E-commerce giant Amazon has removed six million counterfeit items globally from the supply chain in 2022.
As per a report by Amazon, the e-commerce firm said that it stopped over 800,000 attempts to create new selling accounts in 2022, preventing bad actors from publishing a single product for sale.
The figure has come down from 2.5 million attempts in 2021, and six million attempts in 2020.
Amazon had released its third annual “Brand Protection Report” on Tuesday, outlining all the details of its battle against counterfeits. Subjected to lawsuits by multiple brands over the past several years, Amazon said it is increasing its technology and legal efforts to prevent fakes from getting on the platform. It’s also taking action against those caught selling them, according to the report.
“Counterfeiters really follow the money, and they’ll counterfeit about anything, from luxury handbags to household items,” said Anna Dalla Val, director of global brand relations at Amazon.
The first line of defense for Amazon is its seller verification tools, which blocked 800,000 attempts to set up Amazon stores by “bad actors” looking to sell counterfeits, according to the report. This is down from 2.5 million attempts in 2021 and 6 million in 2020, it said. The report cited deterrence as the reason for the decrease. In 2022, Amazon ramped up its vetting of sellers by adding a video chat requirement to verify identity. To set up a store account, sellers are also required to share a government-issued photo ID, taxpayer information, and details about their identity, location, bank accounts and credit cards.
“The combination of our new seller vetting and holding bad actors accountable has had this deterrence effect,” said Dalla Val.
Brands have grappled with counterfeits on Amazon for years, taking a variety of different approaches. Some have opted to sue the company. In 2017, Chanel won a lawsuit against Amazon and counterfeit sellers over fakes being sold on the platform. Amazon is currently being sued by luxury shoemaker Christian Louboutin over ads on keywords using Louboutin’s brand name to sell fakes.
The brand “definitely” looks at keyword buys “as one of the many signals of potential abuse in the store,” said Dalla Val.
In contrast, other brands have decided to cooperate with Amazon in litigation efforts. In 2020, Valentino joined forces with Amazon in a lawsuit against counterfeiters. Brands are also working with the platform to go after influencers hawking fake products: In 2022, Cartier and Amazon filed a lawsuit against a China-based influencer for promoting fake Cartier products on Instagram and selling them on Amazon.
Amazon’s report emphasized its legal actions against counterfeiters, saying it pursued a total 1,300 cases via lawsuits and criminal referrals over fakes last year in the U.S., the U.K., the E.U. and China.
This included working directly with law enforcement in these countries to identify fakes found not just in Amazon-owned facilities, but also in the original factories where they’re being produced. According to Amazon, a total of 6 million counterfeit items were “appropriately disposed of” last year. Details on the disposal process were not disclosed. Members of Amazon’s Counterfeit Crimes Unit not only investigate and report evidence of counterfeit production to law enforcement, but also “participate in the raids” on the factories, said Dalla Val.
In one case, Amazon worked with multiple Public Security Bureaus in China to conduct raids on factories that resulted in the seizure of over 240,000 items. The report listed other actions in cooperation with police in Germany and London.
