Amazon offers few barriers to entry for new sellers, and shoppers have great difficulty identifying counterfeits without being able to inspect products in-person. border rose from 3,244 to 33,810 per year, and that “global employment losses due to counterfeit goods were between 2 million and 2.6 million jobs in 2013, with job displacement expected to double by 2022.”Īmazon Created the Perfect Place for Counterfeits & Knock Off ProductsĭHS’s report found that Amazon has played a major role in enabling the counterfeit problem. The DHS’s report came after years of counterfeit products flourishing through ecommerce. In recent years, counterfeiters have sold contaminated food, cosmetics, and prescription drugs, sub-standard brake pads, airbags, helmets, and climbing gear, and faulty electronics that have caused injury, death, and fires, many of which received media attention.ĭHS also reported seizures of infringing goods at the U.S. ” The Department of Homeland Security Counterfeit ReportĪccording to the report, international trade of counterfeit goods rose 154% from $200 billion to $509 billion between 20. It’s a serious problem, so serious in fact that the department of Homeland Security (DHS) published a 54-page report in January 2020 titled, “ Combating Trafficking in Counterfeit and Pirated Goods.
Knock offs how to#
To make matters worse, they often do so while undercutting your pricing (check out this blog post to learn how to defend against competitor price erosion). On Amazon, this manifests as another company creating a copycat, knock off, or downright counterfeit of your product. One of the most frustrating experiences is when someone else takes credit for your work. The companies said that Instagram direct messages and shared links were used to instruct social media followers about how to buy knock-offs at Amazon.Knock Off Products are a Common Challenge Those involved in the scheme "advertised their counterfeit products on third-party social media websites by using 'hidden links' to direct their followers to the counterfeit Cartier products, while disguising the products as non-branded in the listings in the Amazon Store," the lawsuit said. The "sophisticated campaign" sought to avoid detection by having the social media influencer pitch jewelry as being Cartier, but the vendors made no mention of the luxury brand at their shops at Amazon, the lawsuit said.īuyers, however, were sent jewelry bearing Cartier trademarks, the companies alleged in court documents.Ī second lawsuit accuses an Amazon store operating under the name "YFXF" last year of selling counterfeit Cartier goods, disguising jewelry as unbranded at the website but sending buyers knock-offs bearing the company's trademark. The Seattle-based e-commerce giant has booted vendors targeted in the suit from its platform and teamed with Cartier to urge a federal court to make them pay damages and legal costs for hawking knock-off jewelry there from June 2020 through June 2021. "We don't just want to chase them away from Amazon - we want to stop them for good," Smith added.
"By using social media to promote counterfeit products, bad actors undermine trust and mislead customers," Amazon associate general counsel Kebharu Smith said in a statement. The influencer appeared to be a woman in Handan, China, and the merchants involved in the "counterfeiting scheme" were traced to other Chinese cities, according to court documents. The online personality used sites like Instagram to pitch Cartier jewelry such as "Love bracelets" to followers and then provided links that led to counterfeit versions on Amazon, one of two lawsuits alleged. court to accuse a social media influencer of working with Chinese firms to sell knock-offs of the luxury brand's jewelry on the e-commerce giant's site. Amazon and Cartier joined forces Wednesday in U.S.
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