EU AI Act — marking is the provider's duty
Article 50(2) of the EU AI Act applies from 2 August 2026: “Providers of AI systems … generating synthetic audio, image, video or text content, shall ensure that the outputs of the AI system are marked in a machine-readable format and detectable as artificially generated or manipulated.”
The obligation sits with the provider of the AI system — the tool that generates the image. A seller who uses such a tool should keep that marking intact.
Google Merchant Center — IPTC metadata, kept in the file
Google requires that all images created using generative AI contain metadata indicating that they are AI-generated, using the IPTC DigitalSourceType tag — for example TrainedAlgorithmicMedia or CompositeSynthetic.
Google also asks sellers not to remove embedded metadata such as the IPTC DigitalSourceType property. AI-generated images are accepted in image_link, additional_image_link and lifestyle_image_link.
Amazon — a keyword for AI-generated people
On 23 July 2026 Amazon told sellers to tag images and videos that show photorealistic, AI-generated people with the keyword contains-synthetic-performer in the file's embedded metadata, added with an IPTC-compatible editor. Real people, including AI-edited photos of real people, are excluded.
The trigger is New York General Business Law section 396-b, in effect since 9 June 2026, which requires disclosure of photorealistic AI-generated people in advertising and sets civil penalties of $1,000 for a first violation and $5,000 for subsequent ones.
Zalando — invisible marking, no visible labels
Zalando does not allow visible labels on images and strongly recommends invisible marking of all AI-generated content by December 2026.
Its guidelines also list distortions that are not acceptable: an inaccurate representation of the product, implausible settings and an inconsistent model appearance.
Checklist
- Keep the metadata: re-saving an image in an editor or a resizer can drop the AI marker that Google asks sellers not to remove.
- For Amazon, images that show photorealistic AI-generated people need the contains-synthetic-performer keyword in their metadata.
- For Zalando, use invisible marking and no visible label on the picture.
- Everywhere: the product in the image must match the product that ships.
Sources
- EU AI Act, Article 50
- Google Merchant Center Help — AI-generated images
- eWeek — Amazon requires sellers to disclose AI-generated people
- CNBC — Amazon makes sellers label AI-generated people
- Zalando Partner University — Image guidelines
Checked 24 September 2026. Rules change; the official pages are the final reference.