This holiday season, the fight against the fakes is on.
That’s according to Amazon, which is launching new tools aimed against counterfeiters on its platform. The tools are called “Brand Central,” and they are intended to help merchants thwart other merchants from selling an imitation or counterfeit version of their product.
The timing of this comes after Amazon came under fire after a report regarding fake items and a lawsuit aimed at these types of sellers. Turns out, third-party sellers – particularly those based in China – are increasingly a problem in the marketplace. As Amazon is growing, so are the number of vendors pushing fakes on its marketplace.
Some examples of this include a fake animal skulls claiming to be from Skulls Unlimited, which was recently featured in PYMNTS’ Weird Commerce. Birkenstock sandals – better known as Fakenstocks – and Apple products are also favored target of those selling fake goods as the real deal.
Legitimate merchants tend to view counterfeiters as “unfair competition,” and would like to see them purged. However, those sellers also note that complaints about counterfeiters made directly to Amazon have “fallen on deaf ears” in the past.
As for the new “Brand Central,” the details are still kept under wraps, but the concept is slated to help smaller sellers protect their trademarks and other types of intellectual property.
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Amazon underscores that the lawsuits are a product of a handful of “bad actors” but that it wants to throw out counterfeit items and bring back customer trust.
