Internet Retailer reports that Amazon is trying to combat the sale of counterfeit goods on its site by requiring certain sellers to pay a fee that may be as high as $1500, plus requiring them "to provide proof of purchase from select manufacturers and distributors before allowing sellers to list those products on Amazon.com. The brands subject to the new fee and authorization process include counterfeit-prone brands, such as Nike and Lego."
The story says that " this is a one-time, nonrefundable fee, and only applies to new sellers to the platform or existing sellers that are new to selling those brands’ products ... Amazon declined to elaborate further about why it’s instating these requirements—prerequisites that the marketplace has never had in place before—but some marketplace experts say this is one way to counteract sellers who list unauthorized or counterfeit products on Amazon."
The CNBC story notes that "with the holiday season just around the corner, sellers that count on Amazon for the bulk of their revenue are on edge. Amazon has been hit with a swarm of counterfeiting, largely from Chinese manufacturers, in the past couple years, and is now responding with a heavy hand to get the problem under control. By forcing brand resellers to show that their products are coming from legitimate sources, the thinking goes, Amazon can get rid of the bad actors and clean up the site."
The story says that " this is a one-time, nonrefundable fee, and only applies to new sellers to the platform or existing sellers that are new to selling those brands’ products ... Amazon declined to elaborate further about why it’s instating these requirements—prerequisites that the marketplace has never had in place before—but some marketplace experts say this is one way to counteract sellers who list unauthorized or counterfeit products on Amazon."
The CNBC story notes that "with the holiday season just around the corner, sellers that count on Amazon for the bulk of their revenue are on edge. Amazon has been hit with a swarm of counterfeiting, largely from Chinese manufacturers, in the past couple years, and is now responding with a heavy hand to get the problem under control. By forcing brand resellers to show that their products are coming from legitimate sources, the thinking goes, Amazon can get rid of the bad actors and clean up the site."
- KC's View:
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Counterfeiting has been a major problem for Amazon, with some companies actually refusing to sell on the site because they're so upset by the fraudulent sale of inauthentic products. Amazon has to take control of this situation, and so this strikes me as a good first step. It has to be an ongoing process, though ... no less than Amazon's credibility is at stake here.
