Amazon to Crack Down on Counterfeit Goods Sold on its Marketplace - MacRumorsOpen MenuShow RoundupsShow Forums menuVisit ForumsOpen Sidebar
Skip to Content

Amazon to Crack Down on Counterfeit Goods Sold on its Marketplace

by

Amazon has acknowledged a worsening counterfeit problem on its site and says it has made fighting the fake products a "major goal" for next year (via The Verge).

Last month Apple filed a lawsuit against Mobile Star LLC which it accused of infringing upon its trademarks and copyrights by selling counterfeit power adapters and cables on Amazon. Apple claimed the fake products posed a risk to life, and said it had found that almost 90 percent of so-called genuine Apple products and accessories it purchased from Amazon over the last nine months were actually counterfeit.

amazon-review-mobile-star
Following the lawsuit, Amazon said it had "zero tolerance for the sale of counterfeits" on its website and said it was working closely with manufacturers and brands to aggressively pursue the wrongdoers.

Bloomberg reports that Amazon now says it plans to create a registry to prevent fakes and wants legitimate brands to register even if they don't plan on selling products on the site. Merchants then have to obtain official brand permission before they can sell goods from the company.

Amazon has reportedly been experimenting with Nike and other brands to build the registry, but the company says it will target more brands in 2017 in an attempt to get them to sell their products on Amazon's marketplace. According to the report, Amazon tried to get the NFL and MLB to sell merchandise through its online marketplace, but the negotiations stalled because of a perceived lack of control over existing fake goods.

Tag: Amazon

Top Rated Comments

Kebabselector Avatar
128 months ago
I think the Marketplace cheapens the brand (and they are not the only people to do this). If I wanted cheap dodgy goods I'd use ebay.
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
keysofanxiety Avatar
128 months ago
Long overdue, but great news.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Phil A. Avatar
128 months ago
If Mobile Star would pay the license of their product to Apple would that make all their product MFi? Obviously Mobile Star is infringing the design and they need to pay their dues.
I think the biggest problem is they've been selling stuff as "genuine apple" when it's clearly nothing of the kind: Nothing to do with paying dues and everything to do with blatant counterfeiting as I understand it
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ftaok Avatar
128 months ago
The reason why I brought that up because the functionality of the product that is copied works just like the original or an MFI product. Obviously Apple argues about safely but if this was licensed then it is now labeled as safe. I know about issues being caught on fire but it did happen to Apple products or MFI licensed product as well. I know for sure that this company is blatantly counterfeiting the product.
The problem is that the MobileStar chargers look just like the Apple chargers, but they skimp on the quality of the internals. From the outside, they look just like Apple chargers, plus they are listed as Apple OEM chargers.

This is the definition of counterfeit.

It's not like Anker with the mifi license. Anker stuff doesn't looke like Apple stuff.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
PBG4 Dude Avatar
128 months ago
Funny how Amazon didn't see a problem when Birkenstock pulled all product from Amazon due to fakes but as soon as Apple launches a suit, it's a different story completely.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Zorn Avatar
128 months ago
I think the Marketplace cheapens the brand (and they are not the only people to do this). If I wanted cheap dodgy goods I'd use ebay.
I agree with you 110%. Lots of other sites got into this crappy business as well, if I do a search on Best Buy's site or Newegg, often times I'll get dozens of pages of "marketplace" garbage. Much of it is discontinued products as well, I can't understand why a major brand would want their storefront littered with old, dodgy junk that they have no quality control over. eBay/Craigslist exist for a reason, we don't need a knockoff of them operating on every retailer's site.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

iOS 27 Next to iPhone

Here's When iOS 27 Rolls Out Today in Every Time Zone [Update: It's Out]

Sunday September 13, 2026 3:00 am PDT by
Update 10:04 a.m.: iOS 27 is rolling out now, though it may take a bit for all users to see it, so keep checking! Apple is about to release iOS 27, which will finally deliver more advanced Siri AI capabilities as well as a variety of other refinements, improvements, and new features to iPhones. It's Apple's biggest software update of the year, and Apple announced at Wednesday's iPhone event...
iOS 27 Icon iPhone

iOS 27 Available Now With These 8 New Features

Monday September 14, 2026 9:00 am PDT by
Update — 10 a.m. Pacific Time: Apple has released iOS 27. During its iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone Duo event last week, Apple announced that iOS 27 will be released widely on Monday, September 14. iOS 27 should be available around 10 a.m. Pacific Time / 1 p.m. Eastern Time today via the Settings app, under General → Software Update. Below, we have highlighted eight new features and...
Apple iCloud Plus expansion hero

iCloud+ Now Includes Apple TV, Apple Arcade, and Curated Apple Music Stations in Over 100 Countries

Tuesday September 15, 2026 1:43 am PDT by
Apple today announced a new subscription initiative that turns paid iCloud+ subscriptions into a broader services bundle in more than 100 countries. In select countries, Apple says every paid iCloud+ plan, including the cheapest 50GB tier, now includes Apple TV and Apple Arcade "at no additional cost," while family sharing extends the storage, TV and Arcade access to up to five people....

🔗 Related Apple News & Rumors

Stay updated with the latest Apple ecosystem news and verified rumors