More than 20 people were arrested! Amazon is cracking down

Amazon is vigorously promoting the compliance process, and cross-border e-commerce sellers are facing "compliance challenges" in their operations.

Amazon is strictly enforcing compliance, taking both civil and criminal measures

Amazon not only cracks down on some non-compliance issues at the platform level, but also goes deep into the source to deal with them. According to news from Amazon, since last year, it has sued a total of 14 fake order service groups in China, and recently won four cases in Shenzhen and Shanghai.

The lawsuits were directed at service providers who engaged in fake orders and manipulated product reviews, and the court rulings clearly determined that these services constituted unfair competition. The defendants were ordered to cease operations, make public statements to mitigate the adverse effects, and compensate for the losses caused.

The defendants in these cases are understood to have provided a range of illegal services designed to manipulate Amazon’s marketplace dynamics. These services include :

Ranking optimization: using technical means to artificially improve the ranking of products in search results.

Drop-in promotion: Manipulating search algorithms to change product visibility.

Merging international reviews: Merging reviews from different markets to mislead consumers about product quality.

Direct Reviews and Related Videos: Generate false or misleading product reviews and related videos.

Guide positive reviews : Guide sellers on how to obtain positive reviews through various strategies.

Flash sale control: Influence sales activities to create the illusion of strong demand.

The specific improper behaviors that have been identified are even more varied , such as manipulating buyer accounts to generate false reviews, instructing sellers to post information on social media to drive traffic and reviews, and providing incentives such as free warranties and gifts to obtain positive reviews.

Amazon argues that these tactics not only mislead consumers, but also distort the competitive landscape and put honest sellers at a disadvantage.

While conducting civil litigation, Amazon also cooperated with local law enforcement agencies in Shandong, Ningxia, Fujian, Jiangxi and other provinces to take action on four criminal cases of fake orders. Law enforcement agencies have currently arrested more than 20 people involved in the case.

On the surface, this series of actions by Amazon seems to be increasingly stringent in its requirements for sellers, but on the other hand, it actually maintains market fairness and justice and promotes the healthy development of the e-commerce industry.

In fact, Amazon has been working hard to maintain a healthy market environment.

Amazon files six lawsuits over new violations

Amazon’s Counterfeit Crimes Unit (CCU) has filed six lawsuits against bad actors, accusing them of operating a variety of illegal schemes to try to evade Amazon’s product approval processes, such as the product review requirements that products must meet before they are allowed to be sold in Amazon’s stores.

These schemes often involve providing false product invoices to bad actors who are attempting to sell counterfeit goods.

It is well known that CCU often works with brands such as YETI and Canon to file joint lawsuits against bad actors who attempt to sell counterfeit goods in Amazon stores, but Amazon said the appeal is different. They are a new class of bad actors and are implementing an emerging circumvention scheme.

Amazon said these illegal online services commit fraudulent documents to Amazon on behalf of bad actors in an attempt to sell counterfeit or other infringing products in Amazon stores.

The defendants named in these lawsuits claimed to handle every step of the product approval process in exchange for a fee. Once hired, the defendants would access the bad actor’s seller accounts and submit false documents to Amazon in order to evade Amazon’s review and approval requirements.

After confirming that the sellers’ documents were forged, Amazon worked with outside investigators to contact many of these online sites posing as interested parties, claiming to be interested in selling products that required additional verification documents to be sent to Amazon. The defendants in these lawsuits provided Amazon with forged documents that confirmed the bad actors’ plans.

It is worth noting that Amazon found in its investigation that many other bad actors advertised similar services and charged fees, but did not provide illegal services. In other words, many sellers were defrauded of money in the process.

It is reported that these lawsuits were filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington, and the case numbers are: 2:21-cv-01283-KKE, 23-cv-01062-KKE, 23-cv-01061-TL-BAT, 22-cv-01755-RSM, 2:24-cv-00825, 2:24-cv-00824.

Amazon continues to fight counterfeiting, more than 20,000 people have been arrested

Amazon has long been fighting counterfeits, working closely with global brands and law enforcement to hold bad actors accountable. In the past year alone, Amazon's CCU has prosecuted or referred more than 1,300 criminals in the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, and China.

It is one of Amazon's important measures to combat counterfeit and shoddy goods and protect consumer rights . It was established in June 2020. Since the establishment of CCU, the team has pursued more than 21,000 bad actors through litigation and referral of criminal cases to law enforcement agencies.

They use advanced technology and data analysis to identify and combat the sale of counterfeit and substandard goods. In 2023 alone, Amazon removed more than 7 million counterfeit products worldwide.

Not only that, Amazon also uses a combination of advanced machine learning capabilities, rigorous audits, and professional manual investigators to prevent bad actors from creating sales accounts in the first place. It is reported that the number of attempts by bad actors to create new sales accounts has decreased from 6 million in 2020 to 700,000 in 2023.

In fact, in addition to joining forces with global brands, Amazon has also been committed to working with small and medium-sized brands to combat counterfeiters. Amazon reportedly took over more than a dozen civil and criminal cases affecting small businesses in 2023 to protect their interests and intellectual property. Here are a few cases where Amazon has successfully held bad actors accountable:

Earlier this year, Amazon filed a joint lawsuit with Dutch Blitz, a family-owned card game manufacturer , which resulted in a default judgment in Amazon and the brand's favor, with nearly $200,000 in statutory damages going to the card game manufacturer.

A similar default judgment was handed down in March in a joint lawsuit between Amazon and California family-owned business JL Childress, in which the judge awarded Amazon more than $1 million in statutory damages.

One of the first civil cases to result in a successful verdict was a joint lawsuit filed with small beauty brand KF Beauty, which ultimately awarded the brand $1.2 million in statutory damages.

It is understood that Amazon is now actively conducting joint lawsuits with brands such as Oofos, Felco and Therabody.

Amazon

Manipulating comments

Fake orders