Amazon still sells a lot of counterfeit goods even though it has tried to crack down on fake sellers for years, according to The Guardian . When ordering products cataloged as legitimate on Amazon, the report uncovered a series of fake items sold by third parties, including a pair of imitation AirPods that were supposed to be from Apple, used iPhone chargers that were sold as new, fake Pencils Kylie Jenner lipstick, and a faux iPhone x Supreme Louis Vuitton case.
In some cases, Amazon even helped send counterfeit products directly to customers, through the Fulfilled by Amazon service. Fake AirPods, for example, were shipped to Amazon and sold with Amazon Prime drivers and delivery. The imitation products were sold through the Amazon Marketplace, which accounted for almost 20 percent of the company's total revenues in the first quarter of this year, according to the earnings results published last week. After The Guardian contacted Amazon, the tech giant removed five counterfeit products from the site list and updated the product description of the shippers to indicate that they were used.
Discovering fake products on Amazon has been common abstaining in recent years. In 2016, Apple filed a lawsuit against a company called Mobile Star that allegedly sold counterfeit Apple chargers through Amazon. Apple said it bought more than 100 iPhones, power adapters and Mobile Star Lightning cables through Amazon and discovered that almost 90 percent of the products were fake. The lawsuit is still pending, with Apple fighting Mobile Star in multiple courts in California, the state of Washington and New York.
One month before Apple filed the lawsuit in 2016, Amazon launched a trademark registration that would help legitimate brands claim their identities in the market and differentiate themselves from counterfeits. Amazon then renewed the registration in 2017 with more features.
The number of counterfeits in the Amazon Marketplace has convinced several retailers to get rid of the service, including brands such as Birkenstock and the Swiss watchmaker Swatch. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal last fall, Swatch's CEO, Nick Hayek, cited Amazon's failure to proactively monitor its site for counterfeiting as a reason why its agreement failed of association. Last week, Hayek elaborated additional comments, comparing Amazon's fight with Alibaba's and pointing out that the Chinese e-commerce company is doing a better job "actively fighting against counterfeits", while "Amazon does not".
Amazon said The Guardian in a statement: "Amazon investigated and took action on 95 percent of all notices of potential infractions received from the Trademark Registry within eight hours." With our proactive innovations who learn from the information in the Trademark Registry, marks in the Trademark Registry on average are finding and reporting 99% fewer alleged infringements than before the launch of the Trademark Registration. "
