Amazon Launches New Anti-Counterfeiting Exchange (ACX) To Protect Consumers

Amazon announced the launch of the Anti-Counterfeiting Exchange (ACX), which is a collaborative effort between industry leaders aimed at making online shopping safer for consumers and more difficult for counterfeiters to sell their fake products across multiple platforms.

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The ACX will bring together brands, manufacturers, and distributors to share information and work towards the common goal of combating the sale of counterfeit goods on Amazon and other ecommerce platforms.

By creating a central database of known counterfeiters and their products, the ACX will make it easier for companies to identify and report counterfeits, helping to prevent their sale and distribution.

This move is part of Amazon’s ongoing efforts to crack down on counterfeit products on its platform, which have been a growing concern for consumers and legitimate sellers alike.

By partnering with other industry players, Amazon hopes to create a more unified and effective approach to combating counterfeiting, which will ultimately benefit all parties involved in the ecommerce ecosystem.

ACX has facilitated the exchange of information among its members, who use this shared intelligence to enhance their ongoing efforts to identify and combat counterfeiting, strengthen their risk assessment systems, and make more effective referrals to law enforcement agencies, thereby holding bad actors accountable for their actions.

Since its inception, ACX has already detected numerous instances where the same counterfeiter attempted to establish selling accounts on Amazon and other ecommerce platforms.

By sharing information about these accounts through ACX, participating stores can swiftly act to prevent the sale of counterfeit goods by that particular counterfeiter, thereby protecting their customers from fraudulent activities.

ACX’s strength lies in its ability to enable the rapid dissemination of information about counterfeiters across its member stores.

As soon as one store catches a counterfeiter and shares the relevant account information through the exchange, all other participating stores are immediately made aware of the situation and can take proactive measures to prevent the sale of counterfeit goods by that particular seller.

Each ACX member is free to use the information provided by the exchange in a manner that best suits their individual needs and requirements.

“We want our customers to have confidence in their shopping experience and for brands to know they are protected from counterfeits,” said Dharmesh Mehta, Amazon’s vice president of Selling Partner Services.

“As we laid out in our blueprint for private and public sector partnership to stop counterfeiters, we think it is critical to share information about confirmed counterfeiters to help the entire industry stop these criminals earlier.

“By leading the way in creating an industry-wide solution to share information about known counterfeiters, we are excited to have helped improve the industry’s collective ability to fight counterfeit crime, providing consumers and rights owners with greater peace of mind.”

“The IPR Center applauds the foundational efforts made by the Anti-Counterfeiting Exchange, and we’re pleased to have been a part of its creation,” said James Mancuso, director of the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center.

“This is an opening salvo in a much larger battle against counterfeiters and criminal organizations, and the effort will need even greater participation, from all industries and sectors, to reach its full potential. We look forward to supporting this momentous effort with all of the tools that the IPR Center brings to bear.”

Daniel Castro, director of the Center for Data Innovation, reiterated the importance of this type of voluntary collaboration.

“Active cooperation among private sector firms is key to combating illicit counterfeiting networks. In 2020, the Department of Homeland Security called on private sector stakeholders to take a more active role in detecting and preventing the trafficking of counterfeit goods. It’s encouraging to see Amazon and other stores answer this call by creating the Anti-Counterfeiting Exchange.”

Amazon ACX To Set New Standards To Fight Counterfeiting

Amazon, along with other members of ACX, has initiated a pilot program to establish an exchange aimed at preventing counterfeiters.

The exchange is being developed with appropriate safeguards and scalability in mind, and Amazon is inviting other retailers and marketplace providers to collaborate and join the Anti-Counterfeiting Exchange.

Private sector partnerships involving data sharing are critical in the fight against counterfeiting, and Amazon is urging interested companies to join forces with the founding members to further strengthen collective efforts.

ACX is a warning to counterfeiters and criminal organizations that the private sector is uniting against them and is committed to protecting consumers and rights holders throughout the retail industry.

ACX complements Amazon’s Counterfeit Crimes Unit, which has been collaborating with local law enforcement to identify and combat counterfeit operations.