Amazon creates ‘brand registry’ to speed up removal of fake goods from its site

By Trevor Mogg Published April 25, 2023

Amazon is doubling down on efforts to rid its site of fake goods in a bid to give users of its online shopping service the best possible experience.

Recommended Videos

The issue of bogus goods on the site was brought into sharp focus last October when Apple claimed that up to 90 percent of Apple products sold on Amazon as genuine — including iPhones, Apple power products, and Lightning cables — were anything but. The tech giant was so incensed it took one of the sellers to court.

This week Amazon said that in the coming weeks it plans to expand a program to purge knock-off items from its site.

Starting in April, brands will be able to add their logo and intellectual property to an Amazon database as part of a system that should allow for faster removal of fake goods from the site when spotted by shoppers, the brand, or Amazon itself, Amazon’s Peter Faricy told Reuters this week.

The “brand database” has been in a testing phase, but will become available first to companies based in the U.S.

As well as reassuring customers, the company hopes it will also satisfy brands like Apple, upset at the apparent number of counterfeit products offered by sellers on Amazon’s vast online store.

Other efforts to tackle the problem include Amazon demanding invoices from new sellers of particular brands to prove that the goods are coming from legitimate sources.

The Seattle-based company is also filing lawsuits against sellers on its site that it believes are dealing in fake goods. In a suit launched last November, Amazon said that when visitors to its site purchase counterfeit items from its web store, “it undermines the trust that customers, sellers, and manufacturers place in Amazon, thereby tarnishing Amazon’s brand and causing irreparable reputational harm.”

But Faricy is well aware that the battle to completely rid the site of fake items is a monumental task, telling Reuters, “I don’t think it’s the kind of thing where you ever feel like there’s a clear ending, it’s a journey.”

Contributing Editor

Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…

Topics

Computing

How to change margins in Google Docs

Laptop Working from Home

When you create a document in Google Docs, you may need to adjust the space between the edge of the page and the content -- the margins. For instance, many professors have requirements for the margin sizes you must use for college papers.

You can easily change the left, right, top, and bottom margins in Google Docs and have a few different ways to do it.

Computing

What is Microsoft Teams? How to use the collaboration app

A close-up of someone using Microsoft Teams on a laptop for a videoconference.

Online team collaboration is the new norm as companies spread their workforce across the globe. Gone are the days of primarily relying on group emails, as teams can now work together in real time using an instant chat-style interface, no matter where they are.

Using Microsoft Teams affords video conferencing, real-time discussions, document sharing and editing, and more for companies and corporations. It's one of many collaboration tools designed to bring company workers together in an online space. It’s not designed for communicating with family and friends, but for colleagues and clients.

Computing

Microsoft Word vs. Google Docs

A person using a laptop that displays various Microsoft Office apps.

For the last few decades, Microsoft Word has been the de facto standard for word processors across the working world. That's finally starting to shift, and it looks like one of Google's productivity apps is the heir apparent. The company's Google Docs solution (or to be specific, the integrated word processor) is cross-platform and interoperable, automatically syncs, is easily shareable, and perhaps best of all, is free.

However, using Google Docs proves it still has a long way to go before it can match all of Word's features -- Microsoft has been developing its word processor for over 30 years, after all, and millions still use Microsoft Word. Will Google Docs' low barrier to entry and cross-platform functionality win out? Let's break down each word processor in terms of features and capabilities to help you determine which is best for your needs.
How does each word processing program compare?
To put it lightly, Microsoft Word has an incredible advantage over Google Docs in terms of raw technical capability. From relatively humble beginnings in the 1980s, Microsoft has added new tools and options in each successive version. Most of the essential editing tools are available in Google Docs, but users who are used to Word will find it limited.