Amazon is establishing a Counterfeit Crimes Unit to combat fake products on the platform

Just a heads up, if you buy something through our links, we may get a small share of the sale. It’s one of the ways we keep the lights on here. Click here for more.

While not nearly as notorious as something like Wish, Amazon has its fair share of questionable sellers on its platform. These sellers dress up their products, entice buyers with low prices, and proceed to sell them counterfeit products. Many of us can spot these fakes, but that hasn’t stopped people from getting burned before.

Now, Amazon is looking to bolster its counterfeit measures, announcing today that it is setting up a Counterfeit Crimes Unit to combat the growing number of fake products on its website. The team, made up of members around the world, will include former federal prosecutors, experienced investigators, and data analysts. In the press release, Amazon also notes that it spent $500 million in 2019 to combat fraud, abuse, and counterfeit issues.

The end game here is to use this Crimes Unit to help Amazon pursue civil litigation against offenders, as well as assist brands in both joint and independent investigations. Amazon will also task the Counterfeit Crimes Unit with assisting law enforcement in criminal actions against counterfeit sellers across the globe.

“Every counterfeiter is on notice that they will be held accountable to the maximum extent possible under the law, regardless of where they attempt to sell their counterfeits or where they’re located,” said Dharmesh Mehta, Vice President, Customer Trust and Partner Support, Amazon.

As The Verge reports, counterfeit issues on Amazon is a huge problem, with brands like Nike pulling products from Amazon due to counterfeit issues. They also note that even Amazon itself deals with counterfeiters selling knockoff Amazon products.

What do you think? Glad to see Amazon taking this step with the Counterfeit Crimes Unit? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• It looks like Amazon wants to add live programming to Prime Video
• Amazon is banning police from using its facial recognition tech for one measly year
• Amazon’s first AAA video game, Crucible, is actually a blast to play
• Elon Musk goes to Twitter to state that Amazon needs to be broken up because “monopolies are wrong”

Josiah Motley

Former KnowTechie editor.