U.S. Government’s ‘Notorious Markets’ Piracy Report Lists Multiple International Amazon Sites

In the “Notorious Markets” report by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) on marketplaces known for issues with privacy and illegitimate goods, multiple international websites of Amazon.com were named. The office pointed out claims of counterfeit merchandise sold on the eCommerce retailer’s sites in the United Kingdom, Canada, India, France and Germany, Reuters reported.

Amazon did not reply immediately to a Reuters request for comment. The eCommerce retailer has noted previously that it “strictly prohibits” fakes on its platforms and works to guard shoppers from those kinds of products. The list has encompassed Taobao.com over the years in addition to websites run out of Poland, the Czech Republic and Indonesia, among other nations.

The USTR reportedly took in claims that it was too simple for anyone to sell on Amazon and that the seller information shown by the eCommerce platform was many times misleading. It also noted that it is “considering seeking more information regarding e-commerce platforms, including those based in the United States, in future reviews of Notorious Markets.”

And, according to reports in 2019, the American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA) had penned a letter to the USTR requesting that it put Amazon’s India and France websites to the “Notorious Markets” list.

The clothing trade group had asked the office in the past to put Canada, Germany and the U.K. on the list. Its letter read, according to past reports, “Despite its role as a leader in the worldwide retail landscape, and as an important selling partner for many of our member brands, Amazon continues to present significant counterfeit challenges.”

At the time, it was reported that the eCommerce retailer said it was “committed to eliminating counterfeits from its store” and had programs to help combat counterfeiting with the inclusion of a Brand Registry to assist in identifying fakes and a Project Zero effort to use artificial intelligence to discover and take down counterfeit products.

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