Amazon Cracks Down On Counterfeits

Amazon.com is picking up its efforts to remove counterfeit products from its eCommerce site, expanding its program as part of a larger campaign to assure brands that Amazon isn’t a threat in the fight against counterfeit goods.

According to a report in Reuters, in April any brand can register its logo and intellectual property with Amazon so the company can remove any listings and seller accounts that are hawking fake copies of the brand’s products, said Peter Faricy, vice president of Amazon Marketplace, in an interview with Reuters earlier this week. The brand registry was in a pilot but is now available for free in North America.

With third party sellers becoming an increasingly important part of Amazon’s business, the eCommerce giant wants to ensure brands they don’t have to worry about counterfeits. Amazon gets a commission for the retail transactions it powers, noted the report.

The fake goods on Amazon have even prompted lawsuits, including one from Apple. Retailers have contended that Amazon creates its own copies of hot-selling items to hawk at a lower price, but it’s something Amazon has dismissed. “The data doesn’t support it,” Faricy said of the allegation that Amazon is jeopardizing sellers. Third parties have grown to account for about 50 percent of units sold on the website, he noted. According to the executive, 100,000 sellers generated at least $100,000 last year, while Amazon’s fulfillment services made daily delivery cheaper for small merchants.

In addition to registering product catalogs on Amazon, the eCommerce giant is offering brands a program dubbed Transparency that lets them affix a label to packages with a code so buyers can check the item they purchased against the official data of the brand. Faricy told Reuters the fight against counterfeit products on Amazon is in the early stage.