Starting in 2026, Amazon will require Brand Registry enrollment to use UPC codes. Resellers and unauthorized sellers must switch to Amazon-generated barcodes instead, eliminating inventory commingling and protecting private-label brands from hijackers listing under the same UPC.
All right, so finally some really good news for private label sellers and some terrible news for resellers. So usually what ends up happening is if you are a brand owner and you use UPC codes, the problem with UPC codes before 2026 is that if a reseller or a hijacker wants to sell on your listing, they can use the same UPC code and all the items they ship into Amazon gets commingled. Why is that a big issue for private label sellers? Well, a customer can go ahead and purchase the item. And instead of selling my item, they'll go ahead and ship a reseller's item. And the problem with this is if that person is not authorized to sell your actual product, you could potentially get a very bad review. This is terrible for like hijackers as well. Well, now going into 2026, the only people that can use UPC codes for their actual products or the brand owners with brand registry, which is great news. So if somebody does try and resell your actual products, they have to have their own Amazon barcode now. So now Amazon will know exactly which items are bad.
