December 2, 2024 7:00 AM
Efforts with Cisco lead to the dismantling of counterfeit rings
For years, Amazon’s Counterfeit Crime Unit (CCU) has collaborated with Cisco to protect our joint customers and the Cisco brand from counterfeit products. Through criminal referrals to law enforcement, joint actions have successfully dismantled two illegal counterfeit networks and led to bad actors serving prison time and fines for their crimes.
Collaboration with brands is critical
Working with brands to investigate and gather intelligence on bad actors’ attempts to sell counterfeit products is a key component of the CCU’s work. Using that information, our teams take action to protect customers and brands, including removing problematic listings, blocking accounts, and referring bad actors to law enforcement. However, the work doesn’t stop there. We then work with brands to refer these cases to law enforcement to hold bad actors accountable for their crimes.
Following a joint referral and government investigation, on October 23, 2024, a federal court in New Jersey sentenced Israfil Demir to 364 days in prison with three years of supervised release. Previously, the same US District Court sentenced his two co-conspirators, Sadri Ozturan, to five months in prison and five months of home confinement, and Musa Karaman to 364 days in prison with three years of supervised release. All three individuals pled guilty to trafficking in counterfeit goods and sold as much as $1.5M in counterfeit Cisco products.
The sentencing of the Demir ring follows the actions against an even larger counterfeit operation in May of this year when the US District Court for the District of New Jersey sentenced Onur Aksoy to six years and six months in prison for running a large-scale illicit operation selling counterfeit Cisco products. Aksoy operated numerous companies and dozens of online storefronts that imported thousands of counterfeit Cisco products from across the globe to sell in the U.S., generating millions of dollars in illegal sales. The sentencing is the result of a joint criminal referral filed by Amazon and Cisco, and represents a significant step toward the common goal of dismantling international counterfeit organizations.
“Maintaining the integrity and quality of our products and protecting our partners’ and customers’ investment in Cisco solutions is a top priority,” said Neil Sheridan, senior director, Brand Protection at Cisco. “The Cisco Brand Protection team appreciates the strong collaboration with Amazon’s CCU, and we thank our colleagues in U.S. law enforcement and the Department of Justice for their efforts to bring these individuals to justice. Purchasing only through Cisco authorized channel partners is your strongest defense against defective and potentially dangerous counterfeit products.”
These results are a testament to the impact that effective collaboration between Amazon, brands, and law enforcement can have toward eliminating counterfeits across the globe. Since the CCU’s founding, the team has pursued more than 21,000 bad actors through litigation and criminal referrals to law enforcement.
“Amazon is committed to ensuring that the products in our store are safe and authentic,” said Kebharu Smith, director of Amazon’s CCU. However, in the chance we identify counterfeit products, we work closely with brands, like Cisco, and our law enforcement partners to both protect our customers and aggressively pursue the bad actors to hold them accountable.”
The lawsuits referenced were filed under case numbers:
- U.S. v. Israfil Demir: 3:23-cr-00635
- U.S. v. Sadri Ozturan: 3:23-cr-00634
- U.S. v. Musa Karaman: 3:23-cr-00678
- U.S. v. Onur Aksoy: 3:22-cr-00464
September 16, 2024 8:15 AM
A new lawsuit targets bad actors who obtained invalid trademarks or filed fake complaints in an effort to remove products from the Amazon store
Amazon’s Counterfeit Crimes Unit (CCU) filed a lawsuit against multiple bad actors who applied for and obtained invalid trademarks that they used to gain access to Amazon Brand Registry, and who submitted numerous false infringement notices in an effort to have Amazon selling partners and their listings removed from the store. The false takedown notices harmed Amazon selling partners and customers by attempting to reduce product selection, thereby damaging the integrity of Amazon’s store.
The lawsuit also names two additional defendants who facilitated the bad actors’ scheme: an attorney who was sanctioned by the USPTO for breaching the USPTO’s rules of conduct, and a company named Asin Enterprise Management Consulting Ltd. Both profited through their collection of fees in exchange for filing invalid trademark applications on behalf of their clients and for assisting their clients in gaining access to Brand Registry.
After the bad actor clients improperly gained access to Brand Registry, they then submitted false infringement notices against honest selling partners, so that customers were more likely to buy the same products from the bad actors. This lawsuit is part of a new offensive against abusive notice submitters that target Amazon’s selling partners, and follows the company's first such lawsuits filed in 2023.
“This lawsuit sends a clear message that Amazon will pursue all measures to hold bad actors accountable and support our selling partners,” said Kebharu Smith, director of Amazon’s Counterfeit Crimes Unit. “The defendants in this case knowingly deceived Amazon’s selling partners, customers, and store, or they helped to facilitate the deceptive conduct. This lawsuit intends to shut down defendants’ operation, preventing them from harming others across the entire retail supply chain.”
