Amazon's battle against sellers of counterfeit products on the company's platform continues – two million products were seized and destroyed in 2020.
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The e-commerce giant, known for shopping events like Prime Day, allows third-party sellers around the world to promote their products on Amazon's platform. However, it only takes a quick glance at some products to spot problems.
Fake, counterfeit products, poor quality, misleading photos, and more are all mentioned in buyer reviews, and there is a huge number of counterfeits that Amazon is trying to identify and take down.
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Some sellers abuse the platform in various ways – some are detected, some are not. However, Amazon wants to reduce counterfeiting on the platform to zero.
According to the Brand Protection Report (.PDF), which documents the fight against counterfeiting during 2020, there have been “increased efforts by malicious actors to commit fraud and offer users counterfeit products,” resulting in the seizure of millions of products shipped to fulfillment centers that are then destroyed.
“Amazon destroyed these products to prevent them from being resold elsewhere in the supply chain,” the company says.
The e-commerce giant added that over 10 billion “suspicious” listings were blocked before they were published, and over six million attempts to create seller accounts suspected of being involved in fraudulent businesses were thwarted.
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Another problem likely causing Amazon headaches is the custom of unscrupulous sellers paying customers to leave five-star reviews. A data leak earlier this month implicated an estimated 200,000 people in a review scam — likely originating in China — in which sellers “refund” the price of a product when a good review is added to the product’s listing.
In response, the company said, "we suspend, block, and take legal action against those who violate [community and moderation] policies."
Information source: zdnet.com
