Amazon Testimony To Congress Reveals Shocking Business Practices

Commingled products, worthless endorsements, and false claims are all part of Amazon's marketplace

March 10, 2020, Los Angeles, CA – Amazon's Vice President of Worldwide Customer Trust and Partner Support, Dharmesh M. Mehta, appeared before the United States House of Representatives Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Commerce on March 4, 2020.

Mr. Mehta is responsible for and leads the team dedicated to preventing fraud, counterfeits, fake reviews, and other forms of abuse from harming Amazon customers, brands, and selling partners.

Dharmesh Mehta's testimony about Amazon's business practices and behavior is a shocking confirmation of Amazon's reprehensible and manipulative global system of counterfeits, fraud, deception, misrepresentation, and false advertising.

The hearing video is viewable here.

Mr. Mehta states, "As part of our commitment to ensuring only authentic and safe products are offered in our store, Amazon strictly prohibits the sale of counterfeit products, and we require all products in our store to comply with all applicable laws, regulations, and Amazon policies."

His claim is nothing more than lip-service and disproved by his testimony. Amazon's efforts have failed, while brand-owners and consumers received confirmation of their long-standing, but ignored, complaints of Amazon's fake reviews, commingled products, worthless endorsements, and allowing counterfeits to remain.

Highlights from his testimony;

• Customers may not receive products from sellers they order from, but commingled products from Amazon's closest fulfillment center.

  "Amazon virtually tracks different units that are identical, shipping the products closest to customers. We do engage in that practice," states Mehta.

• The "Amazon's Choice" endorsement is awarded to counterfeit and fraudulent products.

  "Amazon does not manually curate products. There is no unique safety testing for the "Amazon's Choice" products. There is no unique screening for authenticity to receive that badge," states Mehta.

• Amazon enables, facilitates, and is a direct seller of counterfeit, fraudulent, replica, and dangerous products. Amazon has twice acknowledged legal notice after sending hundreds of the falsely advertised and dangerous Lithium-ion batteries. Amazon's policy explicitly prohibits the battery cells, yet Amazon continues to be a direct seller of the dangerous items.

  "We have no tolerance for false advertising claims or price gouging. We proactively are looking for any seller using false claims," states Mehta.

• Amazon rarely notifies consumers they purchased a counterfeit or fraudulent product. The Counterfeit Report, an award-winning consumer advocate and counterfeit watchdog, purchased over 500 counterfeit, fraudulent, and dangerous products, yet has never received a notification. Amazon has refused refunds for confirmed counterfeits.
  

  "Amazon also proactively notifies and refunds customers when we suspect they have purchased a counterfeit product" and "we remove unsafe products when we identify them," states Mehta.

The Counterfeit Report found over 230,000 counterfeit, fraudulent, and replica items on Amazon and submitted complaints at the request of brand-owners. Amazon ignored thousands of infringement complaints, allowed counterfeits to languish for months or remain, and sellers to relist. Even if consumers wisely avoid Amazon, they are still at risk of injury or death from other shopper's counterfeit and fraudulent product purchases.

Peter K. Navarro, Ph.D., White House trade advisor to the President, is spearheading the effort to clean up e-commerce websites. Dr. Navarro issued a harsh condemnation, "When you purchase brand-name goods through online third-party marketplaces like Alibaba, Amazon, and eBay, there's a good chance you'll end up with a counterfeit." A bipartisan bill now aims to curb Amazon and other e-commerce websites reign as marketplace hubs to launder counterfeit, fraudulent, and replica goods without liability.