Posted by Alexander Gomez.
On September 30th Amazon settled with TikTok and Instagram influencers regarding their involvement in peddling counterfeit goods through the Amazon store. The influencers being Kelly Fitzpatrick and Sabrina Kelly-Kreji will be barred from ever selling products through the Amazon marketplace. Although Amazon refused to disclose the financial aspect of the settlement this situation comes as a constant reminder of the challenges Amazon faces. Since the introduction of the Amazon marketplace which encouraged third party selling; counterfeit products have always been a trouble for the corporation. However, “The marketplace, launched in 2000, is made up of millions of third-party sellers and now accounts for more than half of Amazon’s overall e-commerce sales.”(Palmer) so naturally Amazon has chosen to crack down on counterfeit products.
Amazon in an effect to curb counterfeit merchandise being sold on their platform has elected to chase down these criminals in court. Amazon has even introduced several programs to aid in the crackdown of this practice. They have even rolled out a Counterfeit Crimes Unit which is comprised of several former federal prosecutors. In this aspect we know how serious Amazon carries their marketplace.
Within my own opinion I think it is good that Amazon is cracking down on these counterfeiters. As mentioned before if the marketplace attributes to much of its e commerce sales it is good to take legal action against these criminals. However, Amazon did also mention that most of the defendants for these counterfeiters are in China. In this regard Amazon has a great obstacle to overcome but this is a good first step for Amazon to start the crackdown process.
Alex is a fintech major at Seton Hall University, Stillman School of Business, Class of 2024.