If the Premium A+ '5 Approved Projects' Threshold Returns, Is It Counted Per Brand or Per Seller Account?

The question

If Amazon's "5 approved A+ projects" Premium A+ eligibility threshold returns, is the count strictly per-Brand-Registry-brand or per-Seller-account — would a multi-brand RDCO Seller account pool approvals? Context: KDP A+ / MAC info-product edge case; this is the load-bearing open follow-up #3 flagged in the [[2026-06-25-kdp-a-plus-premium-tally-brand-registry-carryover]] brief.

What we already know (from the vault)

• Per [[2026-06-25-kdp-a-plus-premium-tally-brand-registry-carryover]], two independent 2026 sources report Amazon removed both the 5-approvals and Brand Story thresholds (~May-June 2026), opening Premium A+ to any Seller Central Brand Owner by default — so this question is presently hypothetical/conditional ("if the threshold returns"). That brief explicitly raised this per-brand-vs-per-account question as its open follow-up.
• Per [[2026-06-19-kdp-premium-a-plus-eligibility]], Premium A+ is hard-gated on Brand Registry; the "5 approved A+ projects in 12 months" requirement was conjunctive (Brand Registry AND catalog-wide Brand Story AND 5 approvals), and the qualifying approvals had to sit on "brand-owned listings" — structurally downstream of Brand Registry, with no path to bank approvals before enrollment.
• Per [[2026-06-15-kdp-brand-registry-a-plus-content-squarely]], KDP self-publishing A+ is a separate program surface from Seller Central A+; Premium "is not part of a standard KDP author account" at all. The Premium tally lives entirely in the Brand-Registry/Seller-Central world.
• Per [[2026-06-13-squarely-uspto-trademark-filing-strategy]], each Brand Registry enrollment requires a registered (or IP-Accelerator-pending) trademark — so "another brand" is not free; it costs a separate trademark + enrollment.

What the web says

• Every source describes Premium A+ eligibility in brand-scoped language, never account-scoped: "Brand Story module published on all of your brand-owned product listings" and "five approved A+ Content modules in the last 12 months," with a banner appearing "in your A+ Content Manager" once "your brand is enrolled and eligible" (Amazon Seller Forums — Premium A+ eligibility update).
• A single Seller Central account can hold multiple brands, but A+ tooling is tied to each brand's own Brand Registry enrollment: "It is your choice if you want to have all your brands in 1 Seller Central account... A+ Content eligibility is scoped per Brand Registry enrollment... each brand needs its own brand registry enrollment to access A+ Content tools" (Amazon Seller Forums / Brand Registry roles synthesis).
• Amazon's Brand Registry "selling role" model is per-brand: a role "defines the relationship of a seller with a brand" and "unlocks eligibility for tools and programs" — A+ Content is listed as a per-brand Brand Registry benefit, not an account-wide one (Sell on Amazon — Brand Registry roles).
• The Amalytix 2026 guide restates the requirement as "at least five approved A+ contents within the last 12 months" plus a Brand Story "on all brand-owned listings," but does not explicitly address cross-brand pooling within one account — the per-brand reading is inferred from the brand-owned framing, not a quoted pooling rule (Amalytix 2026). Secondary/practitioner source — flagged as non-canonical.
• Current-state check: multiple 2026 practitioner sources report Premium A+ is now enabled by default for Brand Registered sellers, with the old threshold "appear[ing] to remove much of that friction" — but note "no official statement confirms the threshold's formal elimination" (ecomranker 2026). Secondary source.

Convergences and contradictions

• Strong convergence, no contradiction: every source — official Amazon Seller forum, Brand Registry roles page, and 2026 third-party guides — frames A+ eligibility and the approval count in per-brand / per-brand-owned-ASIN terms, and confirms A+ tooling attaches to each brand's own Brand Registry enrollment. Nothing describes account-level pooling.
• The one gap: Amazon does not publish an explicit "the count is per brand, not per account" sentence. The per-brand answer is a strong architectural inference (eligibility banner + Brand Story + approvals all scoped to "your brand"), not a directly-quoted rule.
• Consistent with the vault: matches the [[2026-06-19-kdp-premium-a-plus-eligibility]] finding that qualifying approvals must sit on brand-owned listings — which are, by definition, scoped to one Brand Registry brand.

Synthesis for RDCO

Best-evidence answer: the count is per-Brand-Registry-brand, not per-Seller-account. A multi-brand single-Seller-account structure would FRAGMENT approvals, not pool them. If the "5 approved A+ projects" threshold ever returns, each Brand Registry brand under an RDCO Seller account would carry its own independent approval count and its own Brand Story requirement, starting from zero. Running three brands under one account would mean three separate clocks, not one shared pool — the opposite of acceleration. This follows directly from how Amazon scopes A+: the eligibility banner, the Brand Story requirement, and the approved-modules count are all phrased against "your brand-owned listings," and A+ Content Manager access itself is unlocked per Brand Registry enrollment (each brand needs its own). There is no account-level aggregation surface in Amazon's model for A+ eligibility.

