What happens to my Amazon listings when my GS1 membership expires?
I have many own designed products on Amazon with GS1 EANs. If I let my GS1 subscription lapse what happens to those listings? Does Amazon perform any kind of a check periodically that existing listings have valid EANs?
11 replies
Seller_ZJhFeE3tNKzfh
I don’t think Amazon have ever clarified either way, but in instances where listings were created using the old barcodes bought on eBay system, it often ended up with users eventually trying to list a product and it just listed against the old product.
So if you let your sub lapse, it’s possible that barcode will eventually be reallocated, a new product will then attempt to be listed but knowing Amazon, they’ll simply state the old product is what it should be.
Amazon do need to actually clarify what happens, as I don’t think anyone honestly knows.
Seller_sMKIKBk9V0IKF
I recently cancelled my subscribtion. As part of the cancellation you have to remove all instances of your use of the EAN, including on marketplaces. GS1 will not cancel until you have confirmed they are not in use anywhere. I can't find the e-mail GS1 sent but they do say something about fining you if you carry on using the barcodes after cancelling your subscription.
Any remaining listings I had needed to be closed and I relisted with GTIN exemption.
Seller_fe0Lmlr1fJbCk
I would say that Amazon will do nothing about it.
We have 2000 barcodes registered to us on GS1. Unfortunately at least 75% of these have already been used (without our authorisation) by Chinese sellers. We have in the past tried to get Amazon to remove these listings and they have point blank refused. From our experience there is no communication between GS1 and Amazon
Seller_tRuvBEHDedp4q
Amazon do periodically check the validity of any EANs.
I know this for a fact as one of my suppliers stopped licensing some numbers (they were for products the supplier no longer made but I still had some in stock). Amazon started to remove these listings as they said the EAN was no longer valid.
Its a ridiculous situation and I can see it happening more and more often as suppliers go into liquidation and people buy their remaining stock at a discount but then find they cannot use the EANs on the product as the license has expired. So the only way round the issue is to use your own GS1 codes and assign to the product.
But then what if the supplier has made the product under license from another brand (e.g. the supplier is making goods for say Disney) - it becomes a minefield as the item can no longer be listed under Brand Disney. Amazon may ask for a licensing agreement - but assuming you have a copy from the supplier, you cannot use it as the agreement is for the old supplier and so the new EAN assigned will not match when Amazon looks it up.
Also, I am not sure when Amazon re-checks the validity of the EAN. Obviously it will check on listing creation - but they seem to run periodic checks as well (perhaps when a seller creates a new offer or edits the existing listing). Again I know this from experience as I had been using the same listing for years when suddenly Amazon removed it due to expired EAN.
