Amazon Blocked Over 10B Bad Listings in 2020 Before They Went Live

Just 6% of attempted new seller account registrations passed Amazon’s verification processes and listed products, blogged Dharmesh Mehta, vice president-customer trust and partner support, Sunday, referencing the company’s first brand protection report. The e-commerce giant uses machine learning and “expert human review” to protect the digital store “proactively from bad actors and bad products,” said Mehta. He cited an “escalating battle with criminals” who attempt to sell counterfeit products on Amazon and noted the company’s Counterfeit Crimes Unit, established last year, which holds counterfeiters responsible through litigation. It began displaying U.S. sellers’ business names and addresses on their Amazon seller profile page, something it was already doing in Europe, Mexico and Japan; it will expand the display of seller contact information to all stores globally this year. Selling partners are required to provide a government-issued photo ID and information about their identity, location, taxpayer information and financial information, said the report. Amazon prevented more than 6 million attempts to create new selling accounts and blocked more than 10 billion suspected bad listings before they were published on the marketplace, it said. The e-tailer seized and destroyed more than 2 million products sent to its fulfillment centers that were detected as being counterfeit before they were sent on to a customer, Amazon said.