Launched in 2017, the Amazon Brand Registry is a free service that gives brands the ability to grow with Amazon while better protecting their brand and intellectual property rights. Brand Registry empowers brands to take advantage of image search technology which helps them identify and report counterfeits using the “Report a Violation” tool. When Amazon receives an accurate notice of infringement or detects attempted abuse, they act quickly to protect customers and selling partners while also shutting down the accounts of bad actors.
Proactive tools help combat counterfeiters
Amazon filed a joint lawsuit with Thought Catalog, owner and operator of Thought Catalog Books, a small independent book publisher, against bad actors who attempted to sell counterfeit books in Amazon’s store. The defendants named in the lawsuit submitted fraudulent documents and identification information to circumvent Amazon’s seller verification processes. They then advertised and sold counterfeit books infringing on Thought Catalog’s trademark and copyrights in order to deceive customers about the authenticity of the books and affiliation with Thought Catalog.
Thought Catalog is enrolled in Brand Registry and Project Zero, a program that allows brands to directly remove counterfeit listings from Amazon’s store, and actively used both tools to identify and address the attempted counterfeiting. Thought Catalog conducted test purchases and examined the physical books, confirming they were inauthentic and infringing on their intellectual property rights. Amazon swiftly removed relevant selling accounts from the Amazon store, and proactively provided refunds to all affected customers.
“Thought Catalog goes to great lengths to preserve the authenticity of our books,” said Noelle Beams, Chief Operating Officer at Thought Catalog. “Fake or counterfeit books harm authors and customers alike, and we are committed to protecting intellectual property rights from anyone who profits from the sale of illicit products. We are grateful for Amazon’s collaboration in bringing these fraudsters to justice.”
Amazon has a number of robust protections in place to combat attempted counterfeiting. Advanced technology continually scans for potential infringement, scanning billions of attempted changes to product detail pages daily for signs of potential abuse, including the creation of new listings and changes to existing listings. Through this cutting-edge technology and a team of data scientists, as well as close partnership with brands, Amazon can identify patterns and look deeper into reported attempts at counterfeits.
If abuse is detected, the CCU and a team of investigators work to track down and go after these criminals to prevent them from attempting to continue this activity. Since its launch in 2020, the CCU has pursued more than 21,000 bad actors through litigation and criminal referrals to law enforcement and disposed of over 7 million counterfeit products, preventing them from being sold anywhere in the supply chain.
The lawsuits were filed in the federal U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington under case numbers:
- 2:24-cv-01471
- 2:24-cv-01464
June 11, 2024 7:00 AM
CCU dismantles illegal online schemes attempting to submit fake documents to Amazon to evade controls
Amazon’s Counterfeit Crimes Unit (CCU) filed six lawsuits against bad actors operating various illicit schemes that attempted to evade Amazon’s product approval processes, such as product vetting requirements that must be met before a product is approved for sale in the Amazon store. These schemes generally involved providing fake product invoices to bad actors attempting to sell counterfeit goods. The CCU often partners with brands such as YETI and Canon to file joint lawsuits against bad actors attempting to sell counterfeits in the Amazon store, but the lawsuits filed today target a new category of bad actor operating an emerging and evasive scheme.
“These illegal online services promised to submit fraudulent documents on behalf of bad actors to Amazon in an attempt to sell counterfeit or other infringing products in the Amazon store,” said Kebharu Smith, director of Amazon’s CCU. “Our CCU team may be most known for our relentless pursuit of counterfeiters across the retail industry, but these six separate lawsuits serve as a message that we will work to dismantle new and emerging forms of fraud to hold bad actors accountable across the counterfeit ecosystem, regardless of where or how they operate.”
The defendants named in the lawsuits claim to handle every step of the product approval process in exchange for fees. When hired, defendants gain access to the bad actors’ seller accounts and submit fraudulent documents to Amazon in an effort to evade Amazon’s vetting and approval requirements.
As part of our robust vetting processes and controls, Amazon reviewed the documents provided by the bad actors and confirmed they were falsified and sourced from the defendants. Amazon then worked with an outside investigator to pose as an interested party and contact many of these online sites with the stated intention of selling a product that required additional verifying documents to be sent to Amazon. In response, the defendants named in these lawsuits provided falsified documents to Amazon, confirming the bad actors’ scheme, while many other bad actors advertising similar services collected fees without performing the illicit service.
Amazon leverages a combination of advanced machine learning capabilities, robust vetting, and expert human investigators to protect customers and selling partners, as well as to deter bad actors from ever attempting to create a selling account in the first place. The number of bad actor attempts to create new selling accounts decreased from 6 million attempts in 2020, to 700,000 in 2023, stopping them before they were able to attempt to list a single product for sale in our store.
