Overview

Amazon enforces strict rules around what sellers can and cannot include in their product images. Any form of badging — stamps, logos, overlaid text, or graphics designed to influence buyer perception — is prohibited in product listings. Sellers who violate these image policies risk enforcement actions, listing suppression, and potential account-level consequences.

Key Points / What Sellers Need to Know

• No badging of any kind — Text, stamps, logos, or graphics overlaid on product images are not permitted, including claims about features, quantity, shipping, or regulatory approval.
• Amazon trademark infringement — Any imagery that mimics Amazon's branding, including the smile logo, Prime badge, or Amazon's Choice trapezoid, is treated as trademark infringement and a listing defect.
• Modified Amazon branding is still prohibited — Even altering the colors, fonts, or text of Amazon-branded elements like the trapezoid badge does not make them compliant. These are still flagged as defects.
• Specific banned text strings exist — Amazon maintains a list of dozens of prohibited words and phrases that cannot appear in product images, either as text overlays or within graphics.
• Enforcement is active — Selling partners who add prohibited content to their images face enforcement actions beyond simple listing removal.

What Counts as Prohibited Badging

Badging refers to any text or graphic element placed over a product image that attempts to manipulate how customers perceive the product's value, quality, or standing. This covers a wide range of additions that sellers sometimes use to make their listings stand out. Common violations include stamps of approval, logos suggesting endorsements, text highlighting product features or pack quantities, shipping-related promises, copyright notices, email addresses, and watermarks. Amazon treats all of these as defects that must be removed for the listing to remain active.

Amazon Branding and Trademark Restrictions

One of the most serious violations involves mimicking Amazon's own branding in product images. This includes recreating or imitating the Amazon logo, the Amazon's Choice trapezoid, Prime badging, or the pack quantity sticker format that Amazon uses on its own product pages. Even modified versions of these elements — with different colors, altered fonts, or changed wording — are considered trademark infringement. Sellers should be aware that Amazon actively scans for these violations, and listings containing them will be flagged as defective. This policy extends to any use of Amazon banners, branded text, or trademarked visual elements within product photography.