Amazon will start listing names and addresses of Marketplace sellers to combat counterfeiting

[FootFetish]

Summary

Amazon will start listing names and addresses of marketplace sellers to combat counterfeiting

 

 

 

Quotes

Quote

Amazon will start publicly listing the names and addresses of US-based third-party sellers on its Marketplace platform as a measure to fight counterfeiters, according to a report from Business Insider. The change was announced in a note sent to sellers on Wednesday, and the change goes into effect on September 1st.

“These features help customers learn more about the businesses of a seller and the products that they are selling,” the note says, according to a copy obtained by Business Insider. “We are making this change to ensure there is a consistent baseline of seller information to help customers make informed shopping decisions.” The change in policy will make it harder to stay an anonymous seller on Marketplace, but it also means customers will know exactly which individual or entity they’re buying form and where that business is located.

In a statement given to The Verge, Amazon confirmed the policy change. “Over the years, we have developed many ways for sellers to share more about their business, including through features like the seller profile pages, ‘Store’ pages for brand owners, and Handmade ‘Maker Profile’ pages,” a company spokesperson says. “These features help customers learn more about sellers’ businesses and their products. Beginning September 1, we will also display sellers’ business name and address on their Amazon.com seller profile page to ensure there is a consistent baseline of seller information to help customers make informed shopping decisions.”

Amazon has long fought counterfeiters on Marketplace, which is now responsible for more than half of all of the company’s e-commerce sales. The company has tried a number of tactics over the years, including monitoring suspicious listings and sellers using various automated software and taking action against sellers of items that are prone to price gouging and other forms of fraud, like face masks and hand sanitizer, in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Part of the reason for Amazon’s aggressive enforcement here can also be attributed to its rocky relationship with the Trump administration, which stems in part from the ongoing feud between Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and President Trump over the Bezos’ ownership of The Washington Post. In April, the Office of the US Trade Representative placed five of Amazon’s foreign websites on the annual “notorious markets” list, in effect labeling Amazon’s international businesses as hot spots for sales of counterfeits. Amazon responded by claiming it was a victim of Trump’s vendetta against the company. Nonetheless, Amazon has made a renewed effort in recent months to show that it takes counterfeiting seriously.

 

My thoughts

 

I don't know how listing names and addresses will counterfeiting products sold on Amazon. Maybe it will be helpful for Amazon to identify is this an individual seller or an actual 3rd party small or big businesses authorized seller? A lot of counterfeit products and sellers are from China so how is this going to stop counterfeiting by listing names and addresses? Raid the store? I don't know. Amazon in this news say, "Amazon has long fought counterfeiters on Marketplace, which is now responsible for more than half of all of the company’s e-commerce sales. The company has tried a number of tactics over the years, including monitoring suspicious listings and sellers using various automated software and taking action against sellers of items that are prone to price gouging and other forms of fraud, like face masks and hand sanitizer, in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic."  I don't see any progress at all. I still receiving fake JBL bluetooth speakers and such from Amazon. I love to get my electronics from Best Buy but the 14 days return period for non-elite members is kind of bumper to me because I don't want to deal 1 month for warranty claim. 14 days period return period is too short for me.

 

Sources

https://www.theverge.com/2020/7/8/21317617/amazon-counterfeit-products-marketplace-sellers-names-addresses-transparency

[Bombastinator]

I translate this as “we’re marking a ton of money with “fulfilled by amazon” because people who won’t buy on Craigslist because creepy think they’re buying from a real company when they’re not.

Franchising is so much higher reward than actually carrying products.  

 but people are noticing we’ve become the new wish.com and it’s hurting sales so let’s throw a really public bandaid on it to lure the rubes back”

 

To amazon:

Mining your brand for cash (because that was what you are actually doing) was stupid.  How about maybe actually separating “fulfilled by amazon” and actual amazon?

[Kisai]

13 hours ago, FootFetish said:

 

I don't know how listing names and addresses will counterfeiting products sold on Amazon.

It's similar to a "real name" policy. It doesn't actually stop them, it just makes it more time consuming and expensive to make new accounts.

 

Point of interest. You can go to any country, particularly in the US or Canada, and open a PO Box. Create your fictitious company there and ta-da, you jumped through the hoop needed and it probably only cost you $300.

 

Presumably it would help customers of luxury products actually recognize when a counterfeit is a counterfeit because for example, LVMH does not manufacture anything in China, so any Chinese seller is absolutely fake without question, even if it comes from Hong Kong or Taiwan.

 

[Trik'Stari]

The only thing I've ever had from Amazon that turned out to be fake was a pair of 18650 batteries for my vaporizer. Which is kind of a serious issue because you need to be absolutely sure of the quality, make, and manufacturer of your batteries in a device you are holding to your face, that has quite a lot of energy.

 

Am I the only one who just assumes everything bought online comes from China?

[trag1c]

8 hours ago, Kisai said:

It's similar to a "real name" policy. It doesn't actually stop them, it just makes it more time consuming and expensive to make new accounts.

 

Point of interest. You can go to any country, particularly in the US or Canada, and open a PO Box. Create your fictitious company there and ta-da, you jumped through the hoop needed and it probably only cost you $300.

 

Presumably it would help customers of luxury products actually recognize when a counterfeit is a counterfeit because for example, LVMH does not manufacture anything in China, so any Chinese seller is absolutely fake without question, even if it comes from Hong Kong or Taiwan.

 

In Canada you have to have a non residential address in order to register a corporation so most companies (mine included) started as a PO box since most people don't have commercial space when they first startup.

[yolosnail]

Ebay have been doing this for a while, at least in the UK. If you have a business account, your business address is shown directly on the listing

[Bombastinator]

56 minutes ago, yolosnail said:

Ebay have been doing this for a while, at least in the UK. If you have a business account, your business address is shown directly on the listing

So it’s been tried.  That is interesting.  Perhaps it’s enough.  eBay will have stats on that.  

[Kisai]

27 minutes ago, huilun02 said:

Amazon should require all sellers on their platform to be a registered business in the US, and have a registered US resident from said company sign a letter of indemnity/undertaking to protect buyers against bad products and fraud.

It doesn't work that way. eBay and Amazon let pretty much everyone create an account.

 

The ideal situation is that Amazon and eBay would actually be the intermediary. eg Sellers ship their stuff on consignment to Amazon or eBay, and the company holds that product until the entire chain of custody checks out. Then everything is "delivered by Amazon" or "delivered by eBay" using their own logistics systems.

 

That would save everyone money and by cutting off the source of counterfeits at the source, and would prevent the entire infamous "drop ship lists" counterfeiters use to pass the liability to english-speakers.

 

And trust me, "drop ship" lists are very likely nothing but counterfeits, they play the "door to door salesman" game where they show you the good product, but when you buy the thing from them, it's the junk version.

[Stormseeker9]

6 hours ago, huilun02 said:

Amazon should require all sellers on their platform to be a registered business in the US, and have a registered US resident from said company sign a letter of indemnity/undertaking to protect buyers against bad products and fraud.

So what if my company is located in Germany ? I’m not able to become a seller ? The world is larger than just the United States.

[5x5]

Considering Amazon treats its employees like slave labour, I expect a LOT more from them...