Amazon lost the case! It was found to be shielding third-party sellers from selling counterfeit goods

Although Amazon strictly prohibits counterfeit products, there are still many counterfeit products on the platform. In many cases, Amazon turns a blind eye and will not take action until the brand takes legal action. It is not uncommon to say that Amazon shields third-party sellers to make profits, but Amazon can always defend itself.

Recently, according to foreign media reports, the brand Maglula won the lawsuit against Amazon for shielding third-party sellers from selling counterfeit goods. The court ruled that the company's case against Amazon was a "clear case of counterfeiting."

Maglula is an Israeli brand. According to the official website, the company mainly designs and manufactures professional military-grade tools for loading and unloading magazines. The official website also specifically states that the products are not sold on Amazon or eBay.

(Image source: Maglula official website)

After a third-party seller on Amazon sold a low-quality Maglula fake that malfunctioned, the buyer, unaware that it was a counterfeit, expressed dissatisfaction directly to Maglula and returned the defective product to Maglula. After receiving the product, the brand learned that it was a cheap counterfeit.

Amazon claimed that it was not responsible for infringing Maglula’s intellectual property rights and that the platform was only providing services to other sellers, trying to shift the blame to third-party sellers, but the evidence collected by Maglula showed that Amazon’s rebuttal was not valid.

The court denied many of Amazon's questions and, despite Amazon's strong opposition, approved multiple inspections of Amazon warehouses, where counterfeit products with the words "X" and "COINETRFEIT" were found . This evidence was later destroyed by Amazon.

(Image source: Mondaq)

Maglula said that he has been trying to work with Amazon to resolve these issues for many years, explaining to Amazon how to distinguish between genuine and counterfeit products, and hoping that Amazon will take stricter measures to identify counterfeit products, but Amazon has not stopped offering, selling and shipping counterfeit products. In the lawsuit, Maglula pointed out more than 40 counterfeit products that Amazon sold and shipped to its customers.

In the court’s ruling, the judge concluded that “this is not a case in which Amazon can be exonerated.” Therefore, the court denied Amazon’s motion and ordered the parties to mediation.

This case is an example of a brand’s successful rights protection. Amazon will surely strengthen its inspections of counterfeit goods.

Amazon

litigation

Selling fakes