Amazon Sues to Stop Online Trafficking of Fake Grill Covers

Amazon is teaming with Weber to crack down on the “unlawful and expressly prohibited sale” of fake grill covers that “illegally bear” the Weber trademark, said a complaint Tuesday (in Pacer, 2:21-cv-01512) in U.S. District Court in Seattle. Amazon spent more than $700 million and hired more than 10,000 employees last year alone “to protect its store from fraud and abuse,” stopping more than 6 million “suspected bad-actor selling accounts before they published a single listing for sale,” and blocking more than 10 billion “suspected bad listings before they were published,” it said. At least 11 of the accused third-party sellers are based in China, said the complaint. Another “falsely represented its location as Pompano Beach, Florida, and has deliberately registered additional false information with Amazon as part of a scheme to mislead” the company, it said. Amazon supports “expanded government authority” for federal agencies to share “pre-seizure enforcement information with the private sector” to help reverse the explosive growth in e-commerce trafficking of counterfeit goods, the company’s public policy point person told a Center for Data Innovation webinar last month (see 2110140054). A National Defense Authorization Act amendment introduced Thursday in the Senate would require online marketplaces like Amazon to verify third-party sellers in an effort to combat the sale of fake and stolen goods (see 2111040070).