Dive Brief:
- The Prada Group partnered with e-commerce giant Amazon’s Counterfeit Crimes Unit in an effort to curb counterfeit luxury products sold on Amazon, which resulted in a court in China finding a counterfeiter guilty, the companies announced in a joint press release Monday.
- The Amazon CCU, along with Prada and other luxury brands, presented evidence to China’s law enforcement. The judgment was based on overseas counterfeit sales records and fulfillment center inventory records outside of China, not on seized counterfeit products, per the release.
- The plea represents “a rare instance” where a criminal referral from Amazon’s CCU resulted in a criminal judgment based on this type of evidence, Amazon said.
Dive Insight:
Amazon launched its CCU in June 2020, with the goal of driving down its number of counterfeit sales to zero. That news followed Amazon’s joint lawsuit with Valentino over the selling of alleged fakes on the Amazon marketplace.
In this recently decided case, Amazon’s CCU initially detected the defendant’s counterfeiting in 2021. After internal investigations, the team presented a referral to law enforcement to pursue a criminal case. The defendant in the case received a three-year prison sentence and a $25,000 fine, and must forfeit revenue gained from the sale of the counterfeit goods, the release stated. Amazon did not name the other brands involved in the investigation.
“We are firmly committed to eradicating the sale of counterfeit goods to protect our brands and to ensure that our products meet the level of quality, craftsmanship and care that people expect from us,” Francesca Secondari, general counsel and chief legal officer of the Prada Group, said in the release. “Through the collaboration with Amazon, we are making great progress in the fight against those who attempt to break the law and to negatively impact our customers.”
In the release, Kebharu Smith, director of Amazon’s CCU, said the ruling was the result of the collaboration between Amazon and “luxury players such as the Prada Group.”
“The guilty plea is a significant win for Amazon’s CCU, but more importantly it’s a win for all of those who share our commitment to tackling the industry-wide issue of counterfeiting,” Smith said.
When Amazon’s CCU launched in 2020, the company said the team was made up of former federal prosecutors, investigators and data analysts.
Amazon has been active in pursuing luxury counterfeit items before. In addition to the joint legal complaint with Valentino, Amazon joined forces with Salvatore Ferragamo in 2021 in two joint lawsuits over the alleged selling of fake Ferragamo items.
Luxury brands aren’t the only companies that have struggled with fake products on Amazon. Adore Me, a DTC lingerie brand recently acquired by Victoria’s Secret, began selling on Amazon after third party sellers used Adore Me’s proprietary imagery of its merchandise under fake names such as “Adome.”
