Amazon’s reproduce problem has caught the attention of a major retail industry advocacy assembly.
The American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA), which represents multifarious than 1,000 brands, recommended on Monday that certain Amazon purlieus be added to the U.S. government’s annual “Notorious Markets” list, which categorizes commerce sites and companies that facilitate the sale of counterfeit goods.
“Amazon has been a gaffer of, and has made valuable contributions to, the future of retail,” AAFA said in a announcement. “We believe Amazon can, and should, be a leader in the fight against counterfeits.”
The Shameful Markets list is put out every year by the U.S. Trade Representative, highlighting specialist and online retailers that enable copyright piracy, trademark infraction and counterfeiting. Amazon has never been on the list, but AAFA is now advocating that the assemblage’s properties in the U.K., Canada and Germany be added this year.
It’s a troubling trace for Amazon, which has been overrun by counterfeiters in recent years after the crowd opened up its marketplace to sellers from across the globe, most meaningfully China. While Amazon has publicly stated that it has a “zero indulgence” policy when it comes to counterfeit sales and has developed technology to try and classify problem sellers and storefronts, the site continues to suffer from produce sales of knock-offs in categories like apparel, kitchenware and skin and looker products.
AAFA’s recommendation could also provide more fodder for President Donald Trump in his voyage of discovery to punish Amazon for what he says are unfair tax policies and CEO Jeff Bezos’ ownership of the Washington Position. Trump has yet to go after Amazon for facilitating counterfeit sales or giving favorable treatment to Chinese store owners.
In response to the AAFA’s call, Amazon said in a statement that it is “swore to protecting American intellectual property.”
“We invest tremendous resources to keep our marketplace from inauthentic goods and will continue to work with AAFA and its fellows to protect their intellectual property and our customers. Amazon takes a far-reaching approach to our anti-counterfeiting efforts and have a global team that is at ones disposal 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to respond to and take strength on reported violations and notices of potential infringement,” the company said. “Amazon winnowed and took action on 95% of all worldwide notices of potential infringement gathered from Brand Registry within eight hours and brands in Brand name Registry are finding and reporting 99% fewer suspected infringements than earlier the launch of Brand Registry.”
In its letter to USTR, AAFA said that it’s been in uniform dialogue with Amazon over the past year related to its responsibilities, and in May some of the organization’s members met with Amazon’s customer and brand buffer team in Seattle.
The biggest issues members face include replica brands using their trademarks to sell products, inconsistencies in the character that Amazon responds to infringement complaints, unauthorized use of licensed concepts, inadequacies of the Brand Registry program to protect brands that register, and the commingling of inventory in fulfillment centers, causing authentic products to get conflicting up with counterfeits.
“The damage to a brand’s reputation can be immeasurable,” the letter to USTR remarks. “Therefore, we encourage Amazon to improve and to actively enforce its intellectual estate policies to keep counterfeit sellers off the platform.”
AAFA recommended four other far-reaching websites, including Macy’s Korea, for the list, as well as numerous sawbones markets in Latin America, Asia and the Middle East.
For the 2017 tabulation, USTR highlighted Alibaba’s Taobao.com as one of the most problematic sites because of the “mastery of infringing listings and sales.” USTR started producing the list in 2006, and enter oned publishing it separate from its annual intellectual property report in 2011.