Naked truth: Amazon doesn't appear to care if it sells fakes
Retail Dive reports on Amazon's lazy claims that it cares about stopping counterfeits. Counterfeiters on Amazon may steal a brand's product design, name, and product pictures. When a brand reports this to Amazon, Amazon often does: nothing.
This is an issue for American brands. For example:
A brands creates a product. The brand pays for research and development.
Brand may pay to have it made in America.
Brand takes professional pictures of the finished product.
Brand lists and sells the product on Amazon.
A counterfeiter, such as one in China, may:
Copy the U.S. brand's product design.
Have the item made in China. Labor and production may be 1/10th the cost of doing it in America.
Copy the U.S. brand's pictures and written descriptions from the official Amazon listing.
Sell the item on Amazon.
The customer is confused as to which listing on Amazon is real. The fake item often costs much less--maybe 1/10th the price. Amazon makes money regardless of whether the customer buys the fake or real item. The loser is the legit entrepreneur that created and marketed the item.
An obvious sign that Amazon doesn't care is that it only offers email support to brands, and rarely replies, report brands. Meanwhile, while Amazon taps its fingers, Amazon makes a profit on each counterfeit sale.
Excerpt from article:
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Amazon does employ “more than 12,000 people – including machine learning scientists, software developers, and expert investigators – who are dedicated to protecting customers, brands, selling partners, and our store from counterfeit, fraud, and other forms of abuse,” an Amazon spokesperson said by email.
[Adore Me Vice President of Strategy Ranjan Roy] isn’t impressed with that number, calling it a “clear head fake” for a company with a $1.1 trillion market cap and hundreds of billions in annual sales. Even 12 million would be inadequate, as long as Amazon profits from fakes and deception, he also said.
“It might sound like a large number, but in the scale of their business, it is clearly not,” he said by email. “Even small online businesses have a direct phone number. ... Amazon makes money on FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon), and because of that, they get to limit investment into stopping it. This makes it so that brands like us are left having to chase them, and journalists need to request commentary on the issue in order for them to take real action.”