Amazon blocks 10B listings in crackdown on counterfeits

Amazon blocked more than 10 billion listings as part of its push toward driving out counterfeit products, the e-commerce giant said Monday. 

Amazon said in its brand protection report that it invested more than $700 million and more than 10,000 employees as part of the effort to protect the online store from fraud and abuse. 

The company also said its verification processes prevented more than 6 million attempts to create selling accounts, stopping bad actors before they published any products for sale. Just 6 percent of attempted account registrations passed Amazon’s verification processes and listed products for sale, according to Amazon. 

Amazon said it also seized more than 2 million products that were sent to its fulfillment center and destroyed counterfeit products to prevent them from being resold elsewhere in the supply chain. 

Less than 0.01 percent of all products sold on Amazon received a counterfeit complaint from customers, according to Amazon. 

Amazon released the brand protection report about its efforts in the past year to crack down on counterfeit products following pushback from shoppers, retailers and lawmakers for the company to take a stand against the counterfeit products.

In March, a bipartisan group of senators introduced a bill that aims to combat the sale of counterfeit products in online marketplaces. 

The Inform Act, introduced by Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.), targets online retail marketplaces that include third-party sellers, such as Amazon. 

The bill calls for online marketplaces to ensure high-volume third-party sellers disclose basic information, including the seller’s name, business address, email address and phone number. 

The e-commerce sites would also have to supply a hotline to allow customers to report suspicious activity to the marketplace.