Hundreds of people were arrested, and Amazon began to crack down on brand infringement again

Some money is easy to make, but the risks are high and you will end up in jail, such as making counterfeit goods and selling knockoffs. The more famous a brand is, the more people will take risks. However, both sales platforms and brands have always attached great importance to the protection of intellectual property rights, and more and more criminals have been arrested by law enforcement agencies.

Amazon hit hard, hundreds of suspects arrested in China

Recently, Amazon released its 2023 Brand Protection Report . The report shows that over the past year, Amazon and law enforcement agencies in many parts of China have joined forces to fight counterfeiting, and hundreds of people involved in the operation have been arrested , such as:

In Guangzhou , Amazon and the Conghua District Public Security Bureau have joined forces to raid luxury goods counterfeiting and selling fake goods . In these law enforcement actions , the warehouses of two upstream suppliers and two manufacturers were destroyed , and nearly 9,000 counterfeit luxury goods bags were seized on the spot , involving multiple well-known luxury brands.

It is understood that in this case, the counterfeit sellers used social media platforms to promote counterfeit goods . After reaching an agreement with potential buyers , they placed orders through the non-infringing product links in the Amazon store, ultimately completing illegal transactions .

In Shanghai, Amazon cooperated with Changning Public Security Bureau to crack down on a counterfeiting case. After cracking down on the seller of counterfeit luxury jewelry and its two upstream suppliers , the police seized more than 200,000 pieces of counterfeit jewelry .

This case has also become Amazon's action so far in cracking down on counterfeit jewelry in China in which the largest number of counterfeit jewelry has been seized on the spot.

In addition , in July last year, in Shanghai , Amazon also cooperated with the Xuhui Public Security Bureau to take law enforcement action against an individual who sold counterfeit well-known hard drives, and seized tens of thousands of counterfeit hard drive products, packaging boxes and counterfeit logos on the spot. The counterfeiter in the case was sentenced to three years in prison, suspended for three years, and fined RMB 50,000 at the end of 2023 .

Last October, foreign media reported that a Chinese seller who ran an Amazon store was sentenced to three years in prison and fined US$25,000 (equivalent to RMB 182,000) .

Amazon's Counterfeit Crime Unit ( CCU) and several international luxury brands including Prada jointly accused the seller of selling luxury brand counterfeits on Amazon.

Amazon CCU stated that it had noticed the seller as early as 2021. After a long period of investigation and evidence collection, Amazon provided a criminal case transfer letter to Chinese law enforcement agencies to hold the seller criminally responsible.

In the end, the seller was sentenced to three years in prison and a fine of 180,000 yuan by the Putian City Court of Fujian Province. The income from counterfeiting and selling counterfeit goods was confiscated, and the remaining counterfeit goods were seized and destroyed.

Throughout last year, Amazon, in conjunction with Chinese law enforcement agencies, took more than 50 law enforcement actions against counterfeiters and upstream manufacturers and distributors in the counterfeiting industry chain , involving dozens of well-known domestic and foreign brands, covering sportswear , auto parts, luxury goods, hardware products, digital electronics, pet supplies, gaming products, jewelry and other categories .

Dharmesh Mehta, global vice president of Amazon's seller service team, said: "We are proud of the achievements we have made in the past year, which requires significant innovation and is inseparable from our cooperation with brands, industry associations, policymakers, law enforcement agencies, etc. In the future, we will continue to innovate until counterfeit goods are 'cleared'."

Selling counterfeit goods on Amazon, fined $15 million

In fact, Amazon’s anti-counterfeiting efforts are spread all over the world. In addition to the above-mentioned collaboration with Chinese law enforcement agencies, Amazon also cooperates with internationally renowned brands in the United States and other places to fight counterfeiting.

Last June, an American seller was sentenced to 4-6.5 years in prison and a fine of $15 million for selling counterfeit Cisco products on Amazon .

The U.S. Department of Justice document pointed out that since 2013, the seller has used multiple shell companies and dozens of Amazon stores as carriers to import thousands of counterfeit Cisco products from all over the world for sale, and continued to sell counterfeit products on a large scale. It was not until 2022 that Amazon and Cisco brand owners seized evidence and were jointly accused.

