Amazon said it helped protect customers from fake goods by working with law enforcement to seize over 240,000 counterfeits in China. Amazon’s Counterfeit Crimes Unit (CCU) tipped off agencies, which it said nabbed the imitation luxury, sports, and automotive brands.
Authorities detained the main suspects, and “any infringing listings connected to these cases have been eliminated,” Amazon said in Wednesday’s announcement, which provided additional details including the following:
“Upon searching the facilities, law enforcement seized more than 130,000 counterfeit car accessories and fake brand labels that infringed on many brands’ intellectual property including BMW, Porsche, and General Motors; nearly 80,000 counterfeit luxury products; and more than 30,000 pieces of counterfeit clothing and fake brand labels that infringed on Hugo Boss, Puma and Under Armour’s intellectual property among others. This latest effort adds to the more than 3 million counterfeit products Amazon identified, seized, and appropriately disposed of last year, which included counterfeits sent to Amazon’s fulfillment centers in an unsuccessful attempt to sell to Amazon customers.
“Amazon has also cooperated with local PSBs (Public Security Bureaus) in China on operations involving bad actors that illegally purchased government-issued personal identities and business licenses in an attempt to register fraudulent Amazon seller accounts. As a result, 84 individuals were detained. Last year, Amazon stopped more than 2.5 million attempts by bad actors around the world to create new selling accounts, preventing them from listing a single product for sale.”
Dharmesh Mehta, vice president of Amazon’s Worldwide Selling Partner Services, said in the press release: “There is no place for fraud on Amazon. The production and sale of counterfeit goods poses serious harm to the intellectual property rights of the brands involved, as well as to the legitimate interests of honest sellers—and the customers who place their trust in our stores. While we are proud of the progress we have made, we will not stop until we drive counterfeits to zero, and we will continue to invest and innovate until we get there.”
Amazon posted the following video on YouTube last month featuring interviews with former DOJ prosecutor Kebharu Smith, now Associate General Counsel and Director of the Amazon Counterfeit Crimes Unit, along with footage of Homeland Security raids of alleged counterfeiters.
