seguir vendiéndolo. Cuando lo hagas, tu publicación original se reactivará automáticamente."
       }
   ],
   "paging": {
       "offset": 0,
       "limit": 2,
       "total": 20671
   },
   "sorting_type": "date_created_desc"
}

To reactivate your publication you must associate to the catalog (make optin) or mark the publication/variation to mention that you did not find a product to associate.
Response for a moderated marketplace publication that belongs to an exclusive sales domain, this product cannot be reactivated again:

{
   "infractions": [
       {
           "id": "943314941",
           "date_created": "2022-05-23T16:52:14.387-0400",
           "user_id": "1005109061",
           "related_item_id": "MLA1138520248",
           "element_id": "MLA1138520248",
           "element_type": "ITM",
           "site_id": "MLA",
           "filter_subgroup": "AP",
           "reason": "La anulamos porque este producto solo puedes venderlo con tu publicación de catálogo.",
           "remedy": "La anulamos porque este producto solo puedes venderlo con tu publicación de catálogo."
       }
   ],
   "paging": {
       "offset": 0,
       "limit": 20,
       "total": 2
   },
   "sorting_type": "date_created_desc"
}

Notice tag for testing

To test the notice resource in required catalog domains, the publication:

• Must be eligible in the catalog in an active product.
• Cannot be from a catalog product that already belongs to a required domain. If not, when publishing, the item will be moderated.

Once these requirements have been met, upload the data to the form for inclusion of the catalog_forewarning tag.

Next: Catalog competition.