Amazon 'Seized and Destroyed' 2 Million Counterfeit Products In 2020

Amazon 'seized and destroyed' over 2 million counterfeit products that sellers sent to Amazon warehouses in 2020 and 'blocked more than 10 billion suspected bad listings before they were published in our store,' the company said in its first 'Brand Protection Report.' Ars Technica reports: In 2020, 'we seized and destroyed more than 2 million products sent to our fulfillment centers and that we detected as counterfeit before being sent to a customer,' Amazon's report said. 'In cases where counterfeit products are in our fulfillment centers, we separate the inventory and destroy those products so they are not resold elsewhere in the supply chain,' the report also said. Third-party sellers can also ship products directly to consumers instead of using Amazon's shipping system. The 2 million fakes found in Amazon fulfillment centers would only account for counterfeit products from sellers using the 'Fulfilled by Amazon' service.

The counterfeit problem got worse over the past year. 'Throughout the pandemic, we've seen increased attempts by bad actors to commit fraud and offer counterfeit products,' Amazon VP Dharmesh Mehta wrote in a blog post yesterday. Amazon's new report was meant to reassure legitimate sellers that their products won't be counterfeited. While counterfeits remain a problem for unsuspecting Amazon customers, the e-commerce giant said that 'fewer than 0.01 percent of all products sold on Amazon received a counterfeit complaint from customers' in 2020. Of course, people may buy and use counterfeit products without ever realizing they are fake or without reporting it to Amazon, so that percentage may not capture the extent of the problem.

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