Amazon has reportedly filed suit against an influencer and a some other online businesses over an alleged counterfeiting scheme conducted across Instagram and Amazon’s Marketplace platform.
According to the complaint filed in federal court in Washington state earlier today, the influencers advertised counterfeit luxury items on their Instagram page to be sold under dummy listings to Amazon Marketplace.
In its complaint, Amazon describes the scheme as a sophisticated campaign of false advertising for the purpose of evading Amazon’s counterfeit detection tools.
The case is being brought by Amazon without the assistance of prosecutors, and there are no criminal charges associated with the claim. As a result, the defendants are only faced with monetary damages and a permanent ban from Amazon’s various platforms. It is the result of work by the company’s internal Counterfeit Crimes Unit, launched in June 2020.
The director of the unit, Cristina Posa, described the scheme as a sign of the dangers of unmonitored platforms.
She said: These defendants were brazen about promoting counterfeits on social media and undermined the work of legitimate influencers. This case demonstrates the need for cross-industry collaboration in order to drive counterfeiters out of business.
