Amazon commits to fighting counterfeiters

Wednesday, August 7, 2019 - 10:35 by Sarah Collinson

Amazon’s UK customers will be pleased to hear that the e-commerce giant is now initiating a programme to tackle the issue of phoney products being sold via its marketplace service, having taken the same initiative in North America a few months ago.

With the intimidating title of Project Zero, this scheme is set to ultimately eliminate counterfeit goods from the Amazon platform. At present, a number of rogue sellers are taking advantage of Amazon’s platform for safe shopping online to trick consumers into parting with their hard-earned cash.

The way in which this project works is by enabling and encouraging genuine brands to identify and take down listings of fake goods that infringe on their intellectual property. This is achievable in part through the use of coding applied to products that are the real deal at the point of manufacture.

For the time being, Amazon is only allowing an invited group of brands to participate in this project, with more likely to be added over the coming months and years as it expands the scope of Project Zero.

Tens of millions of phoney listings have been taken down by Amazon and its brand partners in the US following the trial run of Project Zero in the spring this year, so there is clearly some merit in the programme. Now that it is being introduced in the UK, in addition to several other European markets, even more shoppers will be able to buy with confidence.

The problem of counterfeiting is not limited to Amazon; it is a significant issue for a number of other major online retail sites. It is all too easy for sellers to dupe buyers by sharing genuine product photos before shipping out a fake item which looks real but is actually a copy. This is not just about protecting brand reputation, but also about keeping consumers safe from sub-standard products.