For years now, Amazon has faced criticism that it doesn’t adequately deal with the fake, illegitimate, and counterfeit products on its site sold by third parties. This New York Times piece is a good place to start as far as the counterfeit books problem. But the issue touches every single product category on Amazon, not just books.
Amazon is now, finally, doing something about it—perhaps realizing it’s not good if customers can’t trust what they buy, whether the purchase is made directly with Amazon or through one of Amazon’s third-party sellers via the Amazon Marketplace. And most customers can’t tell the difference between the two types of purchases anyway.
Amazon’s press release states that its newly formed Counterfeit Crimes Unit “will investigate cases where a bad actor has attempted to evade Amazon’s systems and listed a counterfeit in violation of Amazon’s policies.” Lest you think it will be easier as a customer or seller to report counterfeit products, Amazon appears to be focusing for now on an internal, data-driven approach for identifying counterfeits.
Note that Amazon also runs the Amazon Brand Registry, which gives trademark owners access to tools to help them identify intellectual property rights violations. Customers who suspect they have received a counterfeit product from a third-party seller can request a refund.
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