Once a seller is allowed to sell in the Amazon store, Amazon continues to monitor their account and its behaviors for new risks. Amazon is constantly innovating in this space to stay ahead of bad actors and their attempts to circumvent our controls.
Amazon’s CCU partners with brands and law enforcement to stop bad actors, as well as work upstream from the counterfeit signals the team detects to identify, seize, and appropriately dispose of counterfeit products, resulting in Amazon removing more than 7 million counterfeit products worldwide in 2023 alone. Since the CCU’s founding, the team has pursued more than 21,000 bad actors through litigation and criminal referrals to law enforcement.
The lawsuits were filed in the federal U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington under case numbers:
- 2:21-cv-01283-KKE
- 23-cv-01062-KKE
- 23-cv-01061-TL-BAT
- 22-cv-01755-RSM
- 2:24-cv-00825
- 2:24-cv-00824
May 2, 2024 7:00 AM
Amazon and Crye Precision file a joint lawsuit against counterfeiters
With World Intellectual Property (IP) Day last week on April 26, and National Small Business Week fully underway, there is no better opportunity to reflect on the many small and medium-sized businesses Amazon’s Counterfeit Crimes Unit (CCU) supports.
The CCU works with brands of all sizes in the fight against counterfeiters, and we understand the significant negative impact counterfeiting activity can have on smaller brands, which is why we took on more than a dozen cases in 2023, both civil and criminal, affecting small businesses to protect their interests and intellectual property.
Amazon files joint lawsuit with Crye Precision
In March, our team filed a joint lawsuit with Crye Precision, a New York City based business that specializes in the design and manufacturing of high-quality military and police uniforms and equipment, against bad actors attempting to sell counterfeit products in the Amazon store.
Crye partners with hundreds of well-known commercial apparel and equipment brands, providing authorization to use Crye’s trademarked and copyrighted MultiCam family of camouflage patterns on products sold into the military, tactical, and outdoor markets around the globe.
Authentic Crye products sold on Amazon.
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“Amazon is a distinguished ally in our ongoing global battle against counterfeiters. While most companies turn a blind eye to bad actors, Amazon’s pledge to eradicate counterfeit products is a leading example of how to support brands and protect intellectual property,” said Jonathan Antone, general counsel and chief of staff for Crye Precision. “With Amazon’s CCU leading the efforts, we can prioritize our focus on designing and manufacturing life-saving apparel and gear for military and law enforcement personnel.”
While the Crye lawsuit was recently filed, cases filed jointly by the CCU and brands in years prior are resolving successfully, holding bad actors accountable and sending a strong message about the consequences of attempted counterfeiting.
Amazon successfully holds bad actors accountable
Earlier this year a joint lawsuit filed between Amazon and a family-owned card game maker, Dutch Blitz, resulted in a default judgement in favor of Amazon and the brand, resulting in nearly $200,000 in statutory damages which will go to the card game maker. Additionally, a similar default judgement was issued in March pertaining to a joint suit filed between Amazon and California-based family business J.L Childress. The judge awarded more than $1 million in statutory damages in this case.
In addition to large, well-known brands, we have always had a focus on working with and protecting small and medium-sized brands. One of our first civil cases and successful judgements was a joint lawsuit filed with small beauty brand KF Beauty, which resulted in $1.2 million in statutory damages awarded to the brand. We continue to build on those successes with active joint litigation with brands such as Oofos, Felco and Therabody.
These represent only a few examples of our efforts to protect brands and ultimately ensure customers can shop with confidence in the Amazon store. In fact, since the CCU’s founding, the team has pursued more than 21,000 bad actors through litigation and criminal referrals to law enforcement.
These represent only a few examples of our efforts to protect brands and ultimately ensure customers can shop with confidence in the Amazon store. In fact, since the CCU’s founding, the team has pursued more than 21,000 bad actors through litigation and criminal referrals to law enforcement.
Our 2023 Brand Protection Report includes more information on the CCU and the work of the more than 15,000 employees at Amazon dedicated to protecting brands, selling partners, and our store from counterfeit, fraud, and other forms of abuse.
The lawsuits referenced were filed under case numbers:
- Crye Precision: 2:24-cv-00394, United States District Court Western District of Washington
- J.L Childress: C20-1215RSM, United States District Court for the Western District of Washington
- Dutch Blitz: 2:21-cv-00162, United States District Court for the Western District of Washington
- KF Beauty: 2:20-cv-01217, United States District Court for the Western District of Washington
- Oofos: 2:23-cv-00898, United States District Court for the Western District of Washington
- Felco: 22-cv-1506, United States District Court for the Western District of Washington
- Therabody: 2:23-cv-00931, United States District Court for the Western District of Washington