Amazon is removing the last route by which customers can be asked to pay for returning most seller-fulfilled orders in the United States. Starting December 18, 2026, every US return on an order shipped by a third-party seller, rather than by Amazon's warehouses, will require a prepaid return shipping label, according to an email the Amazon Services team sent to sellers. The email, seen by PPC Land as a screenshot, carries no visible send date. It sets a seven-calendar-day deadline for each return request and allows Amazon to issue a refund automatically and take the money from the seller's account when the deadline passes.

In Short

Amazon told sellers who ship their own orders that, from December 18, 2026, they must give US customers a free, prepaid label for returns instead of just an address. If a seller does not upload that label or refund the customer within seven days, Amazon can refund the customer itself and charge the seller, without the item ever coming back. Shoppers no longer pay to send most of these items back, and sellers carry that cost and a hard deadline, with heavy and bulky items left out for now.

What the email says

The message is short. It opens with the date and the scope in a single sentence: "Starting December 18, 2026, all US returns for seller-fulfilled orders (excluding heavy and bulky items) will require a prepaid return shipping label."

The second paragraph names what is being retired. "Address-only labels that require customers to pay for return shipping will no longer meet the requirement, except temporarily for heavy and bulky items," the email states. Amazon gives a single reason for the change: "This change allows for a consistent process for your US and international returns and helps improve the customer experience."

Two options are then set out. "To meet the requirement, within seven calendar days of a return request, you must either," according to the email, "Upload a prepaid return shipping label against the return request on the Manage seller-fulfilled returns workflow" or "Issue a full refund without requiring customer to return the item."

The consequence for doing neither follows directly. "If a prepaid return label or returnless refund isn't provided within this timeframe, a returnless refund may be automatically issued and the balance deducted from your selling account."

A note at the bottom closes a channel that some sellers have used to send labels by hand. "Labels shared through Buyer Seller Messaging or other channels outside the Manage Returns workflow don't meet the requirements listed on Upload a prepaid return label," the email reads. It is signed "The Amazon Services team" and links to the Seller Central help page on managing seller-fulfilled returns.

What the email does not contain is equally relevant. It gives no send date, no definition of heavy and bulky, no end date for the temporary carve-out, no statement on who pays for the label when Amazon generates it, and no word on whether an automatic returnless refund can be contested.

The mechanics in plain numbers

Three numbers define the new obligation. The effective date is December 18, 2026. The deadline is seven calendar days, counted from the return request rather than from delivery of the returned item. And the penalty for missing it is the full refund amount, deducted from the selling account, with the customer keeping the product.

That last point carries the financial weight. Under an address-only label, a seller who received nothing back owed nothing beyond a refund once the item arrived. Under the new rule, inaction converts a return into a refund without a return. For a seller of low-cost goods, a returnless refund may be the cheaper outcome anyway, since return postage can approach the item's value. For higher-priced goods, a missed seven-day window means losing both the sale and the stock.

What the Seller Central help page says

PPC Land also reviewed a capture of the US Seller Central help page "Manage seller-fulfilled returns", the page the email links to. The capture was made on October 19, 2026, according to its file metadata. The page itself shows no publication or revision date. It does not mention December 18, 2026, the seven-day window, or the end of address-only labels, so on the day of the capture the help text did not yet describe the change set out in the email.

The page sets the baseline policy. "Amazon's returns policy allows most items to be returned for a refund or replacement within 30 days of the estimated delivery date," according to Amazon, which adds that the window varies by product category.

Several operating rules are listed as "Important points to remember". Amazon "automatically authorizes US return requests that fall within the policy, including seller-fulfilled items that are exempt from prepaid returns for seller-fulfilled orders," the page states. Requests that are out of policy, or that fall in categories exempt from automatic authorization such as some dangerous goods, go to manual authorization, and sellers "must respond to manual authorization requests within 24 hours."

