Thanks to cooperation between Amazon’s Anti-Counterfeiting Unit and the Prada Group, the latter was able to secure a victory in a Chinese court, which handed down a conviction in its favor in an international counterfeiting case that cost the defendant three years in prison, the payment of a $25,000 fine, and the obligation to hand over all proceeds obtained from the sale of the counterfeit goods. Unsold counterfeit goods will also be seized and destroyed.
This was announced in a note from Amazon, which explained that “thanks to a report from Amazon’s Counterfeit Crimes Unit (CCU), a conviction was arrived at based mainly on the history of overseas sales (outside China) and not on the actual seizure of counterfeit products.
In common practice, criminal sentences are issued by courts only when there are counterfeit products seized by law enforcement. In this case, the court was able to play fast and rely instead on information provided by Amazon and luxury brands such as Prada”.
Amazon had detected the defendant’s counterfeiting attempt in 2021 and, following internal investigations, reported the case to the relevant Chinese authority.
“This achievement would not have been possible without the cooperation of law enforcement and luxury entities such as the Prada Group. We are grateful for their support and will continue together in the fight against counterfeiting”, said Kebharu Smith, Amazon CCU director. The Prada Group also expressed satisfaction, “thanks to the collaboration with Amazon, we are making great progress in the fight against those who try to break the law and negatively impact our customers,” explained Francesca Secondari, the company’s general counsel and chief legal officer.
Amazon’s Counterfeit Crimes Unit (CCU), established in 2020, works with brands, law enforcement, and customers to stop and expose wrongdoers, defend the rights of brand owners, and protect customers from counterfeit products. CCU is a global team of former prosecutors, former FBI agents, experienced investigators, and data analysts who have forged mutually beneficial relationships with law enforcement.
In Italy, Amazon recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Central Directorate of the Criminal Police, an inter-agency office of the Department of Public Security of the Ministry of the Interior, with the aim of fostering the exchange of information on the phenomenon of online counterfeiting, as well as promoting sectoral research and carrying out dissemination and training activities. At the first operational meeting, held following the signing of the MoU, statistical data were shared regarding the sale of counterfeit products on the Internet, with the aim of developing sector-specific analyses and identifying best practices and guidelines for action, both for law enforcement authorities and for stakeholders active in online commerce.