Amazon’s entire UK website has been placed on the US Government’s ‘Notorious Markets List’ of marketplaces known for counterfeit goods.
UK-US deliveries specialist ParcelHero says the move is not only insulting to UK retailers, but could also have a significant impact on their future US sales.
The list highlights online and physical markets that ‘reportedly engage in and facilitate substantial trademark counterfeiting and copyright piracy.’
This is the first time since the list was started in 2006 that it has included Amazon’s UK site, together with the e-commerce giant’s Canadian, German, French and Indian sites.
“Usually, America’s Notorious Markets list highlights clearly suspicious sites selling knock-off goods from China or dodgy downloads from Eastern Europe,” said ParcelHero’s head of consumer research, David Jinks. “However, this year it has included Amazon UK on a list of markets that ‘exemplify global counterfeiting and piracy concerns’.
SLAP IN THE FACE
ParcelHero believes that tarring Amazon UK retailers with the same brush as many questionable trading and download sites is out of all proportion and that it’s also a slap in the face for UK sellers legitimately selling properly-branded products to the US.
Amazon’s site is particularly criticised because of ‘concerns regarding the challenges related to combating counterfeits with respect to e-commerce platforms around the world’.
But ParcelHero believes that Amazon UK and its retailers should not be equated with illegal retailers such as Europa Market, which was closed down last year after its appearance on the Notorious Markets list. That resulted in Romanian police shutting down 900 vendors, arresting 22 individuals, and seizing 12 truckloads of counterfeit goods.
