Amazon is well-known to be a highly customer-oriented marketplace. But as such, Amazon needs to create and maintain a positive shopping experience every day, hour, minute, and second. Amazon serves millions of customers globally with all third-party sellers, building a reputation that anything except authentic products is not acceptable to any Amazon customer.
This article details facts from the most recent Amazon Brand Protection Report, published in June 2022. We will explain what this information means for Amazon sellers like you.
Robust Proactive Controls
Selling on Amazon is an opportunity to reach millions of customers. For real entrepreneurs, registering a seller account is becoming more and more straightforward, but for possible bad actors, Amazon is doing its best to make that very difficult.
Using the tools they built, combined with expert human reviewers and advanced technologies, it is really hard to get on Amazon as a seller if someone is a bad actor. Why?
Because you need to provide a government-issued photo ID, identity and location information, bank account, taxpayer information, and more, from 2021, sellers are required to have an in-person conversation with someone from the Amazon team as well as a process of verifying all the documentation provided above.
This in-person part of verification was applied to all the new sellers from the US, the UK, all EU countries, Japan, and some other countries.
According to this report, Amazon stopped 2.5 million attempts at new selling account creation before they could push a single product listing for sale, a decrease from over 6 million attempts in the previous year.
Amazon is doing the following:
- It constantly monitors the stores by scanning for potential counterfeits, fraud, and abuse. It includes all the possible updates to existing listings, so don’t be surprised if Amazon reviews your existing listing after you make some changes.
- Amazon now gets information directly from the USPTO regarding registration status and parties subject to USPTO sanctions and shares information about abusive sellers and behaviors with the USPTO.
For authentic sellers, this means there is no need to worry. All you need is to follow all the policies, make sure to avoid any claims that could trigger the suspensions of your listings, and you are in a good position. By exchanging the information with USPTO, Amazon is constantly working on the highest possible accuracy of their listings and Brand Registry.
Brand Protection Tools
The leading brand protection tools that Amazon offers are:
- Amazon Brand Registry: a free service for brand owners to protect the brand and intellectual property rights on Amazon by using automated protection or the ‘Report a Violation’ tool. In 2021, the number of registered brands increased by 40% compared to 2020, with over 700,000 brands enrolled. Conversely, the average number of valid infringement notices submitted by a brand in the Brand Registry decreased by 25% from 2020.
- IP Accelerator: a tool that helps sellers protect their intellectual property rights on Amazon and in every store. IP Accelerator connects businesses with reputable law firms helping with trademark registration processes. According to Brand Protection Report, Amazon connected more than 5,900 businesses with law firms through the IP Accelerator and launched this tool in Australia, Brazil, Mexico, Canada, and Singapore. Additionally, Amazon expanded the number of serving languages to 11. Impressive!
- Project Zero: this tool combines all the tools built by Amazon with advanced technologies to detect brand counterfeits. According to the report, more brands were enrolled in 2021, increasing the total to more than 20,000.
- Transparency: product labeling (or serialization) that prevents counterfeits worldwide. With Transparency, brands label every single unit with a unique code, which can be scanned for authenticity. Amazon also verifies all these units and stops any without the unique Transparency code. The report says that the number of brands using Transparency increased by 35% globally, and product units increased to more than 750 million, more than 50% compared to 2020.
- Amazon Patent Evaluation Express (APEX): a pilot project in 2018, but from 2021, APEX is a feature inside the ‘Report a Violation’ tool in Brand Registry and enables faster resolution of patent-infringement cases. APEX brings in a neutral third-party expert evaluator to determine if a product is infringing. It is essential to know that these evaluators are not associated with Amazon, and Amazon is not involved in the determination. APEX cases are usually resolved within 7 weeks, much shorter than usual US patent lawsuits, and it is free of charge for the winning party.
Holding Bad Actors Accountable
Amazon formed CCU (Counterfeit Crimes Unit) in 2020 as a team of former federal prosecutors, data analysts, some FBI agents, and experienced investigators. According to Brand Protection Report, in 2021, Amazon:
- Filed civil litigations against more than 170 counterfeiters in the US
- Sued or referred over 600 criminals for investigation
- Partnered with some big brands to pursue counterfeiters globally
- CCU led to a joint operation with US Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD), which resulted in the seizure of counterfeit automotive goods worth more than $1.2 million
Some additional features
Amazon launched a blueprint for public and private sector partnerships to prevent counterfeits. All Amazon recommendations can be found in their white paper, but these recommendations generally encourage all the brands to:
- Exchange information about counterfeit activities to prevent them globally
- Share information about blocked counterfeiters
- Increase resources for law enforcement to prosecute counterfeiters
Additionally, once a counterfeiter is detected, Amazon removes it across the channels globally. According to the Brand Protection Report, more than 3 million products were disposed of globally in 2021.
Educating and Supporting Customers
Recently, Amazon started some campaigns to educate and support customers about counterfeit products, as well as letting them know and taking action in case customers purchase counterfeit products on Amazon.
Amazon guarantees a full refund through the A-to-Z guarantee, whether the item was purchased from Amazon or a third-party seller. In case of counterfeit products, Amazon offers a full refund and lets the customer know they have purchased such a product.
Another part of this section is customer awareness. Before the 2021 holiday season, Amazon partnered with some organizations and created campaigns for smart shopping. Additionally, they presented on over 200 US TV channels with representatives who have spoken about brand protection tools. Lastly, Amazon also realized the importance of educating young customers (13-18 years old), so other campaigns were running for them.
Key Takeaways:
- Amazon published its second Brand Protection Report in June 2022.
- Along with the regular sections, this report also included customer education and support.
- Amazon provided information about direct information exchange with USPTO to prevent counterfeits.
- Additionally, all new sellers from 2021 must go through an additional in-person conversation with an Amazon representative as a part of the new seller verification procedure.
- The report mentions significant increases in the number of brands enrolled in the Brand Registry and all other brand protection tools.
- Also, the report provides promising information about the number of stopped counterfeits, disposed of counterfeit units, and all other actions taken by Amazon.
- In the end, educating customers with various campaigns and providing them with the guarantee, as usual, is proof that Amazon will continue to act as the safe and best marketplace to sell or purchase a product.
If you have additional questions or want us to help you on your Amazon journey, don’t hesitate to contact the BellaVix Team.
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