Amazon has formed an internal “Counterfeit Crimes Unit” to bolster its fight against knock-off products on Amazon.com, as the company seeks to show customers, legislators and legitimate retailers that it’s tough on e-commerce crime.
The new unit, announced Wednesday morning, brings together former federal prosecutors with investigators and data analysts. The group will allow Amazon to “more effectively pursue civil litigation against bad actors, work with brands in joint or independent investigations, and aid law enforcement officials worldwide in criminal actions against counterfeiters,” the company says in a news release.
The company describes it as the latest step in its longstanding effort to detect and combat malicious activity on its site, using advanced technology and teams of investigators in a quest to eliminate counterfeit products on Amazon.com.
But lawmakers have been calling on Amazon to go further to reduce the prevalence of counterfeit products on its site after numerous reports and studies have spotlighted the problem.
A Wall Street Journal investigation in August, for example, found more than 4,100 products on Amazon.com that federal agencies had declared unsafe. A Washington Post article last fall described a “flea market of fakes” on Amazon.com, saying its system was “failing to stanch the flow of dubious goods.”
Amazon turned the tables in its announcement on Wednesday, calling on governments to do more, as well.
“We are working hard to disrupt and dismantle these criminal networks, and we applaud the law enforcement authorities who are already part of this fight,” said Dharmesh Mehta, Amazon vice president of Customer Trust and Partner Support, in a statement. “We urge governments to give these authorities the investigative tools, funding, and resources they need to bring criminal counterfeiters to justice because criminal enforcement – through prosecution and other disruption measures such as freezing assets – is one of the most effective ways to stop them.”
Former federal prosecutors recently hired into the Counterfeit Crimes Unit include Cristina Posa, former senior counsel for the U.S. Justice Department’s Crime & Intellectual Property Section, and past deputy chief of the National Security and Cybercrime Section of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York.
The group “will mine Amazon’s data, cull information from external resources such as payment service providers and open source intelligence, and leverage on-the-ground assets to connect the dots between targets,” the company says.
Amazon says it spent more than $500 million in 2019 to fight various forms of fraud, including counterfeit products, employing more than 8,000 people as part of the overall effort, and blocking more than 6 billion “bad listings” during the year.
The company says its “comprehensive proactive anti-counterfeit programs have ensured that 99.9% of all Amazon products viewed by customers did not have a valid counterfeit complaint.”
Amazon’s Project Zero initiative has the goal of eliminating counterfeit goods on Amazon.com. Other Amazon initiatives include Transparency, which promises to eliminate counterfeits for enrolled products. Last week, Amazon joined with Valentino to sue an alleged counterfeiter of the Italian luxury fashion brand’s Rockstud shoes.
