Amazon has released its third annual Brand Protection Report, highlighting efforts to protect customers, brands and selling partners from counterfeit products.
Amazon said its efforts have resulted in more criminal referrals as the company extends industry partnerships to deal with the issue. The report demonstrates how the strategic combination of technology and experts are stopping bad actors and making an impact beyond Amazon’s store. The company has worked to identify, seize, and appropriately dispose of over six million counterfeit products in 2022, it asserted, stopping them from reaching customers and being resold elsewhere in the global supply chain.
The Brand Protection Report highlights progress in four key areas, according to Amazon:
- Increasingly Deterring Bad Actors. Robust seller verification, including connecting one-on-one with prospective sellers through video chat, coupled with more advancements in machine learning-based detection, are deterring attempts by bad actors to create new Amazon selling accounts. In 2022, Amazon stopped more than 800,000 attempts to create problematic new selling accounts, down from 2.5 million attempts in 2021, and 6 million attempts in 2020.
- Expanded Adoption of Brand Protection Tools. Amazon continues improving automated protection technologies, which leverage partnerships with brands enrolled in its Brand Registry program and the data they provide to reduce the need for the companies involved to find and report infringements. In 2022, the adoption of brand protection programs continued to grow, while, at the same time, the absolute number of valid notices of infringement filed by brands in Brand Registry decreased by more than 35%.
- Holding Counterfeiters Accountable and Stopping Them From Abusing Our Store and Others. In 2022, Amazon’s Counterfeit Crimes Unit sued or referred for investigation over 1,300 criminals in the United States, United Kingdom, European Union and China. As it partners with brands and law enforcement to stop bad actors, Amazon is responding to the counterfeit signals it detects – identifying, seizing, and appropriately disposing of over six million fraudulent products.
- Strengthening Consumer Education. In partnership with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Amazon has launched marketing campaigns that have helped educate consumers about how to shop safely and purchase authentic products, while also demonstrating the harm and dangers of purchasing counterfeits. These campaigns reached over 70 million consumers in the U.S., according to Amazon.
“We take pride in the progress our organization has made this past year, specifically further evolving our technology to stay ahead of bad actors and doubling down on our criminal referral and litigation efforts,” said Dharmesh Mehta, Amazon’s vp of worldwide selling partner services, in introducing the report. “We’re appreciative of the growing industry-wide collaboration in this space, and look forward to continuing to innovate and work together to drive counterfeits to zero.”
