In 2021, Amazon identified, seized, and appropriately disposed of more than 3 million counterfeit products, according to the company’s Brand Protection Report.
This number includes counterfeits that were sent to Amazon’s fulfillment centres and situations where Amazon worked with brands and law enforcement to find counterfeiters’ warehouses and facilities, and get them shut down. In 2021, Amazon said it has invested more than $900 million and had more than 12,000 people—including machine learning scientists, software developers, and expert investigators—who were dedicated to remove counterfeit, fraud, and other forms of abuse from the platform.
“Our team continues to innovate to stay ahead of bad actors while working in partnership with rights owners, law enforcement, and other experts to ensure customers can continue to shop with confidence. While we are proud of the progress we have made, we will not stop until we drive counterfeits to zero in our store,” said Dharmesh Mehta, Amazon’s vice president of Selling Partner Services. “
Frauds down
Further, Amazon said it has stopped more than 2.5 million attempts to create fraudulent selling accounts, preventing bad actors from publishing any product for sale. This is down from more than 6 million attempts the prior year.
The average number of valid notices of infringement submitted to Amazon by a brand in Brand Registry also decreased by 25 per cent in 2021 as compared to previous year. In 2021, Amazon’s Counterfeit Crimes Unit (CCU) has filed civil litigation against more than 170 counterfeiters in the U.S. courts. It sued or referred more than 600 criminals for investigation in the US., UK, EU, and China, which is an increase of more than 300 per cent over 2020.