Once a return is authorized, "the buyer has 15 days after the return window closes, allowing for transit time, to return an item," according to the page. Sellers are told to "Issue refunds within two business days of receiving a return." The page warns that "Failure to act may result in Amazon issuing a refund to the buyer on your behalf and charging your account."

On the prepaid program itself, the page is direct. "US sellers are enrolled automatically into prepaid returns for seller-fulfilled orders. We provide buyers with prepaid return shipping labels through our Buy Shipping services," according to Amazon.

Where the email and the help page diverge

Read side by side, the two documents do not line up in at least four places.

International returns: two days or seven

The clearest conflict concerns international returns, meaning those with a non-US return address. The help page states that sellers "are required to provide the buyer with a merchant pre-paid label through the Manage Seller Fulfilled returns page within 2 days of the return request." It also lists two alternatives: "Alternatively, you can provide a returnless refund or a valid US domestic return address through your Seller Central Return settings."

The email gives seven calendar days and frames the change as creating "a consistent process for your US and international returns." It does not say whether the two-day international deadline is being lengthened to seven days, whether it stays at two, or whether the option of supplying a US domestic return address survives. The help page counts the international deadline without specifying business or calendar days. The email specifies calendar days.

Exempt SKUs: optional label or required label

The help page describes an exemption route. "You can request an exemption for certain SKUs," according to the page, and "For exempt SKUs, you can provide a pre-paid label to the buyer through the Manage Seller Fulfilled returns page. We recommend that these seller-paid labels include tracking."

In the help page's wording, a seller-paid label for an exempt SKU is something a seller "can" provide. The email says that from December 18, all US seller-fulfilled returns outside heavy and bulky items "will require" a prepaid label, and address-only labels will no longer meet the requirement. The email does not mention SKU-level exemptions at all. It leaves open whether exemptions granted for other categories still apply, or whether heavy and bulky is the only surviving category. The help page's phrase "We recommend" also sits alongside the email's mandate for a prepaid label with no mention of whether tracking will be required.

Buyer-Seller Messaging

The help page still points sellers to messaging for parts of the returns process. When a buyer sends back the wrong item, it lists "Contact the buyer to clarify the situation" as the first step. When denying an out-of-policy request, it says sellers should "provide a detailed response to the buyer using the Buyer-Seller Messaging Service." The email does not stop sellers from messaging buyers, but it removes messaging as a way to deliver a label that counts. A label sent there will not stop the seven-day clock.

Refund timing and reimbursement

The help page sets out a reimbursement route. Sellers can file a SAFE-T claim "if Amazon issued a refund on your behalf for US domestic returns through refund at first scan, customer service issued, or other automatic refund methods (because you didn't issue the refund within 48 hours of receiving the return)." The page uses "two business days" in one section and "48 hours" in another for refunds after a return is received.

Neither document says whether an automatic returnless refund issued because the seven-day label deadline passed falls under SAFE-T. The help page's reimbursement wording ties eligibility to refunds after receipt of the return, while the new automatic refund is triggered precisely because no return took place. The email is silent on appeals.

Heavy and bulky items

The email names one exception twice. Heavy and bulky items are excluded from the prepaid requirement in the first sentence, and address-only labels remain valid for them "temporarily". Neither document defines the category, gives a weight or dimension threshold, or sets a date when the temporary treatment ends.

That exclusion is not new. When Amazon removed the high-value exemption earlier this year, PPC Land reported that extra-large or heavy items stayed exempt, together with handmade goods, certified pre-owned watches, non-physical items and dangerous goods. The December email names only heavy and bulky items, and labels even that exception as temporary.

From February to December

The December change completes a sequence that began in January. Amazon told US sellers on January 8, 2026, that all seller-fulfilled returns would move into the Amazon Prepaid Return Label program from February 8, 2026, ending the exemption for high-value items. Amazon said then that the refund cycle would fall from 14 days to seven. Sellers objected that labels generated by Amazon carried $100 of insurance, that damage claims against carriers became harder, and that SAFE-T reimbursement had become more limited. Within five days that Seller Central announcement had 36 replies, and some sellers said they would delist higher-risk products.

