Brand
Protection Report
Amazon’s Commitment to Brand Protection
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.
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
Enhancing robust proactive controls
We made it even harder for a bad actor to register a selling account. A key part of our account verification process that helped make this possible is our in-person verification program, which requires prospective sellers to have one-on-one conversations with one of our team members to verify their identity and documentation. This process is further enhanced through verification of the seller’s physical location and payment instruments.
We also leverage machine learning models that use hundreds of data points about the prospective account to detect risk, including relations to previously enforced bad actors.
We also leverage machine learning models that use hundreds of data points about the prospective account to detect risk, including relations to previously enforced bad actors.
Developing powerful tools for brands
Amazon Patent Evaluation Express (APEX) was officially launched as a feature within Brand Registry’s Report a Violation tool, enabling brands to request evaluations for disputes of utility patents through the tool and track the decision process. Because of the technical complexity of many utility patents, it can be complicated to determine if a product is infringing based on visual cues alone and decisioning can require expertise in both technology and patent law. That is why the APEX process brings in a neutral third-party expert evaluator to determine if a product is infringing. These lawyers are not associated with Amazon, and Amazon is not involved in the determination of infringement.
Holding counterfeiters accountable
Amazon launched a blueprint for public and private sector partnership to stop counterfeits, where we share three primary opportunities for increased collaboration, including:
- Exchanging information about counterfeit activity to help stop counterfeits at the border
- Sharing information about blocked counterfeiters to help stop more counterfeiters earlier
- Increasing resources for law enforcement to prosecute counterfeiters
The blueprint prompted a dialogue among Amazon and policymakers about industry and government cooperation, information sharing on counterfeiting criminal networks, and the attempted importation of counterfeit products
OVER
700,000
active brands enrolled worldwide in Brand Registry.
The Global Impact of Brand Protection
Brand Registry launched in 2017 and has expanded globally into the United States, Australia, 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 2021, we hit a number of milestones due in part to the over $900 million invested and the over 12,000 Amazon employees that help protect our stores across the world.
OVER
4 billion
Bad listings blocked before they were listed in our stores. These were suspected of being fraudulent, infringing, counterfeit, at risk of other forms of abuse, or presented other significant product quality concerns.
OVER
3 million
Counterfeit products identified, seized, and appropriately disposed of in 2021, preventing them from harming customers or being resold elsewhere.
OVER
2.5 million
Attempts prevented by bad actors to create new selling accounts in 2021, stopping them before they published a single product for sale.
Cross-industry partnerships to stop counterfeits
Amazon works directly with brands and in partnership with leading industry associations to get feedback that allows us to continue to improve our programs, share our best practices to help others be more successful, identify trends, pilot new capabilities, and ultimately better protect customers and brands. In 2021, we have memoranda of understandings with:
- Confindustria Moda
- Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)
- Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI)
- German Anti-Counterfeiting Association (APM)
- Amazon is a Signatory of the EU Memorandum of Understanding on the sale of counterfeit products between Rights Owners and Online Marketplaces led by the European Commission (DG GROW)
- Imaging Supplies Coalition (ISC)
- Indian Beauty & Hygiene Association
- International AntiCounterfeiting Coalition (IACC)
- Italian Anti-Counterfeiting Association (INDICAM)
- Michigan State University’s Center for Anti-Counterfeiting and Product Protection (A-CAPP)
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.
LG sees Transparency as a great way to ensure that consumers use
genuine LG filters while protecting them from counterfeit products.
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.
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.
One of the biggest benefits of Amazon’s IP Accelerator is the additional security it provides businesses like ours in terms of stopping potential counterfeiters.
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