Amazon unveils counterfeit-tracking initiative

Amazon Inc. announced on Thursday a counterfeit-tracking initiative in an effort to help retail and online stores crack down on marketplace counterfeits and organized crime on their platform. 

In a news release, Amazon said that its Anti-Counterfeiting Exchange (ACX) will allow participating stores to share information about confirmed counterfeiters who attempted to use their services to try to sell counterfeit products.

Along with sharing information about the counterfeits, ACX subscribers can also identify and stop possible thefts quicker than usual. 

“In accordance with industry standards and best practices, an independent third party provides anonymized access for participants to share and receive information,” the news release reads. 

The new initiative will also enable regular information sharing so subscribers can use the information to aid their efforts “to detect and address counterfeiting, improve their individual risk evaluation systems, and make more robust referrals to law enforcement so bad actors can be held accountable.” 

Amazon also noted that its initiative has already detected matching accounts where the same counterfeiter tried to create selling accounts on Amazon and at least one other store operator, the news release reads.

“We want our customers to have confidence in their shopping experience and for brands to know they are protected from counterfeits,” the company’s Vice President of Selling Partner Services Dharmesh Mehta said in a statement. 

“As we laid out in our blueprint for private and public sector partnership to stop counterfeiters, we think it is critical to share information about confirmed counterfeiters to help the entire industry stop these criminals earlier. By leading the way in creating an industry-wide solution to share information about known counterfeiters, we are excited to have helped improve the industry’s collective ability to fight counterfeit crime, providing consumers and rights owners with greater peace of mind.”

The news comes as Amazon works with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection on a data pilot to help the company identify and target low-value e-commerce shipments that may be counterfeit goods or could break other regulations, according to Reuters.