Amazon has established a new Counterfeit Crimes Unit, dedicated to bringing counterfeiters that violate the law and Amazon’s policies by listing counterfeit products in its store to justice. The “global, multi-disciplinary team” is composed of former federal prosecutors, experienced investigators and data analysts.
 
In 2019, Amazon says it invested over $500 million and had more than 8,000 employees fighting fraud, including counterfeit. Amazon’s efforts have blocked over six billion suspected bad listings in 2019 and blocked over 2.5 million suspected bad actor accounts before they were able to make a single product available for sale.
 
The new unit builds on Amazon’s established history of collaboration with brands and law enforcement to hold counterfeiters accountable through financial penalties, civil litigation, and criminal prosecution. Amazon actively engages with authorities like the National Intellectual Property Rights Center (US), Europol (EU), and relevant enforcement authorities in China and around the world.
 
Stopping Bad Actors
 
Third-party sellers make up more than half of sales on Amazon, according to the company, and the bad ones can be a major menace.
 
Amazon’s Counterfeit Crimes Unit will investigate cases where a bad actor has attempted to evade Amazon’s systems and listed a counterfeit in violation of Amazon’s policies. The unit will mine Amazon’s data, cull information from external resources such as payment service providers and open source intelligence, and leverage on-the-ground assets to connect the dots between targets.
 
The Counterfeit Crimes Unit also enables Amazon to more effectively pursue civil litigation against bad actors, work with brands in joint or independent investigations, and aid law enforcement officials worldwide in criminal actions against counterfeiters.
 
“Every counterfeiter is on notice that they will be held accountable to the maximum extent possible under the law, regardless of where they attempt to sell their counterfeits or where they’re located,” stated Dharmesh Mehta, vice president, customer trust and partner support, Amazon. “We are working hard to disrupt and dismantle these criminal networks, and we applaud the law enforcement authorities who are already part of this fight. We urge governments to give these authorities the investigative tools, funding, and resources they need to bring criminal counterfeiters to justice because criminal enforcement – through prosecution and other disruption measures such as freezing assets – is one of the most effective ways to stop them.”
 
Litigation against counterfeiters has already begun. Amazon recently partnered with KF Beauty to file a joint trademark action. According to the complaint that they filed in a federal court in Washington, Amazon and KF Beauty claim that four companies and 16 individuals are on the hook for selling counterfeit versions of KF Beauty’s Wunder2 beauty products, including its best-selling WunderBrow eyebrow gels, on Amazon’s third-party marketplace site.