Amazon takes more legal action against counterfeiters

Amazon is teaming up with a U.K.-based cosmetics company in a product infringement lawsuit.

The e-tail titan and KF Beauty are jointly filing a lawsuit against four companies and 16 individuals for counterfeiting KF Beauty’s “Wunder2” beauty items and offering the infringing products for sale in Amazon’s stores. The suit alleges violation of Amazon’s policies and KF Beauty’s intellectual property rights and various trademarks.

Amazon has recently engaged in a number of efforts to prevent and punish sellers of counterfeit goods on its site, including a joint lawsuit against a New York-based counterfeiter with Italian luxury brand Valentino and supporting 3M legal action against Amazon sellers who allegedly sold counterfeit N95 respirators.

And in June 2020, Amazon launched its Counterfeit Crime Unit (CCU), a global team with specialized experience in investigating and bringing legal action against bad actors. The Amazon CCU works with brands, as it did here with KF Beauty, and supports law enforcement as they pursue counterfeiters.

Amazon and KF Beauty filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington. The suit alleges the defendants conspired and operated in concert with each other to counterfeit KF Beauty’s products. The defendants allegedly operated a shell company in Wyoming and at least one of the individual defendants was identified as residing in Shenzhen, China. 

If the defendants are found liable and a judgment is collected, KF Beauty will receive the proceeds. Amazon refunded the purchases of all customers who received counterfeit KF Beauty products.

Amazon strictly prohibits counterfeit products in its stores and says that in 2019, it invested more than $500 million to protect customers and brands from fraud, abuse, and counterfeit. According to Amazon, 99.9% of all products viewed by customers on its e-commerce platform have not received a valid counterfeit complaint.

“The majority of sellers in our store are law-abiding entrepreneurs, but we will take aggressive action to protect customers, brands, and our store from counterfeiters,” said Cristina Posa, associate general counsel and director, Amazon Counterfeit Crimes Unit. “Amazon and KF Beauty are holding these companies and individuals accountable and we appreciate the close cooperation we’ve had in this investigation.”