Starting December 18, 2026, Amazon says every US seller-fulfilled return must include a prepaid return shipping label, with a temporary exception for heavy and bulky items. That reads like a new cost on every return, but most FBM returns already work this way. Amazon's own description is that for most domestic US returns it gives the customer a prepaid label on your behalf and charges your seller account for it.
What ends on December 18 is the address-only label: the return where the buyer is handed your address with no postage and pays a carrier out of pocket. In Amazon's words, the change "only removes the option for sellers to issue an unpaid address-only label." If some of your SKUs still go back that way, those are the returns where you may now be paying for a label, and where a missed deadline can cost you the item as well as the refund.
What the rule requires
Amazon's help pages describe two kinds of prepaid label. For eligible returns, Amazon issues its own, the Amazon Prepaid Return Label. Where Amazon's label isn't available, you buy one from a carrier and upload it, which Amazon calls a Merchant Prepaid Return Label.
For those returns there is a deadline. Within 7 calendar days of a domestic return request, you must either upload a prepaid label in the Manage Seller Fulfilled Returns workflow or refund the buyer in full and let them keep the item, which Amazon calls a returnless refund.
The label has to go through Seller Central. Amazon says labels "must not be shared" through Buyer-Seller Messaging or any other channel. The change also leaves alone which products are returnable in the first place, so category return policies such as Handmade and Custom stay as they are.
All of this covers US domestic returns. Returns with an address outside the US follow Amazon's separate international policy.
Which returns can cost you more
If a return already goes out on Amazon's label, the rule doesn't change what you pay for it. The returns that can cost more are the ones where Amazon issues no label:
- SKUs you've had exempted from prepaid returns. Amazon lets sellers request SKU-level exemptions. Its pages don't say outright what happens to an approved exemption after December 18, but the only carve-out written into the rule is for heavy and bulky items. Download your exemption status report (Return settings, then Manage return templates) and plan on either a label or a returnless refund for each exempt SKU unless Amazon tells you otherwise.
- Items Amazon won't label. Amazon doesn't provide its own label for some dangerous goods, among other cases, and its page on those returns says the buyer is given your address without postage. From December 18, that return needs a label you buy and upload, or a returnless refund.
The heavy and bulky exception
Heavy and bulky items "may continue to use address-only labels until further notice," so the exception has no end date. A package qualifies if it weighs over 90 lbs, its longest side is 86 inches or more, or its length plus girth (L + 2H + 2W) is 130 inches or more.
Amazon also doesn't issue its own label for packages over 150 lb, over 108 inches long, or over 165 inches in length plus girth. Every one of those limits is above the heavy and bulky thresholds, so those returns stay on address-only labels for now.
Seven calendar days, including the holidays
The clock starts at the return request and counts calendar days, so weekends and holidays are included.
Amazon's December 18 text doesn't state a penalty of its own. The same help page does say, about returns that already needed a merchant label, that when neither a label nor a returnless refund is provided, "we may issue a returnless refund on your behalf." Its general warning on returns is broader: "Failure to act may result in Amazon issuing a refund to the buyer on your behalf and charging your account." A returnless refund issued for you means the buyer keeps the product and the money comes out of your account.
The start date makes this harder. Under Amazon's extended holiday returns policy, items bought between November 1 and December 31, 2026 are returnable through January 31, 2027, or January 15 for Apple-brand products, and that covers seller-fulfilled orders. The policy lengthens the return window without changing which items are returnable. Return requests on gift-season orders will keep arriving through January. If one person checks Seller Central and that person is offline for a week, a request can run out its seven days without anyone seeing it.
Amazon recommends uploading labels within 48 hours of the return being created, to cut down on customer contacts and A-to-z claims. That's a best practice. The requirement is seven days.
What a return label costs
When Amazon issues the label, it charges your account for the label cost "only when the buyer gives the package to the carrier." The carriers are UPS and USPS, and each charge shows up in your Settlement and Payments reports as shipping services purchased through Amazon. Amazon calculates the cost from the weight and size on your listing, so wrong dimensions mean wrong charges.
A UPS return is billed on the greater of actual and dimensional weight (length x width x height divided by 139), plus surcharges and a fuel charge applied as a percentage of the shipping cost. Buyers sometimes repack a return in a bigger box than you shipped, and the resulting adjustments typically take two to three weeks to post.
Who ends up paying depends on the return reason. If the return is your fault, such as a wrong or damaged item, you pay return shipping and refund the buyer in full, including the original shipping. If it's the buyer's, such as an accidental order or a better price elsewhere, return shipping can be deducted from the refund. The exception is free returns: if you've opted into them, or you sell fashion items, you can't deduct return shipping on in-policy returns.
When you supply your own label, you pay the carrier directly and enter the carrier, tracking ID and label cost when you upload it. For buyer-fault returns, Amazon says sellers "have the option to deduct return shipping costs in the refund workflow."
When to refund without a return
A returnless refund satisfies the rule, and on a low-priced item it can be the cheaper choice. Compare what you'd pay for the return label, plus the time to inspect and restock the unit, with what that unit is worth back on your shelf. If the first number is bigger, let the buyer keep it.
You can decide this ahead of time. Amazon lets you set up returnless resolutions so a qualifying request is settled when the buyer submits it, with a refund or a replacement and no manual step on your side.
Before December 18
- Download your prepaid label exemption status report and list every SKU that doesn't get an Amazon label today.
- Check your default return address. Amazon requires a valid US address, and says returns that can't be delivered to an outdated one "will be deemed abandoned." This matters most if you've moved inventory since you set it.
- Check the weight and dimensions on your listings, since Amazon's label charges are calculated from them.
- For each affected SKU, decide between paying for a label and refunding without a return.
- Find the queue. In Manage Seller Fulfilled Returns, open Pending Actions and filter by Pending Return label. Decide who checks it and how often, including over the holidays.
- If a warehouse or 3PL ships your FBM orders, agree with them now who watches that queue and who buys the label.
Where the returned units go
If your inventory sits at a 3PL, the return address in Seller Central should be the warehouse, so returned units go back into the stock your orders ship from.
At Simpl, returned FBM orders ship to our Austin warehouse. We match each return to its order, inspect it by hand and grade it against rules you set: sellable as-is, sellable after rework, or not sellable. Damaged items are photographed, and your dashboard shows each return's status, reason and photos. Returns are billed per return at the rate in your quote. Our Amazon FBM fulfillment and returns processing pages have the details, and if you're also tightening up the outbound side, we've explained how Amazon's June handling-time rule works.