How to label AI-generated product images: metadata, marketplaces and the law
Updated · Stillhouse
The short answer
AI-generated product images should carry the IPTC DigitalSourceType field in their metadata - trainedAlgorithmicMedia for a fully generated image, compositeWithTrainedAlgorithmicMedia for a real photo combined with AI. Google Merchant Center requires that marker on AI-generated product images, and the EU AI Act's transparency rules expect generated images to be machine-detectable. The simplest rule: never strip image metadata.
The marker: IPTC DigitalSourceType
The IPTC Photo Metadata Standard has a field, DigitalSourceType, that records how an image was made. It is stored in the file's XMP metadata, travels with the file, and is read by search engines, marketplaces and social platforms. Two of its values matter for product photography:
| Value | Use it when |
|---|---|
| trainedAlgorithmicMedia | The image was generated entirely by an AI model. |
| compositeWithTrainedAlgorithmicMedia | A real photograph - your product shot - was combined with AI-generated elements, such as a generated scene or model. |
Who reads it
- Google Merchant Center requires AI-generated product images to keep the IPTC DigitalSourceType marker, and asks merchants not to strip it.
- Meta uses the same IPTC field to label AI-generated images on its platforms.
- The EU AI Act (Article 50) requires generated images to be marked in a machine-readable way; its transparency obligations are scheduled to apply from August 2026. How that applies to a given storefront is a question for your own legal advice.
- Marketplaces set their own rules on AI imagery and synthetic people, and change them. Check each venue's current policy before listing.
The easy way to lose it: stripped metadata
Many image pipelines - compression plugins, some CDNs, "optimise for web" exports - remove metadata to save a few kilobytes. That removes the disclosure with it. If you use AI images, check that your optimiser preserves XMP, and spot-check a published image with any metadata viewer.
What Stillhouse writes into every frame
Every frame the studio delivers carries an XMP packet saying it was made with a trained algorithm from a real product photo (compositeWithTrainedAlgorithmicMedia), with Stillhouse as the creator tool. Frames that include a generated person also carry the IPTC keyword contains-synthetic-performer. The packet is written into the file without re-encoding the pixels, and again at every export, so it survives download, publishing and the ad feed. The publish dialog tells you which frames include a generated person.
What it is not, yet, is a cryptographic signature: Content Credentials (C2PA) are on the roadmap.
Questions
Do I have to disclose that product photos are AI-generated?
It depends on where you sell and what is in the image. Google Merchant Center requires the metadata marker on AI-generated product images; marketplaces and countries set their own rules. Keeping the IPTC marker in the file is the baseline that satisfies the machine-readable part everywhere.
Does the marker show on my product page?
No. It lives in the file's metadata. Platforms may read it and show their own label; the image itself is unchanged.