Amazon’s Guidelines for UPC and GTIN

Many categories have specific UPC and GTIN Guidelines that sellers are required to follow when creating product pages. These include requirements for products sold as bundles and requirements for products sold as packs.

•    UPC requirements may vary across categories or for different types of products in the same category. Certain categories may allow sellers to request UPC exemptions.

•    Sellers must use the correct product identifier for the item they are listing. The use of false product identification information, including UPC codes, is prohibited.

If Amazon identifies a conflict with your UPCs, their Amazon UPC barcode policy dictates your account will be suspended until correctly identified UPCs are obtained and entered.

There are thousands of current Amazon sellers who are using and have listed incorrect UPCs on Amazon and have now had their accounts temporarily suspended. Unfortunately, all customer reviews are removed so the goodwill these sellers have created will have to be rebuilt.

To fix the ASIN’s, an authorization letter must be submitted or a licensing agreement under the CONTACT US option on the Amazon website that meets the requirements below:

1. Includes the name and address of the brand's rights owner.

2. Legible: it is not too blurry and not too light or dark.

3. Includes the manufacturer's name and contact information.

4. Includes the seller’s legal business name or the seller name that corresponds to your Account information page in Seller Central.

5. Includes the seller’s physical address.

6. Must be in English.

7. Includes a GS1 certificate.
   Note: It is recommended that you obtain your GTINs directly from GS1 (and not from other third parties selling GTIN licenses) to ensure that the appropriate information is reflected in the GS1 database. For more information on licensing EANs or UPCs from GS1, refer to the GS1 website.
   
   

Troubleshooting missing or mismatched product IDs

1. If your product matches the wrong product on Amazon, see Correct an error on a product detail page.

2. If you need to request a product ID, see the Obtain a product ID section above for more information.

3. If your product doesn't have a product ID, you can do one of the following:

   1. Apply for an exemption. For more information, see How to list products that do not have a Product ID (UPC, EAN, JAN, or ISBN).

   2. Register your brand through Amazon Brand Registry. For more information, see What is the Amazon Brand Registry?

4. If your product is not in the Amazon catalog, you can create a new product listing starting with the Product Classifier tool.

Still doubting if you will be successful at selling on Amazon. Check out our case study here.