Amazon is taking additional steps to stop counterfeit sellers.
Dharmesh Mehta, Amazon’s vice president of consumer trust and partner support, told CBS News that the e-commerce giant has made ‘progress in reducing the amount of counterfeit’ on the site.
But Mehta admits the firm is still a long ways off from eradicating the issue.
So far, Amazon has added 500 brands to its invite-only Project Zero initiative, which was rolled out in February and aims to give sellers greater controls over fake goods.
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So far, Amazon has added 500 brands to its invite-only Project Zero initiative, which was rolled out in February and aims to give sellers greater controls over fake goods
‘We’ve continued to make progress in reducing the amount of counterfeit in our store… but the fact is that today, that number’s not zero. There are still counterfeits,’ Mehta told CBS News.
Last year, Amazon pulled three billion suspicious listings from the site before they were seen by the public, he added.
However, Mehta couldn’t say how many fake products are currently available on Amazon.
Amazon has repeatedly come under fire for failing to vet third-party sellers.
Counterfeit items typically make it onto Amazon as a result of its third-party marketplace, where sellers can list their products directly onto the site.
The majority of products sold on Amazon in 2018 came from third-party sellers, according to Reuters.
In some cases, the fake products have endangered consumers or led to lawsuits.
One woman purchased supplements for her service dog that ended up being a counterfeit version and her dog became ‘severely ill,’ CBS reported.
The counterfeit products have raised questions about who should be held liable – the third-party seller or Amazon.
Mehta told CBS that when it receives a consumer complaint about a fake product, it makes sure they’re ‘whole on that product’ and then goes after ‘that bad actor.’
In addition to letting brands remove them, Amazon is using AI to cut down on fake listings. The firm said machine learning algorithms can remove any listings that are suspected counterfeits
‘On average, 95 percent of the time, we investigate that and take action within eight hours,’ he added.
Meanwhile, legitimate sellers have voiced complaints about the sometimes thorny and lengthy process involved with getting fake listings removed, saying it can take days or months at a time.
That’s partly why Amazon has rolled out the Project Zero initiative, the firm says.
Now, with ‘self-service counterfeit removals,’ brands can remove listings for products that are believed to be bogus.
In addition to letting brands remove them, Amazon is using AI to cut down on fake listings.
The company explained that machine learning algorithms will continuously scan listings and remove any that are suspected counterfeits.
AI detects counterfeits by referencing logos, trademarks and other ‘key data’ about a brand.
‘We’ve been testing these automated protections with a number of brands, and on average, our automated protections proactively stop 100 times more suspected counterfeit products as compared to what we reactively remove based on reports from brands,’ Dharmesh Mehta, Amazon’s vice president of Consumer and Brand Protection, wrote in a post.
Amazon has been testing its algorithms for a while, but the ‘self-service counterfeit removal tool’ is new.
The third part of Project Zero is called a ‘product serialization service.’
This enables companies to put a unique serial code on their products during manufacturing process.
It’s free to enroll in Project Zero, but the project serialization component costs between 1 cent and 5 cents per unit, based on volume, according to the firm.
