Amazon said it destroyed more than 6 million counterfeit products worldwide in 2022, double the amount destroyed in 2021, its annual Brand Protection report reads.
“Counterfeiters are targeting broadly,” from luxury goods to everyday products, Dharmesh Mehta, Amazon’s vice president of seller partner services, told reporters.
In 2020, Amazon had destroyed some 2 million counterfeit goods, rising to 3 million in 2021.
In 2022, more than 800,000 attempts to create seller accounts were stopped by the e-commerce giant (compared to 2.5 million in 2021 and 6 million in 2020).
“Our preventive controls are working,” said Amazon, explaining that it requires its partner sellers to provide very detailed information on their identity, address, bank accounts and even organizes video interviews between Amazon employees and these sellers, intended for to check the data.
Last year, Amazon prosecuted or reported to law enforcement authorities more than 1,300 suspected offenders in the US, UK, Europe and China in 2022, citing working with major brands such as Cartier.
It has also invested more than 1.2 billion dollars (compared to 700 million in 2020) and employed more than 15,000 people (including artificial intelligence software developers and specialized investigators) particularly dedicated to the fight against counterfeiting.
“We are proud of the progress made over the past year and we will continue to invest and innovate until we end counterfeiting (on our platform),” Dharmesh Mehta said in the report.
The Court of Justice of the European Union paved the way in December for platforms to be held liable for the sale of counterfeits, ruling that Amazon could be considered to be promoting fake products from the famous French shoemaker Louboutin sold on its site by third parties.