During this period, about 180 batches of counterfeit Cisco equipment from this seller were seized by U.S. Customs. Even in 2021, 1,156 counterfeit Cisco products with a retail value of over $7 million were seized from the seller's warehouse during a surprise inspection.

Over the past decade, the retail value of the counterfeit products sold has exceeded $1 billion, so it is estimated that the illegal profits have reached tens of millions of dollars.

Canon can be considered an old partner of Amazon in fighting counterfeiting. Last year alone, Canon teamed up with Amazon to delete thousands of illegal listings on the platform .

For example , in the first quarter of last year , Canon reported to Amazon a total of 853 infringing listings on the platform , including six sites in Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, France and the Netherlands.

It is reported that from June 2018 to April 2023 , Canon submitted a large number of infringement reports to Amazon and successfully deleted 31,116 infringing listings .

In May last year , Canon submitted to Amazon a list of illegal sellers who attempted to promote and sell Canon camera batteries and chargers on the platform . After verifying the authenticity of the products, Amazon quickly closed 29 seller accounts operated by the violators . The two companies then filed a joint lawsuit against these illegal operators .

Last February , Amazon and office supplies brand Brother jointly sued 18 sellers . These German-based counterfeiters sold counterfeit Brother brand toner cartridges through Amazon . This case was also the first civil lawsuit filed by Amazon and a brand against counterfeiters in Europe.

Amazon has also collaborated with sports camera brand GoPro, luxury car brand BMW, jewelry brand Cartier , as well as Felco and King Technology to conduct anti-counterfeiting activities .

7 million counterfeit items processed in one year

It is obvious to the naked eye that Amazon's crackdown on counterfeits is getting more and more intense . In 2022 alone , Amazon handled more than 6 million counterfeit items and prosecuted more than 1,300 illegal counterfeit sellers in the United States, the United Kingdom, EU countries and China ( the number was 600 in 2021 ) .

By 2023, Amazon had detected, seized, and properly processed more than 7 million counterfeit items worldwide .

Amazon has also strengthened its cooperation with brands on cross-border counterfeit sales. Through cooperation with Chinese law enforcement agencies , several companies and hundreds of individuals involved in the case have been financially punished or sentenced criminally.

In 2023, Amazon spent $1.2 billion on brand protection, not only improving the technical level of genuine protection, but also organizing a professional team of more than 15,000 people . In addition , it launched the Anti-Counterfeit Exchange ( ACX) to make it easier for sellers to identify and report counterfeit products.

Since the establishment of its anti-counterfeiting team in 2020, Amazon has sued or reported more than 21,000 bad actors to law enforcement agencies worldwide.

In 2023, Amazon also blocked more than 700,000 attempts by bad actors to create new accounts, preventing counterfeit products from being put on the shelves.

In addition to product authenticity, Amazon also has zero tolerance for other counterfeiting behaviors, such as fake reviews.

In 2015, Amazon filed its first lawsuit against fake review practitioners and has since established a team dedicated to combating fake reviews .

In 2023 alone , Amazon took action against 58 violators in the United States, including filing 14 new lawsuits ; in Europe , it took action against 44 violators and filed 9 new fake review lawsuits.

Amazon also filed 13 new lawsuits and two criminal referrals against 61 review manipulators in China , among which fake review practitioner Mr. Wu was sentenced to two years in prison and suspended for two years and six months.

In addition to supporting and cooperating with law enforcement agencies in holding counterfeiters accountable, Amazon also continues to strengthen seller education. Amazon collaborates with third-party industry experts and associations to conduct seller training activities to help brands improve their awareness and capabilities in intellectual property protection.

In 2023, Amazon launched the "2023 Cross-border E-commerce Intellectual Property Education Week" event, inviting experts from the US Patent and Trademark Office, intellectual property experts, professional law firms, and Amazon experts to introduce the importance of intellectual property protection, related brand protection tools and solutions, and help sellers understand the compliance policies of different countries, operate in compliance, and thus avoid compliance risks.

Selling in compliance with regulations on Amazon is an inevitable trend, because the platform Amazon has always taken a one-to-one approach to fake reviews and counterfeits.

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