Amazon Launches Industry Partnership to Help Retailers Identify Counterfeiters

Amazon has launched a private-sector partnership working to stop the sale of counterfeit goods.

The new Anti-Counterfeiting Exchange (ACX) allows participating stores to share information about counterfeiters to help all industry participants identify and stop counterfeiters who might try to use their services, Amazon said in a Thursday (April 20) press release.

“We want our customers to have confidence in their shopping experience and for brands to know they are protected from counterfeits,” Amazon Vice President of Selling Partner Services Dharmesh Mehta said in the release.

As PYMNTS reported in November 2022, business is booming for counterfeits.

Patrick Kilbride, senior vice president, global innovation policy center at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said in a November blog post that “worldwide trade in counterfeit and pirated goods amounts to over $500 billion each year,” that more than half of consumers think they may have purchased a fake item and that most consumers report purchasing those counterfeit items online.

Amazon reported April 4 that it had stopped 6 million counterfeit products from entering the ecosystem in 2022, making progress in combatting the waves of counterfeit merchandise that have plagued online marketplaces for years.

The firm also said it had blocked 800,000 fraudulent sellers from making it past the account creation step.

The newly launched ACX is designed to combat the strategy commonly used by counterfeiters of moving among different stores in order to try to sell their goods, according to the press release.

Participants can share and receive information about counterfeiters anonymously, the release said.

Other retailers and marketplace service providers interested in stopping the sale of counterfeit goods are invited to join ACX, per the release.

“As we laid out in our blueprint for private and public sector partnership to stop counterfeiters, we think it is critical to share information about confirmed counterfeiters to help the entire industry stop these criminals earlier,” Mehta said in the release. “By leading the way in creating an industry-wide solution to share information about known counterfeiters, we are excited to have helped improve the industry’s collective ability to fight counterfeit crime, providing consumers and rights owners with greater peace of mind.”

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