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Despite our best efforts to provide an exceptional customer experience, we cannot guarantee that someone will not illegally and fraudulently duplicate/use the barcode numbers that you legally purchased from Bar Codes Talk.  That said, should you encounter an issue where your numbers have been fraudulently duplicated and used illegally by a third-party bad actor on Amazon, we will work towards making sure you are able to use the barcodes on Amazon. This means we will replace the affected barcodes or offer a refund depending on the percentage of unusable barcodes once we have fully verified that this is the case. While this is strictly an Amazon issue, we understand that our customers expect that their numbers will be immediately usable and cannot be expected to fight an industry giant like Amazon without wasting time and money. Bar Codes Talk will continue to make customers our #1 priority!

Amazon is a private, online P.O.S. (Point of Sale) system & database. Due to this, there are potential issues with any barcode used on their system which only applies to Amazon and not most retailers around the world. Thankfully these issues only apply to a very small percentage of Amazon sellers. As a seller with Amazon you will be required to know what is required of you to work within their rules and specific seller programs.

Disclaimer: This is not an exhaustive list of Amazon’s rules. These are the most common errors & oversights that we are aware of Amazon sellers making.

The responsibility is on the seller to verify with Amazon before purchasing UPC/EAN/GTIN barcodes.

For a more comprehensive list of Amazon error codes and issues, please visit our Amazon Support Page.

1. Books / Audiobooks - If you are selling a book you may be required to have an ISBN. ISBN's are not UPC/EANs, most books already have an ISBN from the author/publisher. More at: www.ISBN.org
    
2. Selling Major Brands - Major brands may have existing contracts or agreements with Amazon to not allow other sellers to list items using their brand name. Example: Nike / Apple / GE / Microsoft etc. If you attempt to list a major brand name in the brand field and then try using your new GTIN with that brand name, it will not work. This is because your barcode (while being valid) is not one of that brand's barcode numbers. Amazon is trying to keep sellers from pretending to be other brands and mislead consumers with fake-branded products.
    
3. Brand Registry - Seller Program - As of mid-March (2018) this Amazon-only seller program newly requires renting/licensing GTIN's directly from GS1 (meaning you cannot buy/own your own GTIN's and use them on Amazon). This very small seller group is forced to rent codes annually from GS1 directly. We believe this is due to Amazon joining GS1’s Management board in 2016. In addition to Amazon requiring that you rent your GTINs from GS1 they also require you to have both copyrights & trademarks on your brand to be a part of this program. For more info on this contact Amazon directly.
    
4. Legacy Brand Registry Sellers - From what we have seen past listings are grandfathered into this program and are not under the new rules, but any new listings will be under their new set of requirements (listed above). Please read the terms that Amazon provides you to assure your listings are not affected by their GTIN policy changes.
    
5. Product Bundles - If you are listing a branded item for sale that does not exist, like a popular brands items in a bundle, and you try and use a major brand's name in the brand field you will be blocked. This is because you are not that brand, nor is your barcode number from that brand. This is normal and is Amazon's rule on the matter. The Amazon approved work-around is to list your company name (or personal brand/DBA) in the brand field and then list the major brand's name in the item description. Example: This way consumers know that they are not buying a Nike bundle, but a "Bob's Shoe Mart" bundle that includes two Nike products. Some sellers do not wish to lose "rankings" by not having the major brand name not be in the brand field, but those are Amazon's specific rules that they coded into their database.

At the end of the day barcodes (UPC/EAN/GTINs) are incredibly simple identification numbers, Amazon's "site/system" however, is not quite as simple. Be aware of this before beginning your Amazon seller experience.

For a more comprehensive list of Amazon error codes and issues, please visit our Amazon Support Page.

If you have any doubts or concerns regarding barcodes that are Amazon related, you are best served contacting us directly at: contactus@barcodestalk.com or by phone at: 1-877-263-1343 option 1.