Amazon Takes Counterfeit Problems To The Court, Sues Merchants To Crack Down Knock-Offs

Amazon filed a lawsuit against a group of sellers in Washington Superior Court in King County on Monday. This is one of Amazon's initiatives in cracking down counterfeiters following complaints from company owners that counterfeits were affecting their sales and might put customers at risk.

Amazon and Fitness Anywhere both sued merchants selling TRX athletic fitness equipment. Another suit was filed against merchants for selling fake Forearm Forklift. Aside from selling fake equipment, the lawsuit states that the defendants even attempted to conceal their fraudulent activities by providing Amazon invoices claiming to prove the authenticity of their products.

Lopreiato, President of Forearm Forklift, calls the lawsuit a mere public relations stunt, which would likely not have a good effect on his business. Since the brand is included in the lawsuit, customers might anticipate all of the products in Amazon are counterfeits along with the real products.

Further, Emily Wilcox, co-owner of Fayebeline said that the lawsuit is overdue. She adds that while knock-offs of her products were manageable, she had to hire another worker to search knock-offs on Amazon and try to have them removed.

Lopreiato then suggests that instead of taking counterfeit issues to court, Amazon should be more open to other brands' complaints, be keener in removing knock-offs, removing and suspending counterfeiters.

As Amazon continues to grow exponentially, counterfeiters may grow with it, and suppressing them might prove to be more challenging, what with all the hundreds of millions posted on Amazon. However, merchants voiced their concerns months’ prior. Birkenstock even pulled out of Amazon earlier this year due to counterfeiters, and Apple filed a lawsuit against Amazon's supplier Mobile Star for supplying knock-off power adapters and cables.

Amazon already has in place a program that filters sellers. In fact, the retailer giant spends tens of millions of dollars in putting together technology that reviews counterfeiters. The company has automated systems that inspect seller information to weed out bad actors, and immediately block them before they can put anything up for sale.

Amazon declined to comment on the lawsuit.