Amazon is disrupting and stopping counterfeiters

Amazon is working to disrupt and stop counterfeiters selling on their platform. This is good news for brands and for consumers.

The Amazon marketplace can be a very convenient and insulated place for counterfeiters to sell products. Recently Amazon has become very active in pursuing counterfeiters selling on their site. They have made headlines filing lawsuits in cases involving well known brands including Cisco, Yeti, Canon and Therabody.

The problem with counterfeit products is that they are often inferior products that break easily or don’t function properly. This causes brands to deal with warranty and product defects on products that they didn’t actual make. The public harm caused by these counterfeit products is also a concern. Counterfeiting is a billion dollar problem. Organized crime groups and terrorist have funded their operations by selling counterfeit goods.

Counterfeiters have been able to sell on the Amazon marketplace without leaving a trace.  Amazon seller profiles are often lacking any identifiers like a business name, business owner, physical address, phone number or email address. The products sold on Amazon are very often fulfilled by an Amazon warehouse, so there is no shipping address to trace back to the counterfeiters.

Amazon has created a team internally to investigate, disrupt and file lawsuits against infringers and counterfeiters to protect brands. They have also created the Amazon Brand Registry which allows brands to register with Amazon and provide further details in the fight against counterfeits.

For a behind-the-scenes look at Amazon’s Counterfeit Crimes Unit at work CLICK HERE

When brand owners, their law firms and Amazon work together counterfeiters can be stopped. The sharing of information, making targeted test purchases and tracking payments are just a few ways in which counterfeiters are identified and stopped.

To read more about the disruption of counterfeiting and lawsuits filed CLICK HERE

As a consumer it is really important to evaluate sellers of branded products. Make sure you are getting the real thing. Many brands have dedicated pages on their site that give you insights about how to spot a FAKE and what marketplaces they sell legitimate products on and those sites that they don’t sell on. Do your homework and protect yourself.

Kudos to Amazon for their efforts to disrupt and stop the sales of counterfeit goods.