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Counterfeits on Amazon cost Warren bird feeder business $1.5M

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Re: Counterfeits on Amazon cost Warren bird feeder business $1.5M

#51

Post by meritt »

ikeboy wrote: post #38
meritt wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes I'm aware of your case [1]. You sold non-retail unpackaged electronics on Amazon, you are not an authorized reseller, and were accused of selling counterfeit goods. TP-Link got you banned from Amazon. Now you're suing TP-Link for $5M-10M because you lost ~$100k/mo profit. But the story above is about actual counterfeit goods. Not people reselling wholesale goods for below MAPs to retail customers. [1] https://pdf…

I'm responding to your point that Amazon does "little to nothing to ensure authenticity for consumers." I disagree, and I'd imagine the plaintiffs in the following cases would as well: https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/16620676/v-fjallraven-u... https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/16601182/ems-imports-ll... https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/16462329/ly-berditchev-... https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/161399…

I think we're in agreement regarding Amazon: They don't take an active role in policing their marketplace. They have a "report this listing" mechanism that essentially bans a seller outright, with no effort to validate the claim. They just assume it's legit by default and the seller is always in the wrong. But to be clear, the brands are the ones taking action (and thus the defendant in these lawsuits), Amazon has essentially no role.

It's my view that Amazon themselves should be taking action on behalf of both consumers and sellers to ensure that: 1) products are authentic, and 2) consumers can get the best prices possible even if that's from an "unauthorized reseller"

Re: Counterfeits on Amazon cost Warren bird feeder business $1.5M

#52

Post by [deleted] »

warent wrote: post #33
alister wrote: post #31

Along with counterfeits, another issue that makes shopping unpleasant is that many products are superfically different but underneath are the same thing. You can see this most clearly in a retail store when the products are side by side. Walmart might have 30 kinds of wall clocks with wood vs plastic frame, with or without Roman numerals, but the actual clock mechanism on the back is the same cheap black box. Home De…

The solution starts with manually verifying products. I'm not convinced that it's impossible for Amazon or other stores to have a quality verification system where they have people hired specifically for this purpose. Maybe even a third party could specifically do this. You don't have to do it for every single item, just do it once whenever someone wants to list a product on the platform. Whenever reviews start compl…

[deleted]

Re: Counterfeits on Amazon cost Warren bird feeder business $1.5M

#53

Post by yoz-y »

I am curious about the advice at the end:

> Torres said she encourages customers to verify the seller is legitimate before placing any orders.

How? Is there some way to verify that a seller on amazon is legitimate among the slew of fake reviews and stock mingling in warehouses?

Re: Counterfeits on Amazon cost Warren bird feeder business $1.5M

#54

Post by dmos62 »

ikeboy wrote: post #45
alister wrote: post #31

Along with counterfeits, another issue that makes shopping unpleasant is that many products are superfically different but underneath are the same thing. You can see this most clearly in a retail store when the products are side by side. Walmart might have 30 kinds of wall clocks with wood vs plastic frame, with or without Roman numerals, but the actual clock mechanism on the back is the same cheap black box. Home De…

It's that competition that brings down prices. If there was only one unique brand per product, they'd charge much more.

This isn't about the number of brands, but about confusing marketing, which in many ways is bad for true competition, because it confuses the buyer.

Re: Counterfeits on Amazon cost Warren bird feeder business $1.5M

#55

Post by pergadad »

TylerE wrote: post #8
wingi wrote: post #5

> This site is currently unavailable to visitors from the European Economic Area while we work to ensure your data is protected in accordance with applicable EU laws. The access is limited since May 2017?

Can't imagine Euro visitors are...at all...cared about by a US local news outlet.

It's because they don't want to give anyone an option to opt out of data collection - easier to lock out all EU than actually stop/reduce/give choice for data collection.

Re: Counterfeits on Amazon cost Warren bird feeder business $1.5M

#56

Post by ikeboy »

meritt wrote: post #51
ikeboy wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm responding to your point that Amazon does "little to nothing to ensure authenticity for consumers." I disagree, and I'd imagine the plaintiffs in the following cases would as well: https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/16620676/v-fjallraven-u... https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/16601182/ems-imports-ll... https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/16462329/ly-berditchev-... https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/161399…

I think we're in agreement regarding Amazon: They don't take an active role in policing their marketplace. They have a "report this listing" mechanism that essentially bans a seller outright, with no effort to validate the claim. They just assume it's legit by default and the seller is always in the wrong. But to be clear, the brands are the ones taking action (and thus the defendant in these lawsuits), Amazon has es…

I'd mostly agree with that, with the caveat that they will often restrict particular listings or brands that got a high volume of complaints, and require proof of purchase to sell. They also flag sellers that have large sales increases in a short period of time.

>It's my view that Amazon themselves should be taking action on behalf of both consumers and sellers to ensure that: 1) products are authentic, and b) consumers can get the best prices possible even if that's from an "unauthorized reseller"

This is reasonable. They could require proof of purchase for all products, or perhaps for all products where more than 10 units are being sold.

I also think there should be a higher bar for foreign sellers, or perhaps a bond that must be posted.

Re: Counterfeits on Amazon cost Warren bird feeder business $1.5M

#57

Post by aritmo »

tobr wrote: post #42
melzarei wrote: post #15

Link for EU https://outline.com/zCuTHm

”Our European visitors are important to us.” I’m trying to imagine how they decided to go with this headline for the screen that tells European visitors to get lost.

The message is that they are not good enough in handling privacy to serve EU customers.

Re: Counterfeits on Amazon cost Warren bird feeder business $1.5M

#58

Post by TylerE »

pergadad wrote: post #55
TylerE wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't imagine Euro visitors are...at all...cared about by a US local news outlet.

It's because they don't want to give anyone an option to opt out of data collection - easier to lock out all EU than actually stop/reduce/give choice for data collection.

It really isn't. I used to work in IT for a newspaper. They _really_ are hyper-local. They don't went to spend a cent on even out-of-state visitors, much less out-of-continent.

Resources are tight, and the ROI is non-existent.

Re: Counterfeits on Amazon cost Warren bird feeder business $1.5M

#59

Post by ChuckMcM »

I'm thinking this will be one of the ways that Amazon can be "disrupted." If Walmart (for example) re-tooled their online platform such that they kept counterfeits out and rapidly identified bad actors, the trust in their platform could grow against the name recognition of Amazon. At that point Amazon would be stuck playing catch up and that makes it hard to innovate. Also, its possible a completely new brand could be born, sort of the 'Angies List' of online retail.

Re: Counterfeits on Amazon cost Warren bird feeder business $1.5M

#60

Post by amelius »

destitude wrote: post #39

Amazon has caused this to itself in order to maximize its own short-term profits. In the past 1-3 years their goal has been to reduce their own inventory by shifting it to 3rd party sellers and let them deal with the overhead of inventory. This is why counterfeits and crappy products have been proliferating on Amazon and why I have started to avoid purchasing from Amazon all-together. I wonder if they realize how muc…

In a few years, Alibaba will have a better reputation than Amazon.
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