Brand Protection Report
Amazon strives to be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where people can find and discover the widest possible selection of authentic goods. Today, we and our millions of selling partners – the vast majority of which are small and medium-sized businesses – serve hundreds of millions of customers worldwide.
We are proud to help these small businesses thrive and create hundreds of thousands of new jobs in their local communities. We work hard to earn and maintain customer trust, and strictly prohibit the sale of counterfeit products. We constantly innovate to detect and prevent counterfeit products from reaching our customers.
Read our full report to learn more about our latest innovations.
We are proud to help these small businesses thrive and create hundreds of thousands of new jobs in their local communities. We work hard to earn and maintain customer trust, and strictly prohibit the sale of counterfeit products. We constantly innovate to detect and prevent counterfeit products from reaching our customers.
Read our full report to learn more about our latest innovations.
Our latest innovations
Enhancing robust
proactive controls
We’ve made it even harder for a bad actor to register a selling account. A key part of our account-verification process that helped make this possible is our in-person verification program, which requires prospective sellers to have one-on-one conversations with one of our team members to verify their identity and documentation. This process is further enhanced through verification of the seller’s physical location and payment instruments.
We also leverage machine-learning models that use hundreds of data points about the prospective account to detect risk, including relations to previously enforced bad actors.
We also leverage machine-learning models that use hundreds of data points about the prospective account to detect risk, including relations to previously enforced bad actors.
Developing powerful tools for brands
Amazon Patent Evaluation Express (APEX) was officially launched as a feature within Brand Registry’s Report a Violation tool, enabling brands to request evaluations for disputes of utility patents through the tool and track the decision process. Because of the technical complexity of many utility patents, it can be complicated to determine if a product is infringing based on visual cues alone and decisioning can require expertise in both technology and patent law. That is why the APEX process brings in a neutral third-party expert evaluator to determine if a product is infringing. These lawyers are not associated with Amazon, and Amazon is not involved in the determination of infringement.
Holding counterfeiters accountable
Amazon launched a blueprint for public and private sector partnership to stop counterfeits, where we share three primary opportunities for increased collaboration, including:
• Exchanging information about counterfeit activity to help stop counterfeits at the border
• Sharing information about blocked counterfeiters to help stop more counterfeiters earlier
• Increasing resources for law enforcement to prosecute counterfeiters
The blueprint prompted a dialogue among Amazon and policymakers about industry and government cooperation, information sharing on counterfeiting criminal networks, and the attempted importation of counterfeit products.
• Exchanging information about counterfeit activity to help stop counterfeits at the border
• Sharing information about blocked counterfeiters to help stop more counterfeiters earlier
• Increasing resources for law enforcement to prosecute counterfeiters
The blueprint prompted a dialogue among Amazon and policymakers about industry and government cooperation, information sharing on counterfeiting criminal networks, and the attempted importation of counterfeit products.
The global impact of Brand Protection
Brand Registry launched in 2017 and has expanded globally into the United States, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom. We continuously innovate and expand to new markets to better serve our brands. In 2021, we hit a number of milestones due in part to a larger than $900 million investment and over 12,000 Amazon employees that help protect our stores across the world.
OVER
700K
Active brands enrolled worldwide in Brand Registry.
OVER
4B
Bad listings blocked before they were listed in our stores. These were suspected of being fraudulent, infringing, counterfeit, at risk of other forms of abuse, or presented other significant product-quality concerns.
OVER
8B
Listing updates scanned every day for suspicious activity. We take down abusive listings before they go live.
OVER
2.5M
Attempts prevented by bad actors to create new selling accounts in 2021, stopping them before they published a single product for sale.
OVER
99%
Average reduction in suspected infringements reported by enrolled brands since Brand Registry launched.
OVER
3M
Counterfeit products identified, seized, and appropriately disposed of in 2021, preventing them from harming customers or being resold elsewhere.
Cross-industry partnerships
to stop counterfeits
Amazon works directly with brands and in partnership with leading industry associations to get feedback
that allows us to continue to improve our programs, share our best practices to help others be more
successful, identify trends, pilot new capabilities, and ultimately better protect customers and brands.
that allows us to continue to improve our programs, share our best practices to help others be more
successful, identify trends, pilot new capabilities, and ultimately better protect customers and brands.
In 2021, we have memoranda of understandings with:
- Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)
- Confindustria Moda
- Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI)
- German Anti-Counterfeiting Association (APM)
- Imaging Supplies Coalition (ISC)
- Indian Beauty & Hygiene Association
- International Anti-Counterfeiting Coalition (IACC)
- Italian Anti-Counterfeiting Association (INDICAM)
- Michigan State University’s Centre for Anti-Counterfeiting and Product Protection (A-CAPP)
- Amazon is a Signatory of the EU Memorandum of Understanding on the sale of counterfeit products between Rights Owners and Online Marketplaces led by the European Commission (DG GROW)
SUCCESS STORIES
Things are different with the Amazon Patent Evaluation Express. It is a simple and affordable process with a clear end point that has been effective in enforcing our patent. APEX is a game changer for small businesses.
LG sees Transparency as a great way to ensure that consumers use genuine LG filters while protecting them from counterfeit products.
We are excited to see that Project Zero is expanding into new marketplaces. The program has already had a very positive impact on our enforcement and we are glad to see Amazon’s continued commitment to protecting our brand across the world.
PRADA Group struggles intensely against the problematical issues related to online product infringements, on a worldwide scale by investing a great deal of time and resources. The long-term collaboration with Amazon have helped us to monitor and control the presence of infringing products on their platform.
Over the last year we have been working closely with Amazon’s Global Brand Relations Team. Through the good and close dialogue, we have established, we are now moving together in the right direction. Gaining Amazon’s support is important to Pandora, as we adopt a zero-tolerance policy for counterfeiters who damage our brand positioning and reputation online and we expect that we together can achieve greater results.
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Get started with Brand Registry
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