I have been an Amazon seller for 8 years, selling vinyl stickers, which I design and make myself. I am a sole trader. I applied and was accepted to sell under Amazon Handmade just over 6 years ago, and was doing so very happily until two weeks ago, when suddenly I was apparently no longer eligible – this command came from Amazon Italy, which is bizarre, as I had stopped selling via Amazon Italy several months ago. Immediately, all of my listings, across all marketplaces were made ‘Inactive’. There was no performance notification of this warning on my Amazon UK selling account, which is my primary marketplace

I appealed the decision, but it was denied, so I attempted to move on and re-start adding my products under normal Amazon. As I design, and manufacture all of my products to order myself, I applied for a GTIN exemption under my brand, which was denied as my products/packaging do not have the branding permanently attached to them. I was advised by seller support to use the brand as Generic, but apparently this is not eligible for a GTIN exemption – please find screenshot attached.

So I purchased EAN Barcode numbers from GS1 (please find attached my GS1 certificate), as I understand that this is the accepted company to use for Amazon. I waited the required 72 hours, and tried to add a product, using my acquired EAN numbers with the brand Generic, and I got this error message ‘You are using UPCs, EANs, ISBNs, ASINs or JAN codes which do not match the products you are trying to list. If you believe you have reached this message in error, please contact Seller Support’ – please see screenshot attached

So I did. I have contacted Seller Support more than several times over the past 10 days, and I get the same response (or very similar) every time. They don’t seem to know what is going wrong, nor are able to offer any advice as to how to resolve this problem. Their latest answer literally does not make sense at all, nor does it have anything to do with the issue that I contacted them about, which was why I am not able to add a product using the EAN numbers that I have legitimately purchased. I had already accepted that I need to use the brand Generic (unbranded), but even this is not being accepted when I try to add a product. Here is their response under case ID 7958957002:

‘I understand that you have contacted us with regard to Brand Qualification Application for "Generic" and that you were still not able to use it. I certainly understand that this is important to be solved.

We regret for the inconvenience caused to you but rest assured I will surely look in to your issue.

Our Internal team have completed the investigation.

Below are the results: I am sorry to inform you that the images of the product and/or packaging are not real-world (ex. images are computer generated, marketing quality, or digitally altered).

Additionally, we believe these products to be generic because other Brand strings have provided the same product and or packaging images. The branding or other identifying mark that appears on the product or its packaging must be distinguishable from similar products that do not belong to that brand.

You can still list the ASIN you were trying to create, but it will need to use either the brand name "Generic" or brand name already approved for use.

In case you plan to list your products under "Generic"; and do not have a barcode or GTIN for your items then you will need to apply for GTIN Exemption approval for the brand name "Generic". Once you receive the required approval, you can proceed with listing products under the brand name "Generic".

We do wish we were able to meet your request and I understand that this is not the resolution you were hoping. We appreciate your understanding and cooperation in this matter. Thank you for selling with Amazon.

I am no longer looking for brand approval, I just want to be able to list my products using the EAN numbers that I have now had to pay for. I am increasingly frustrated by this situation. I have followed every instruction that Amazon & Seller Support have advised, and am getting nowhere. If anything, I am going in circles.