The only way Amazon is going to fix it is if it costs more to leave it as a problem than it will cost to fix it.

Let's hope that Amazon recognizes the seriousness of this problem before it manifests itself financially. By then it could be too late. If we think about this as a "reputational security" problem then Amazon is already vulnerable. If the idea that buying from Amazon means you will get a fake gains traction--either organically or through an information campaign by a competitor--then it seems likely that their sales will decline. And, once their reputation is damaged in this way it will be difficult to repair.

I'm suggesting that reputation has a delayed effect on sales, it may not have a significant financial impact until the reputational attack hits a certain threshold; at which point that impact could be very significant. It's easy to imagine the hyberbolic, clickbait articles that might arise: "The Amazon Fake Crisis: What you need to know" or "Amazon fakes: Read this before you buy another thing on Amazon" (or better clickbait headlines than I can write but you get the idea).

If Amazon retail imploded, it would affect their revenue greatly, but not their profitability. 75% of their profit comes from AWS.

Have sellers post $1,000 bond to sell, scaled up based on sales volume.

This is interesting. I've looked over various pages, starting at https://services.amazon.com/fulfillment-by-amazon/pricing.ht... and I can't find anything where FBA stores need to do anything like this (post bond).

Compare this to Chinese stores tmall.com (operated by Alibaba) and jd.com. Both tmall.com and jd.com are focused on trying to ensure that customers can trust the authenticity of their products and similarly can host 3rd party stores. Their corresponding webpages say:

https://about.tmall.com/tmall/fee_schedule

This one-time fee (frozen on Merchant's Alipay account) is used as collateral in the case of any damages incurred by Tmall.com or any customer, unfrozen upon termination of the Tmall.com Service Agreement.

    - Flagship Store, Franchise Store:™100,000RMB; ® 50,000RMB

    - Specialty Store: ™ 150,000RMB; ®: 100,000RMB

    - Specialty Categories:

        Flagship Store of a multi-brand marketplace - 150,000RMB

        Specialty stores sell merchandises produced outside of Mainland China and the trademarks of those merchandises are not registered in China(Fruit, import products, etc) - 150,000RMB

        "Book/Audiovisual" primary category operators: Flagship store and franchise store - 50,000RMB; Specialty store - 100,000RMB

        "Service" and "E-tickets" primary category operators - 10,000RMB

        "Online Gaming and QQ", "Mobile Fees", and "Travel" primary category operators - 10,000RMB

        "Medicine/Medical Service" primary category merchants - 300,000RMB

        "Cars and Car accessories" and below 1st class "New and Used Cars" primary category merchants - 100,000RMB

        For information on first-class categories, please consult: //a.taobao.com/detail/2011/11/10/533509/1.php

Tmall.com reserves the right to deduct from the Deposit an amount equivalent to the damage incurred by Tmall.com or any customer. Should the Security Deposit be less than the required amount, the merchant must cover the difference within 15 days. Should the merchant exceed the deadline, Tmall.com will close the store until the payments are received.

Correspondingly, for jd.com, I couldn't find a similar official company URL, but I found this one.

https://www.tmogroup.asia/how-to-sell-using-jd-com/

Although companies who are registered inside mainland China are eligible to sell on the JD Marketplace platform, it is important to take into account the costs associated with operating a store. Roughly the costs can be divided into the security deposit, service see, and commission.

    First, the security deposit ranges between 10.000 and 100.000 RMB depending on the product category. This deposit is refundable if you decided to leave the JD Marketplace.

    Second, the service fee is a monthly payment between 500 and 1.000 RMB depending on the chosen product category.

    Lastly, JD will charge a commission based on your sales. This commission ranges between 1% and 8% varying with the shop type and product category.

I'm sure they also take various other measures to ensure authenticity and punish misbehaving sellers. Both of them basically are market responses to Chinese consumers being fed up with counterfeit products.

I am surprised that to date, Amazon has not done something similar to weed out all the bad sellers.

It seems to be less of an issue in Germany. But it is bad enough that for certain products I insist on sold and shipped by Amazon. Do, my impression is that over here it is more like a marketplace problem, for now. Also, customer service for marketplace orders is just crap.

Insofar as I've understood, buying products that are sold and shipped by Amazon doesn't protect you anymore because inventories are no longer segregated.

That would be bad for all kind of reasons, I don't like that kind of lack of transparency.

Not would. Is. Speaking personally I haven't bought anything from Amazon for that reason.

It may be related to the german legal concept of „Mitstörerhaftung“ which basically means that anyone who is contributing to a rights violation (like selling counterfeit goods) is liable for this. This can be a bit absurd (a shipping company transporting a sealed container which contains counterfeit goods they know nothing of is liable to at least stop doing so), but it may keep amazon on it‘s toes.

You’re not getting a fake for 30% off... because then it is not a fake.. that’s just some off brand crap

It’s a fake when you get a counterfeit item that is sold to you at full price under the listing for the real thing. I think most people that seek out a particular brand and then find out it is a fake are pretty pissed off.

> but 90% of people don't give a crap if it's 30% cheaper than the real thing and magically appears at their house the next day

...until it burns their house down.

Yes, but at that point it is too late, right? I'm not defending the business practice--I just don't think many consumers consider that kind of exceptional possibility when they make purchases.

Wait until it happens enough to make the news.

People do care about fake chargers when they make their phone explode or their house burn down.

and fake batteries! - for laptops, cameras and cell phones - I have seen some really bad stuff come from the smiling boxes - and read nightmares from others.

It's to the point that I do not buy any batteries from Amazon and tell others to be wary, fire to save a few bucks is not worth it.

Sometimes it's easy to spot knockoffs, other times the sellers have the name of the OEM as their store it seems - and it's crazy bad.

When Samsung phones had a well publicized issue. Airlines prohibited their phones and called them out by name before every flight. You bet that's going to encourage them to never make that mistake again.

Sometimes yes, but if it happens there will be a very public recall, and they will replace the device for free. A crappy charger someone bulk- ordered white-label is not going to have either of those things.

Replacing a phone isn't going to help someone who's house burned down

You can plausibly sue Samsung for it. Does AMZ have the same accountability?