Amazon Counterfeit Unit: Is Your Book Counterfeit?

About this video

Dale Roberts examines Amazon book counterfeiting through the lens of Amazon’s Counterfeit Claims Unit, announced June 24, 2020. He opens with a dramatized account of an author’s sales stopping abruptly while the book’s rank held, because a third-party seller was selling a fake version containing material the author never wrote. He distinguishes legitimate used-copy reselling, which Amazon allows on the same product page, from counterfeiters who print altered copies, citing New York Times reporting on corrupted editions of Orwell’s 1984 with changed wording, gibberish passages, and missing pages. He notes Amazon’s stated 2019 investment of over $500 million and more than 8,000 employees fighting fraud, and its claims of blocking millions of bad-actor accounts and billions of suspect listings. He then raises three problems: enforcement depends on regional law enforcement in countries where counterfeiters operate; Amazon cannot realistically discover every counterfeit, so detection falls heavily on customers returning or reporting items, which many never do; and Amazon keeps forfeited counterfeit earnings rather than passing them to the customer or the intellectual property owner. He closes by noting banned sellers can simply return under a new account, company, or VPN.

Key takeaways

• A sudden sales halt while your Amazon rank holds can signal a third-party counterfeit edition diverting your buyers
• Legitimate used-copy reselling on your product page is allowed by Amazon and is distinct from counterfeit printing
• Counterfeit editions may contain altered wording, gibberish, or missing pages, as reported for editions of Orwell’s 1984
• Amazon says it invested over $500 million in 2019 with more than 8,000 employees fighting fraud and abuse
• Roberts argues forfeited counterfeit earnings should go to the customer or the IP owner, not stay with Amazon

Episode details: published August 11, 2020 · 11:22 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are Dale L. Roberts’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

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