June 13, 2024
SEATTLE – A June 11 Amazon news article reports that Amazon’s Counterfeit Crimes Unit (CCU) has filed six lawsuits against bad actors operating various illicit schemes that attempt to evade Amazon’s product approval processes—such as product vetting requirements. These requirements must be met before a product is approved for sale in the Amazon store.
According to Amazon, those who run the schemes often provide fake product invoices to bad actors who are attempting to sell counterfeit goods. The CCU often partners with brands such as YETI and Canon to file joint lawsuits against bad actors attempting to sell counterfeits in the Amazon store, but the lawsuits filed today target a new category of bad actor operating an emerging and evasive scheme.
“These illegal online services promised to submit fraudulent documents on behalf of bad actors to Amazon in an attempt to sell counterfeit or other infringing products in the Amazon store,” said Kebharu Smith, director of Amazon’s CCU in the report. “Our CCU team may be most known for our relentless pursuit of counterfeiters across the retail industry, but these six separate lawsuits serve as a message that we will work to dismantle new and emerging forms of fraud to hold bad actors accountable across the counterfeit ecosystem, regardless of where or how they operate.”
Amazon staff reporters explain: “The defendants named in the lawsuits claim to handle every step of the product approval process in exchange for fees. When hired, defendants gain access to the bad actors’ seller accounts and submit fraudulent documents to Amazon in an effort to evade Amazon’s vetting and approval requirements.”
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