Amazon announced that it destroyed more than 6 million counterfeit products in 2022 worldwide, double the amount destroyed in 2021, we can read in its annual Brand Protection report published Tuesday. “Counterfeiters are targeting broadly,” from luxury items to everyday products, Dharmesh Mehta, Amazon’s vice president of seller partner services, told reporters.
In 2020, Amazon destroyed some 2 million counterfeit products, then 3 million in 2021. In 2022, the e-commerce giant stopped more than 800,000 attempts to create seller accounts (compared to 2.5 million in 2021 and 6 million in 2020) .
“Our preventative controls are working,” Amazon said, explaining that it requires its partner sellers to provide very detailed information about their identity, address, bank accounts, and even arranges video interviews between Amazon employees and these sellers, in order to verify the data.
$1.2 billion invested
Last year, Amazon prosecuted or reported to law enforcement more than 1,300 suspected criminals in the US, UK, Europe and China in 2022, citing working with major brands like Cartier. It has also invested more than 1.2 billion dollars (compared to 700 million in 2020) and has employed more than 15,000 people (including artificial intelligence software developers and specialized researchers) specially dedicated to the fight against counterfeiting.
“We are proud of the progress made over the past year and will continue to invest and innovate until we eliminate counterfeiting (on our platform),” Dharmesh Mehta said in the report. The European Court of Justice cleared the way in December for platforms to be held liable for selling counterfeits, ruling that Amazon could be seen as promoting fake products by the famous French shoemaker Louboutin sold on its site by third parties.
Source: BFM TV
