How can Amazon tackle fake products on its marketplace?

America’s biggest online marketplace has had its fair share of issues.

Aside from paid-for and spam reviews which affect the legitimacy of items and sellers, fake products have been a problem for years, and they impact all involved: the customers receives an inferior product, the company being ripped off wrongly gains a negative reputation, and Amazon’s own standards are brought into question.

Now, as reported by Bloomberg, Amazon is cracking down on this to ensure all purchases can be relied upon. The company will create teams in America and Europe to build a central registry of products, whereby verified brands register their products, making identification of fake products far easier.

The company has said in a statement, “Amazon has zero tolerance for the sale of counterfeit items on our site,” and is making this move part of its big push to bring some order to the website. While the use of third-party sellers broadens Amazon’s horizons, it brings with it its own problems which are difficult to catch and regulate. Amazon as a brand is still better-trusted than eBay, but quality control on the marketplace can potentially be non-existent. Some big brands, like Birkenstock and Apple, have taken issue with lax rules, with the former removing itself from the site entirely and the latter having sued a supplier for selling counterfeit products.

Amazon itself is largely shielded from legal liability but to protect its reputation, it must be stringent about what it puts its name to. Here’s hoping this latest push rids the site of some of the worst counterfeiters once and for all.

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