Why Amazon Has So Many Counterfeit Goods

Seizures of counterfeit products at U.S. borders have increased 10-fold over the past two decades as e-commerce sales have boomed. The total value of seized goods - if they had been real - reached nearly $1.4 billion in 2018. Most are coming from mainland China or Hong Kong.

CNBC visited one of the busiest entry points in the U.S. to get a glimpse at the influx of fake products and to find out what authorities and companies are doing to stop counterfeiting.


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Why Amazon Has So Many Counterfeit Goods

[epoc]

Amazon should be held accountable for allowing counterfeits to be sold on their platform.

[CabanaD]

I used to buy EVERYTHING off Amazon but recently I’ve dramatically reduced my purchases. Anything critical like a switch or a motor I can’t trust to purchase from them. I’ve purchased car polish and even tooth paste which turned out to be counterfeit. Buying locally again.

[johnbailey]

Was Amazon's 3rd party marketplace a good idea? It has turned me off from buying a lot of stuff on Amazon. I would prefer that Amazon was the only seller on their market place.

[secretlover]

amazon should take responsibility on the product they sell, they should also be "fined" for being negligent on selling counterfeit. big companies should not always be exempted to such things

[funkbassGTR]

Nowadays everything's fake... i got fake friends too!

[MRDDev]

"US businesses are going out of business because of counterfeit" OH GOOD, you wanted to have cheap labor and get 200% return? You get what you deserve.

[Quack_special_prosecutor]

In all fairness, virtually every single item is made in china including the “originals”

[hGW]

TBH, y'all lost a ton of my sympathy when you defended "As Seen on TV" merch.

[sokkaoaf]

Brands use the Chinese for cheap labor, Chinese use brands to make a living. 🤷🏿‍♂️

[noahscarbrough]

I’m about done with Amazon. They are shaping up to be a very low quality replacement of the retail industry they decimated. Blatant counterfeit products everywhere. Constantly peddling low quality third-party sellers. “Prime” shipping takes 7 days. We don’t even have to get into the reputation they have with their workers. Hope they fall hard.

[nioxa]

They should add badges to certain stores that are the actual/ real/ official product. The company has to have paperwork/ proof that it’s the official company. It may help a little

[gueeds]

Amazon is terrible with counterfeit items. It is so easy for “sellers” to ship their counterfeit goods to Amazon to be sold by them so it looks legit.

[schwererziehbar]

I've been an Amazon user since 2002 and counterfeiting has become the main problem for me. Even high-tech stuff like hard drives get counterfeited now, and of course the fake products are super low quality. I can't even buy computer stuff on Amazon anymore because literally most of it is fake. It is Amazon's responsibility to stop counterfeit products on their platform and they have failed at that.

[bryanmiller]

It’s simply what happens when you run a sales business that has you sell products that are never actually seen, touched or let alone ever tested for quality, safety or even make sure it’s legal

[laurenconrad]

Amazon: We are fighting bad actors.
Me: Me too. I avoid buying from websites where warehouse employees are forced to pee in bottles.

[CynicalDriver]

*Statement:* Amazon is "allowing brands to delete counterfeiters themselves"...
*Translation:* We are outsourcing the cost of enforcement to the businesses already experiencing losses due to our lack of oversight on 3rd party seller registrations.

[BokeemWoodbeezy]

I work in the textile industry and know about machinery and garment production techniques. I lived in China for a year and a half. The US will never be able to stop the flow of 1:1 to counterfeits. This is the highest quality tier in the counterfeiting world. China is a very complicated web of relationships called guanxi. Factory owners have these relationships and can get information and trade secrets, use the same labor, use the same machinery, and source the same materials to manufacture a let’s say Dior, YSL, etc handbag or any other garment. Even if an item is made in Italy, fabric or another raw material or even perhaps the machinery used to make the garment comes from China. Zoje supplies equipment to a factory in Romania that manufactures down jackets for Moncler. Anyone reading this comment probably has something on “made in China.” IP laws are not enforced in China. If you trademark in the US, it is not protected in China. You have to trademark in China plus have the resources to combat counterfeiting in China.

[gorilla]

Amazon should also be principally liable for counterfeits products traded on their E-Commerce.

[nemo]

It's 2022 now and this is still a huge problem especially on amazon, the amount of fake products I've purchased and sent back from that site is ridiculous. Amazon's big promises have amounted to nothing and I'm starting to move away from using their site and instead buying direct from the manufacturer if possible especially when it comes to buying expensive electronics. I can see the golden age of Amazon dwindling one day in the future as consumer trust is slowly being eroded.

[josuevaldez]

Cant buy in amazon anymore, I just buy direct from the companies I like...