diff --git a/api/server/httputils/errors.go b/api/server/httputils/errors.go
index 88e83139d1..2abdce2bcf 100644
--- a/api/server/httputils/errors.go
+++ b/api/server/httputils/errors.go
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ import (
 	"fmt"
 	"net/http"
 
+	"github.com/docker/distribution/registry/api/errcode"
 	"github.com/docker/docker/api/types"
 	"github.com/docker/docker/api/types/versions"
 	"github.com/docker/docker/errdefs"
@@ -54,7 +55,10 @@ func GetHTTPErrorStatusCode(err error) int {
 		if statusCode != http.StatusInternalServerError {
 			return statusCode
 		}
-
+		statusCode = statusCodeFromDistributionError(err)
+		if statusCode != http.StatusInternalServerError {
+			return statusCode
+		}
 		if e, ok := err.(causer); ok {
 			return GetHTTPErrorStatusCode(e.Cause())
 		}
@@ -129,3 +133,24 @@ func statusCodeFromGRPCError(err error) int {
 		return http.StatusInternalServerError
 	}
 }
+
+// statusCodeFromDistributionError returns status code according to registry errcode
+// code is loosely based on errcode.ServeJSON() in docker/distribution
+func statusCodeFromDistributionError(err error) int {
+	switch errs := err.(type) {
+	case errcode.Errors:
+		if len(errs) < 1 {
+			return http.StatusInternalServerError
+		}
+		if _, ok := errs[0].(errcode.ErrorCoder); ok {
+			return statusCodeFromDistributionError(errs[0])
+		}
+	case errcode.ErrorCoder:
+		return errs.ErrorCode().Descriptor().HTTPStatusCode
+	default:
+		if e, ok := err.(causer); ok {
+			return statusCodeFromDistributionError(e.Cause())
+		}
+	}
+	return http.StatusInternalServerError
+}
diff --git a/api/server/router/distribution/distribution_routes.go b/api/server/router/distribution/distribution_routes.go
index 531dba69fc..d285728382 100644
--- a/api/server/router/distribution/distribution_routes.go
+++ b/api/server/router/distribution/distribution_routes.go
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ import (
 	"github.com/docker/docker/api/server/httputils"
 	"github.com/docker/docker/api/types"
 	registrytypes "github.com/docker/docker/api/types/registry"
+	"github.com/docker/docker/errdefs"
 	"github.com/opencontainers/image-spec/specs-go/v1"
 	"github.com/pkg/errors"
 )
@@ -42,9 +43,10 @@ func (s *distributionRouter) getDistributionInfo(ctx context.Context, w http.Res
 
 	image := vars["name"]
 
+	// TODO why is reference.ParseAnyReference() / reference.ParseNormalizedNamed() not using the reference.ErrTagInvalidFormat (and so on) errors?
 	ref, err := reference.ParseAnyReference(image)
 	if err != nil {
-		return err
+		return errdefs.InvalidParameter(err)
 	}
 	namedRef, ok := ref.(reference.Named)
 	if !ok {
@@ -52,7 +54,7 @@ func (s *distributionRouter) getDistributionInfo(ctx context.Context, w http.Res
 			// full image ID
 			return errors.Errorf("no manifest found for full image ID")
 		}
-		return errors.Errorf("unknown image reference format: %s", image)
+		return errdefs.InvalidParameter(errors.Errorf("unknown image reference format: %s", image))
 	}
 
 	distrepo, _, err := s.backend.GetRepository(ctx, namedRef, config)
@@ -66,7 +68,7 @@ func (s *distributionRouter) getDistributionInfo(ctx context.Context, w http.Res
 
 		taggedRef, ok := namedRef.(reference.NamedTagged)
 		if !ok {
-			return errors.Errorf("image reference not tagged: %s", image)
+			return errdefs.InvalidParameter(errors.Errorf("image reference not tagged: %s", image))
 		}
 
 		descriptor, err := distrepo.Tags(ctx).Get(ctx, taggedRef.Tag())
@@ -92,6 +94,16 @@ func (s *distributionRouter) getDistributionInfo(ctx context.Context, w http.Res
 	}
 	mnfst, err := mnfstsrvc.Get(ctx, distributionInspect.Descriptor.Digest)
 	if err != nil {
+		switch err {
+		case reference.ErrReferenceInvalidFormat,
+			reference.ErrTagInvalidFormat,
+			reference.ErrDigestInvalidFormat,
+			reference.ErrNameContainsUppercase,
+			reference.ErrNameEmpty,
+			reference.ErrNameTooLong,
+			reference.ErrNameNotCanonical:
+			return errdefs.InvalidParameter(err)
+		}
 		return err
 	}
 
diff --git a/daemon/images/image_pull.go b/daemon/images/image_pull.go
index 3e6b433037..f2b6894861 100644
--- a/daemon/images/image_pull.go
+++ b/daemon/images/image_pull.go
@@ -92,7 +92,7 @@ func (i *ImageService) GetRepository(ctx context.Context, ref reference.Named, a
 	// get repository info
 	repoInfo, err := i.registryService.ResolveRepository(ref)
 	if err != nil {
-		return nil, false, err
+		return nil, false, errdefs.InvalidParameter(err)
 	}
 	// makes sure name is not empty or `scratch`
 	if err := distribution.ValidateRepoName(repoInfo.Name); err != nil {