Amazon's New Counterfeit Crimes Unit Reports On First Year

Policy position paper full of bluster and self-congratulatory deflection.

November 12, 2021 - Los Angeles, CA – Amazon's newly formed Counterfeit Crimes Unit (CCU) published its first-year report and policy paper, full of self-congratulatory and sanctimonious claims.

• While business representatives continue to harshly criticize the online juggernaut, Amazon deflects its nefarious behavior and poor counterfeit enforcement performance by calling for more effective action by authorities and businesses.
  

  "The retail industry and government bodies must step up, work together, and stop counterfeiters to protect consumers, rights owners, and store operators from these criminals. We are committed to supporting law enforcement's continued efforts to enforce existing laws and put counterfeiters in jail. Amazon supports sharing information on counterfeit activity that can improve CBP's ability to identify illicit products and criminal networks at the border," says the report.

• According to Amazon, they invested $700 million and 10,000 employees to stop fraud and abuse on its deceptive and highly destructive marketplace. The CCU provided more than 250 in-depth leads to law enforcement agencies in the USA, the EU, the UK, and China. Amazon also initiated 64 civil cases against counterfeiters in the USA and cooperated closely with authorities and brands, and in some cases, joint legal proceedings with brand owners.

In contrast, Amazon's practices and procedures tell an entirely different story.

• Amazon is a nefarious organized, invasive, and manipulative global system enabling and facilitating an inexhaustible supply of counterfeit, fraudulent, replica, and stolen goods, accompanied by phony reviews and deceptive "Amazon's Choice" endorsements on counterfeit and fraudulent items. “Make no mistake, Amazon lets criminals make a living peddling hazardous knockoffs and stolen merchandise on its platform,” said Michael Hanson, spokesperson of the Buy Safe America Coalition - AP Analyst.
• The Counterfeit Report, a global award-winning consumer advocate and industry watchdog, identified and removed listings for over 366,000 counterfeit items on Amazon websites for just a handful of the 500,000 brands that have signed up to fight Amazon fakes -- a glaring representation of the enormity of Amazon's counterfeit problem and the challenges facing consumers.
  

  In response, Amazon Corporate Counsel Annasara Purcell claimed the trademark-owner backed submissions were an "unacceptable abuse of Amazon's infringement reporting system" and directed the rejection of over 25,000 trademark owner counterfeit complaints. These actions are hardly consistent with Amazon's CCU claim "Amazon is committed to driving counterfeits to zero." Two account managers assigned The Counterfeit Report to facilitate and expedite intellectual property enforcement haven't responded in years.

• Several of Amazon's worldwide e-commerce sites ended up on the U.S. government’s Notorious Markets List -- reserved for the worst online counterfeit markets and offenders. Amazon is not listed in the European Commission's Counterfeit and Piracy Watch List, but is ranked second (behind Alibaba) as the most frequently reported e-commerce sites offering counterfeits.

Counterfeiting is a predicate crime to far more wicked activity, including drug trafficking, child exploitation, and terrorism.

• Amazon provides the safe haven for bad actors and counterfeit sellers in shocking contrast to its patently false but often cited illusory claim, "Products offered for sale on Amazon must be authentic. The sale of counterfeit products is strictly prohibited."
• There is no incentive for Amazon to clean up their website -- they make too much money. Amazon paid no federal income tax on $11.2 billion in profit in 2018 and a 1.2% tax rate on a $13.3 billion profit in 2019. First-quarter 2021 net income hit a first-ever high of $8 billion.

Amazon's new CCU summarizes, "Consumers deserve to get the authentic products they purchased."

When, Amazon?