Brand Protection Report
Amazon strives to be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where people can find and discover the widest possible selection of authentic goods. Today, we and our millions of selling partners – the vast majority of which are small- and medium-sized businesses – serve hundreds of millions of customers worldwide.
We are proud to help these small businesses thrive and create hundreds of thousands of new jobs in their local communities. We work hard to earn and maintain customer trust, and strictly prohibit the sale of counterfeit products. We constantly innovate to detect and prevent counterfeit products from reaching our customers.
Read our full report to learn more about our latest innovations.
We are proud to help these small businesses thrive and create hundreds of thousands of new jobs in their local communities. We work hard to earn and maintain customer trust, and strictly prohibit the sale of counterfeit products. We constantly innovate to detect and prevent counterfeit products from reaching our customers.
Read our full report to learn more about our latest innovations.
Our latest innovations
Robust proactive controls
Through our continued investment in advanced machine learning techniques, we have improved our proactive controls, automating and scaling our intellectual property protection and counterfeit-detection systems. These systems operate continuously throughout every step of the process—from the moment someone tries to register a new selling account, create a listing, and update a product listing. Our robust seller verification, including connecting one-on-one with prospective sellers through video chat, coupled with continued advancements in our machine learning-based detection, are deterring bad actors from even attempting to create new Amazon selling accounts.
Powerful tools for brands
For several years, Amazon has been working with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to prevent fraud and abuse in the trademark system. In 2022, we continued to enhance our collaboration with the USPTO. Amazon directly receives and acts upon information from the USPTO regarding registration status and parties that have been subject to USPTO sanctions, including attorneys that have been blocked by the USPTO. This is to ensure that fraudulent trademark applications and registrations are not used to enroll in Brand Registry. We leverage this information to remove false and otherwise abusive brands and share trends within our store with the USPTO to support their investigation of potential fraud by their applicants and registrants.
Holding bad actors accountable
We have expanded our work with U.S. Customs and Border Protection to mutually exchange information. In 2022, Amazon provided leads to CBP about confirmed counterfeiters, and CBP provided information to Amazon that allowed us to stop counterfeit goods destined for our fulfillment network and remove infringing listings from our store. We are pursuing similar programs with customs agencies across the globe. We are encouraged to continue these partnerships with customs agencies to speed interventions around products, provide greater aid to law enforcement, and better protect customers. These partnerships prevent counterfeits from reaching Amazon customers and stop products from crossing borders and entering domestic supply chains so they are not sold through any retailer or store.
The global impact of Brand Protection
Brand Registry launched in 2017 and has expanded globally into the United States, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom. We continuously innovate and expand to new markets to better serve our brands. In 2022, we hit a number of milestones due in part to the over $1.2 billion invested and the over 15,000 Amazon employees that help protect our stores across the world.
OVER
35%
Reduction in valid notices of infringement submitted by brands in Brand Registry.
OVER
8B
Daily attempted changes to product detail pages were scanned by Amazon’s automated technology for signs of potential abuse.
OVER
800K
Bad actor attempts to create new selling accounts stopped.
OVER
99%
Of blocked or removed listings were found by our proactive controls, before a brand had to ever find and report it. These listings were suspected of being fraudulent, infringing, counterfeit, or at risk of other forms of abuse.
OVER
6M
Counterfeit items were identified, seized, and appropriately disposed of, completely removing them from the supply chain.
OVER
1,300
Criminals pursued through litigation and criminal referrals.
Disrupting counterfeit networks across the globe
In addition to disrupting counterfeiters through civil suits, the Amazon Counterfeit Crimes Unit (CCU) works with law enforcement on joint enforcement and seizures across the globe, including taking action against bad actors, suppliers, logistics providers, social media influencers, fake invoice providers, and more. In 2022:
- Amazon shared information with several Public Security Bureaus in China that helped law enforcement raid counterfeiting operations across multiple provinces, seizing more than 240,000 counterfeit items and dismantling three major counterfeiting networks.
- German law enforcement acted on intelligence from Amazon against nine suspected members of a German-based counterfeit printer ink and toner ring that attempted to deceive customers by selling fake toner cartridges that were marketed as genuine products.
- Amazon supported anti-counterfeiting activities undertaken by the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) of the City of London Police. Amazon’s CCU joined the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) to provide detailed information to the City of London Police about a large-scale counterfeit CD operation. PIPCU’s actions, including raids at three different locations, led to the seizure of more than 32,000 counterfeit CDs.
SUCCESS STORIES
Things are different with the Amazon Patent Evaluation Express. It is a simple and affordable process with a clear end point that has been effective in enforcing our patent. APEX is a game changer for small businesses.
LG sees Transparency as a great way to ensure that consumers use genuine LG filters while protecting them from counterfeit products.
We are excited to see that Project Zero is expanding into new marketplaces. The program has already had a very positive impact on our enforcement and we are glad to see Amazon’s continued commitment to protecting our brand across the world.
PRADA Group struggles intensely against the problematical issues related to online product infringements, on a worldwide scale by investing a great deal of time and resources. The long-term collaboration with Amazon have helped us to monitor and control the presence of infringing products on their platform.
Over the last year we have been working closely with Amazon’s Global Brand Relations Team. Through the good and close dialogue, we have established, we are now moving together in the right direction. Gaining Amazon’s support is important to Pandora, as we adopt a zero-tolerance policy for counterfeiters who damage our brand positioning and reputation online and we expect that we together can achieve greater results.
We are proud of the work achieved together with the Amazon team to fight online counterfeiting over the last few years. Always open to new counterfeit case referrals, the Amazon team has consistently demonstrated a commitment to transparency, partnership and diligence to get results, however complex the issue.
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