Amazon to Crack Down on Counterfeit Goods Sold on its Marketplace

[MacRumors]

Amazon has acknowledged a worsening counterfeit problem on its site and says it has made fighting the fake products a "major goal" for next year (via The Verge).

Last month Apple filed a lawsuit against Mobile Star LLC which it accused of infringing upon its trademarks and copyrights by selling counterfeit power adapters and cables on Amazon. Apple claimed the fake products posed a risk to life, and said it had found that almost 90 percent of so-called genuine Apple products and accessories it purchased from Amazon over the last nine months were actually counterfeit.

Following the lawsuit, Amazon said it had "zero tolerance for the sale of counterfeits" on its website and said it was working closely with manufacturers and brands to aggressively pursue the wrongdoers.

Bloomberg reports that Amazon now says it plans to create a registry to prevent fakes and wants legitimate brands to register even if they don't plan on selling products on the site. Merchants then have to obtain official brand permission before they can sell goods from the company.

Amazon has reportedly been experimenting with Nike and other brands to build the registry, but the company says it will target more brands in 2017 in an attempt to get them to sell their products on Amazon's marketplace. According to the report, Amazon tried to get the NFL and MLB to sell merchandise through its online marketplace, but the negotiations stalled because of a perceived lack of control over existing fake goods.

Article Link: Amazon to Crack Down on Counterfeit Goods Sold on its Marketplace

 

[keysofanxiety]

Long overdue, but great news.

 

[Kebabselector]

I think the Marketplace cheapens the brand (and they are not the only people to do this). If I wanted cheap dodgy goods I'd use ebay.

 

[Bryan Bowler]

I think the Marketplace cheapens the brand (and they are not the only people to do this). If I wanted cheap dodgy goods I'd use ebay.

Totally agree. I view them as cheap.

 

[mixel]

Excellent! It's pretty crazy the extent of accessory cloning, people even go so far as to clone stuff like Belkin and Anker cables. :/

 

[Quu]

This is a good thing, I'm very tired of the fakes on there.

 

[joueboy]

If Mobile Star would pay the license of their product to Apple would that make all their product MFi? Obviously Mobile Star is infringing the design and they need to pay their dues.

 

[Phil A.]

If Mobile Star would pay the license of their product to Apple would that make all their product MFi? Obviously Mobile Star is infringing the design and they need to pay their dues.

I think the biggest problem is they've been selling stuff as "genuine apple" when it's clearly nothing of the kind: Nothing to do with paying dues and everything to do with blatant counterfeiting as I understand it

 

[TheHorrorNerd]

There should be an "Amazon Verified Official" tag for goods...
They should be able to list horrible third party accessories but should be honest about it.
Shouldn't be able to say "Apple Official charger"
[doublepost=1480425820][/doublepost]

If Mobile Star would pay the license of their product to Apple would that make all their product MFi? Obviously Mobile Star is infringing the design and they need to pay their dues.

Not likely. Not only is it licensing but quality specs as well to be MFI

 

[freepomme]

Amazon has a counterfeit problem. They can't be trusted.

 

[PBG4 Dude]

Funny how Amazon didn't see a problem when Birkenstock pulled all product from Amazon due to fakes but as soon as Apple launches a suit, it's a different story completely.

 

[redscull]

Good. I've quit buying electronics altogether off Amazon because of this problem.

 

[newyorkone]

Too late. I still won't buy most electronics, memory cards, and batteries from them...

 

[skinned66]

It's easily avoidable most of the time if you scrutinize what you buy a little more. I've never bought counterfeit anything on Amazon, and it's not just luck of the draw.

 

[definitive]

They should have done this years ago. Now they're looking like the jerks in the eyes of the customers, so they have to do something.

 

[Zorn]

I think the Marketplace cheapens the brand (and they are not the only people to do this). If I wanted cheap dodgy goods I'd use ebay.

I agree with you 110%. Lots of other sites got into this crappy business as well, if I do a search on Best Buy's site or Newegg, often times I'll get dozens of pages of "marketplace" garbage. Much of it is discontinued products as well, I can't understand why a major brand would want their storefront littered with old, dodgy junk that they have no quality control over. eBay/Craigslist exist for a reason, we don't need a knockoff of them operating on every retailer's site.

 

[macTW]

I've got one word to describe the feelings I have about this...


Finally.

 

[joueboy]

I think the biggest problem is they've been selling stuff as "genuine apple" when it's clearly nothing of the kind: Nothing to do with paying dues and everything to do with blatant counterfeiting as I understand it

The reason why I brought that up because the functionality of the product that is copied works just like the original or an MFI product. Obviously Apple argues about safely but if this was licensed then it is now labeled as safe. I know about issues being caught on fire but it did happen to Apple products or MFI licensed product as well. I know for sure that this company is blatantly counterfeiting the product.

 

[BeefCake 15]

Get rid of Monoprice too until they get their act together and produce quality cables again, can't even keep count of how many cables I needed to exchange with them as they stop working or all of a sudden stop connecting/charging devices.

 

[gnasher729]

If Mobile Star would pay the license of their product to Apple would that make all their product MFi? Obviously Mobile Star is infringing the design and they need to pay their dues.

The problem is not license fees. The problem is products that claim to be "genuine Apple" products and they are not. If they sold it at the same price as "similar to Apple product without MFi certification", that would be fine with me. Then the buyer can decide whether to take the risk or not.

 

[ftaok]

The reason why I brought that up because the functionality of the product that is copied works just like the original or an MFI product. Obviously Apple argues about safely but if this was licensed then it is now labeled as safe. I know about issues being caught on fire but it did happen to Apple products or MFI licensed product as well. I know for sure that this company is blatantly counterfeiting the product.

The problem is that the MobileStar chargers look just like the Apple chargers, but they skimp on the quality of the internals. From the outside, they look just like Apple chargers, plus they are listed as Apple OEM chargers.

This is the definition of counterfeit.

It's not like Anker with the mifi license. Anker stuff doesn't looke like Apple stuff.

 

[44267547]

Amazon has a counterfeit problem. They can't be trusted.

And so does the multitude of other companies selling electronic products. But at least they acknowledged it and are taking action. Amazon can't perpetually stop every item on their website from being validated, hence why they are taking action on fraudulent sellers if caught.

 

[CarlJ]

If Mobile Star would pay the license of their product to Apple would that make all their product MFi? Obviously Mobile Star is infringing the design and they need to pay their dues.

Apple would not grant MFI licensing to a product specifically designed to be mistaken for one of Apple's, and they would not grant MFI licensing for a product with such poorly designed and constructed and dangerous internals.

 

[freepomme]

And so does the multitude of other companies selling electronic products. But at least they acknowledged it and are taking action. Amazon can't perpetually stop every item on their website from being validated, hence why they are taking action on fraudulent sellers if caught.

But do they even have any form for customers to fill out to report counterfeit? I'll sue!

 

[Nick11Mac]

The article is good news. About time.