The February change governed labels that Amazon generates through Buy Shipping. The December email deals with what remained outside it: returns where a seller supplied an address and the customer paid postage. After December 18, outside heavy and bulky goods, a return on a US seller-fulfilled order either travels on a prepaid label uploaded through Seller Central or ends in a refund without a return.

Returns abuse was already a recurring complaint. In October, PPC Land covered a toy seller who said three repeat buyers had returned nearly $3,000 of goods over two years, including one sealed item returned 17 times. That forum thread also noted that returns are not themselves an input to Amazon's Order Defect Rate. A rule that converts missed deadlines into returnless refunds adds a new cost path for sellers facing that kind of buyer behaviour, although it also lets a seller choose a returnless refund deliberately when the item is worth less than the shipping.

Why the timing matters

December 18 falls in the middle of the peak returns period. Under Amazon's extended holiday returns policy last season, purchases made from November 1 to December 31, 2025, could be returned until January 31, 2026, a window PPC Land described in its coverage of seller complaints about returns. If Amazon repeats that policy this year, most holiday-season returns on seller-fulfilled orders would be processed under the new label rule. On the fulfillment side, Amazon's holiday peak fulfillment fees run from October 15, 2026, through January 14, 2027, which applies to sellers using Fulfillment by Amazon rather than to the merchant-fulfilled orders this email covers.

The cost burden for third-party sellers has been rising through 2026. Amazon added a 3.5% fuel and logistics surcharge on FBA fulfillment fees from April 17, 2026, and for a group of advertisers began deducting ad costs from seller proceeds from April 15. The returns change uses the same mechanism as the second of those: money taken from the selling account balance rather than billed separately.

Why it matters for marketers

Merchant-fulfilled sellers are often the ones furthest from Amazon's logistics network, including brands that ship from their own warehouses, sellers of oversized or regulated goods, and international sellers serving US customers. For them, return postage moves from the customer's side of the ledger to the seller's, and a deadline enforced through the Seller Central balance replaces discretion.

For advertisers, the effect lands in unit economics. Return shipping and returnless refunds sit below the line of any advertising cost of sale, and a category with high return rates will see its profit per ad-driven order fall once the seller pays every return label. Teams setting bids on seller-fulfilled products may see that margin shift without any change in advertising metrics. The email gives no cost figure and no estimate of how many orders are affected, and Amazon has not published the share of US seller-fulfilled returns that still used address-only labels.

Several questions remain open after both documents. When does the heavy and bulky exception end? Does the two-day international deadline become seven days? Do SKU exemptions survive? Can an automatic returnless refund be reimbursed? The email, which carries no date, answers none of them, and the help page, as captured on October 19, 2026, had not yet been updated to reflect the December 18 change.

Timeline

Summary

Who: Amazon, through an email signed by the Amazon Services team, and third-party sellers in the US who fulfil their own orders rather than using Amazon's warehouses.

What: All US returns on seller-fulfilled orders, except heavy and bulky items, will require a prepaid return shipping label. Address-only labels that make customers pay postage stop counting. Within seven calendar days of a return request, sellers must upload a prepaid label through the Manage seller-fulfilled returns workflow or issue a full refund without requiring the item back. Otherwise Amazon may issue a returnless refund automatically and deduct it from the seller's account. Labels sent through Buyer Seller Messaging do not count.

When: The requirement starts on December 18, 2026. The email carries no visible send date. The help page it links to, as captured on October 19, 2026, did not yet reflect the change.

Where: The US Amazon store, covering US returns for seller-fulfilled orders. The email says the change aligns US and international returns, while the help page still sets a two-day deadline for international returns.

Why: According to the email, the change "allows for a consistent process for your US and international returns and helps improve the customer experience." For sellers it shifts return postage onto their side and turns missed deadlines into returnless refunds, and several points, including the end of the heavy and bulky exception and the treatment of SKU exemptions, are not addressed in either document.