Amazon could end up on the US Notorious Marketplaces list, according to the Wall Street Journal. Whilst Amazon is a US marketplace and typically the Notorious Marketplaces list only contains businesses outside of the US, their overseas marketplaces might be about to be added courtesy of the Trump administration. It’s no secret that President Trump and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos don’t see eye to eye.
The problem Amazon face, is although they prohibit counterfeit goods on their platforms and invest heavily in combating counterfeits, too many brands are still claiming that their intellectual property rights are being infringed.
“Combatting counterfeit requires collaboration across the industry – from retailers, brands, law enforcement and government – and we continue to be actively engaged with these stakeholders as we hold bad actors accountable and drive counterfeit to zero in our store.”
– Amazon Statement
Already on the US Notorious Marketplaces list is Alibaba’s TaoBao, although the company regularly complains at their inclusion. Other marketplaces on list include DHgate, shopee and thepiratebay.
Amazon’s work to combat counterfeit goods include the Amazon Brand Registry. This enables Brands to control their product’s presentation on Amazon as well as keep a list of approved retailers who can sell their products. There have been a few complaints where merchants have suddenly discovered a new Brand registered and found their offers blocked, or who have inadvertently created new ASINs for a particular brands products again to find them ended. The problem is that any unapproved sellers or ASINs not created by the Brand are automatically assumed to be possible counterfeits under the Amazon Brand Registry program, even if the products are perfectly legitimate.
If any of Amazon’s overseas businesses are placed on the US Notorious Marketplaces list, it’s effect will be more public shame than a realistic expectation that consumers will avoid the platform. It’s notable that some Notorious Marketplaces are out and out shysters, but others like Alibaba’s TaoBao do their utmost to avoid having counterfeits on their site – consumers probably won’t even be aware Amazon have been added if that’s what happens.
3 Responses
Never going to happen, a silly story in my opinion, a President, facing impeachment charges for abuse of power to get at rivals, is hardly going to try to effectivity shut down America’s favourite online shopping channel and damage one of America’s largest corporations, clear it would be such political move driven by Trump dislike of Bezos.
Ebay is far worse for counterfeit products, (over the years I’ve had to submit literally hundreds of invoices proving mywhat I sell is legitimate, every time a customer says “I think it could be counterfeit” on Amazon, EBAY zero not once have they ever asked for anything. Even though sellers in China are claiming to be selling EU goods, made in the EU, for the EU market!!!!
What Trump like to shut down Amazon, well that’s a completely different question.
Amazon Brand Registry is a joke – Amazon created it so they can say they are doing something about protecting brands. In reality if you have a brand registered within the programme and you submit an infringement you get an automated reply within 10 minutes to say that the infringement won’t be removed. This is likely because Amazon want to entertain the squatter so they can push your price down. This has been our experience over the past week.
It is typical of big companies – they tell the public one thing but in practice it’s totally different. If Amazon wanted to do something effective they would simply have a tick box so that when a brand created a listing they can choose to not let others piggy-back on it unless approved by the brand. It is very simple but Amazon won’t do it because it may reduce their opportunity to make more money from fake sellers.
A little off-topic from the politics but still relevant to Amazon.
We’ve not had any success with Amazon brand registry. What we currently do is report, for example, piggybackers to general customer service. Our text will say that they’re in violation of Amazon’s terms of service.
Amazon customer service seems to react positively to this. The ticket will be transferred and the piggybackers removed within 48 hours.