Amazon has launched a new initiative to combat counterfeiters on its marketplace platform. On Thursday, April 20, the company unveiled its Anti-Counterfeiting Exchange (ACX), a program allowing retail stores to label and track counterfeit products on the platform, Reuters tells us in a report.
The ACX will function as a data exchange program, similar to what credit card companies use to identify scammers and their tactics.
Amazon Cracks Down on Counterfeiters
Amazon's marketplace has had difficulty keeping counterfeit products off its platform and preventing counterfeit merchandise from entering its warehouses.
The ACX will allow stores and Amazon marketplace sellers to anonymously share information about confirmed counterfeiters. They can either contribute data to a third-party database or use it to avoid doing business with bad actors.
Amazon believes that private-sector data-sharing partnerships are crucial to combating counterfeiting.
This initiative is expected to assist the entire industry in identifying and stopping counterfeiters before they cause significant harm.
Amazon's Vice President of Selling Partner Services, Dharmesh Mehta, emphasized in a statement the importance of sharing information about confirmed counterfeiters. "We think it is critical to share information about confirmed counterfeiters to help the entire industry stop these criminals earlier," he said.
Amazon piloted the ACX in 2021 with unspecified stores dealing in apparel, cosmetics, and home goods, the most commonly counterfeited. The ACX will aid in identifying counterfeiters and their tactics, allowing Amazon to take swift action against them.
More Initiatives Against Counterfeit Products
In addition to the ACX, Amazon is working on other initiatives to combat counterfeit products. The company is working on a data pilot with US Customs and Border Protection to identify and target low-value e-commerce shipments that may contain counterfeit goods or violate other regulations.
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"Active cooperation among private sector firms is key to combating illicit counterfeiting networks. It is encouraging to see Amazon and other stores answer this call by creating the Anti-Counterfeiting Exchange," Daniel Castro, director of the Center for Data Innovation, says in the same news release.
The ACX initiative is expected to give Amazon and its sellers an advantage in identifying and preventing counterfeit products from entering the marketplace. Counterfeiters can be extremely harmful to both consumers and businesses.
Latest From Amazon
CNBC reports that Amazon has begun laying off some advertising business employees to cut costs. Paul Kotas, Amazon's senior vice president of advertising, IMDb, and Grand Challenge, reportedly informed employees of the cuts, which included reallocating resources and eliminating specific roles.
The layoffs, which affect only a small portion of the organization, are part of Amazon's 2023 planning process, which focuses on prioritizing resources with an eye toward the company's long-term health.
According to two anonymous sources, affected employees have been notified via email. The move is part of CEO Jassy's efforts to cut costs across the company, which has grown rapidly in recent years.
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