Marketplaces now require AI-generated imagery of people to be labelled. CatalogX writes that label into the image itself on export — not into a dashboard, not into a field you have to remember to tick — so it survives every hand-off after you.
Two separate regimes now apply to AI-generated product imagery, and they ask for different things. Google's Merchant Center asks that AI-generated or AI-edited imagery carry the IPTC provenance term for trained algorithmic media. Amazon requires images showing photorealistic AI-generated people to be labelled as such, worldwide, with that requirement in force since 23 July 2026 — itself implementing New York General Business Law §396-b, effective 9 June 2026, which carries a $1,000 penalty for a first violation and $5,000 thereafter.
Both are satisfied by one XMP packet written into the image, and CatalogX writes it for you. The IPTC term goes on every image we produce, because it is true of every image we produce. Amazon's keyword is conditional: it is written when the image shows a photorealistic synthetic person, and not written when there is no person in frame or the person is real, because those are the cases Amazon itself exempts.
The reason this is a feature rather than a footnote is that no platform tool does it and hand-editing IPTC fields is not realistic for a seller with a catalogue. Tagging one image by hand is possible. Tagging five thousand is not.
Every exported image carries Iptc4xmpExt:DigitalSourceType set to the IPTC vocabulary term for trained algorithmic media. Unconditional, because it is true of everything we generate.
Images showing a photorealistic AI-generated person additionally carry that keyword in dc:subject, which is the form Amazon's policy asks for. Images with no person, and images of a real person, are exempt and are not tagged.
The packet lives in the image bytes. Move the file into a DAM, email it to a channel partner or upload it to a feed and the disclosure goes with it, because it is not stored anywhere else.
A browser canvas strips all metadata when it produces a file, so tagging only on the server would have covered the API and left the file a seller actually downloads carrying nothing. The packet is therefore spliced in on the client as well. This is the kind of detail that decides whether a compliance feature is real.
The packet round-trips through the export pipeline for JPEG and WEBP, which covers every marketplace preset that matters. PNG exports pass through untouched.
Marketplace export costs no credits and neither does the metadata. Compliance is not a tier.
For a seller with ten listings, disclosure is an afternoon of care. For a label with four thousand SKUs across three marketplaces and a wholesale feed, it is a process problem, and process problems are where penalties come from. The exposure is not that someone decides your images look synthetic; it is that a file moved from your DAM into a partner's feed without the label, six months after the person who knew about the rule left.
Putting the label in the file is the only version of this that survives organisational memory. It is also, usefully, the version that survives your agency: an agency delivering assets to a client's compliance team cannot attach a policy to a ZIP, but it can hand over files that are already labelled.
None of this is a legal opinion, and rules change. What CatalogX guarantees is the mechanical part: the terms above are written, automatically, into every file you export.
| Image | IPTC DigitalSourceType | contains-synthetic-performer |
|---|---|---|
| On-model shot with a generated model | Written | Written |
| Ghost mannequin or flat product shot | Written | Not written — no person in frame |
| Shot using a photo of a real person you uploaded | Written | Not written — Amazon exempts real people |
| Background-removed cutout | Written | Depends on whether a synthetic person is in frame |
| Exported via the API | Written | Written where applicable |
| Downloaded from the app | Written | Written where applicable |
Applies to JPEG and WEBP exports; PNG exports pass through untouched.
Two things, in one XMP packet. Every exported image carries the IPTC DigitalSourceType term for trained algorithmic media. Images showing a photorealistic AI-generated person additionally carry the keyword contains-synthetic-performer in the dc:subject field, which is the form Amazon's policy asks for.
Neither. Marketplace export is free on every plan including the free tier, and the metadata is written as part of it. Compliance is not sold as a tier.
Because Amazon exempts images with no people in them and images of real people. A ghost mannequin shot has no person, and a shot built from a photo of a real person you uploaded is a real person, so neither is tagged. Writing the keyword on everything would be inaccurate, and an inaccurate label is worse than none.
It survives being moved, copied, uploaded and downloaded, because it is inside the file rather than recorded alongside it. It may not survive being re-saved by an editor that strips metadata — which is exactly why we write it as late as possible, on export.
JPEG and WEBP, which covers every marketplace export preset that matters. PNG exports pass through untouched, because PNG stores metadata in a different structure for no practical gain here.
Yes, both. That took two implementations rather than one: a browser canvas strips all metadata when it produces a file, so server-side tagging alone would have covered the API and left the file you actually download carrying nothing.
It is a metadata field, not a visible watermark, and the major marketplaces ask for it. The requirement everywhere is that the image accurately represents the product the buyer receives — which is a separate question, and the one CatalogX is built around.
No. It is a description of what the product writes into your files. Rules differ by jurisdiction and change over time, so treat your own compliance position as yours to confirm — what we guarantee is the mechanical part, that the terms are written automatically into every file you export.
Free on every plan, including the free tier. Open the file in any XMP viewer.