Today Amazon announced a new plan to help crack down on counterfeit products not just on Amazon but across the retail industry. To do this, Amazon is launching the Anti-Counterfeiting Exchange (ACX). This group is designed to collaborate across the industry to make it more difficult for counterfeiters to move among different stores to sell their products.
ACX will allow participating stores to share information about confirmed counterfeiters. Helping other stores block them once one store confirms they are selling counterfeit products.
“We want our customers to have confidence in their shopping experience and for brands to know they are protected from counterfeits,” said Dharmesh Mehta, Amazon’s vice president of Selling Partner Services. “As we laid out in our blueprint for private and public sector partnership to stop counterfeiters, we think it is critical to share information about confirmed counterfeiters to help the entire industry stop these criminals earlier. By leading the way in creating an industry-wide solution to share information about known counterfeiters, we are excited to have helped improve the industry’s collective ability to fight counterfeit crime, providing consumers and rights owners with greater peace of mind.”
“The IPR Center applauds the foundational efforts made by the Anti-Counterfeiting Exchange, and we’re pleased to have been a part of its creation,” said James Mancuso, director of the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center. “This is an opening salvo in a much larger battle against counterfeiters and criminal organizations, and the effort will need even greater participation, from all industries and sectors, to reach its full potential. We look forward to supporting this momentous effort with all of the tools that the IPR Center brings to bear.”
Daniel Castro, director of the Center for Data Innovation, reiterated the importance of this type of voluntary collaboration. “Active cooperation among private sector firms is key to combating illicit counterfeiting networks. In 2020, the Department of Homeland Security called on private sector stakeholders to take a more active role in detecting and preventing the trafficking of counterfeit goods. It’s encouraging to see Amazon and other stores answer this call by creating the Anti-Counterfeiting Exchange.”
Counterfit items have been a major issue for years for sites like Amazon. 3rd party sellers bounce around between different online stores in an effort to push their products. This reduces trust in these stores from customers worried about the quality of what they are buying. Now Amazon hopes this new effort will help stop counterfeiters and help build trust with their customers.