Important framing caveat: this is currently a hypothetical. As of ~May-June 2026 the threshold appears to have been removed and Premium A+ opened by default to Brand Owners (per [[2026-06-25-kdp-a-plus-premium-tally-brand-registry-carryover]]). So today the fastest path to Premium A+ for any RDCO brand is simply Brand Registry enrollment (which still requires a registered trademark), with no approval count to grind. The per-brand-vs-per-account question only bites if Amazon reinstates the threshold — which it has precedent for doing quietly. Because the answer is inferred rather than officially documented, treat "per-brand" as the working assumption and verify live if it ever becomes load-bearing (see below).

What RDCO's brand/account structure should be to reach Premium A+ fastest: the account topology (one Seller account vs several) is not the lever — brand consolidation is. If a returned threshold matters, concentrate A+ approval activity under one Brand Registry brand rather than spreading a handful of approvals thin across several brands that each independently need to clear the bar. For the MAC info-product bet specifically, this argues for a single umbrella brand carrying the info-product line (so all A+ approvals accrue to one enrollment and clear the count once) rather than a proliferation of micro-brands each starting its own count from zero and each needing its own trademark + Brand Registry enrollment (a real, non-trivial cost per [[2026-06-13-squarely-uspto-trademark-filing-strategy]]). Multiple brands under one Seller account buys operational tidiness, not eligibility economies of scale. Net: put the Seller-account decision on operational grounds, and make the brand decision (consolidate vs proliferate) the one that follows Premium-A+ sequencing.

Open follow-ups

• Verify the per-brand scoping live if the threshold returns: in a Seller account holding 2+ Brand Registry brands, does A+ Content Manager show a separate eligibility state per brand (expected: yes)? This is the definitive test and only observable inside a real multi-brand account.
• Confirm whether Amazon's ~May-June 2026 threshold removal is durable and global (US + book/self-publishing surfaces), or a reversible Seller-Central-only change — the carry-forward and per-brand questions only matter if the count comes back.
• If the new default-access "quality score" (flagged in the parent brief) acts as a soft per-brand gate, does a brand with zero A+ history start disadvantaged — reintroducing a reason to build a per-brand A+ track record even without a hard count?
• Does the MAC info-product line's intended brand architecture (one umbrella imprint vs per-title/per-vertical brands) already exist as a decision, and does it need updating in light of the "consolidate approvals under one brand" implication?

Related

• [[2026-06-25-kdp-a-plus-premium-tally-brand-registry-carryover]] — the parent brief; this question was its open follow-up #3 (per-brand vs per-account pooling)
• [[2026-06-19-kdp-premium-a-plus-eligibility]] — established Premium A+ is hard-gated on Brand Registry and the count sits on brand-owned listings
• [[2026-06-15-kdp-brand-registry-a-plus-content-squarely]] — KDP author A+ is a separate surface from the Seller Central / Brand Registry A+ world the count lives in
• [[2026-06-13-squarely-uspto-trademark-filing-strategy]] — each Brand Registry brand costs its own trademark + enrollment, so "another brand" is not free
• [[2026-06-27-kdp-a-plus-content-brand-registry-squarely]] — pending-vs-registered trademark mechanics for the day Brand Registry / Premium A+ actually matters

Sources

• Vault: ~/rdco-vault/06-reference/research/2026-06-25-kdp-a-plus-premium-tally-brand-registry-carryover.md
• Vault: ~/rdco-vault/06-reference/research/2026-06-19-kdp-premium-a-plus-eligibility.md
• Vault: ~/rdco-vault/06-reference/research/2026-06-15-kdp-brand-registry-a-plus-content-squarely.md
• Vault: ~/rdco-vault/06-reference/research/2026-06-13-squarely-uspto-trademark-filing-strategy.md
• Vault: ~/rdco-vault/06-reference/research/2026-06-27-kdp-a-plus-content-brand-registry-squarely.md
• Amazon Seller Forums — Update to Premium A+ Content eligibility requirements (official, brand-scoped language): https://sellercentral.amazon.com/seller-forums/discussions/t/301e6741-8ef5-485f-8829-a14c55647f9c
• Sell on Amazon — What are Brand Registry roles? (per-brand selling roles / A+ as per-brand benefit): https://sell.amazon.com/blog/brand-registry-roles
• Amalytix — Amazon A+ Content Guide 2026 (Basic, Premium, Requirements): https://www.amalytix.com/en/knowledge/marketing/amazon-aplus-content/
• ecomranker — Amazon Premium A+ Content Enabled by Default (current-state, secondary): https://ecomranker.com/amazon-premium-a-plus-content-enabled-by-default/