Prada and Amazon have beaten imitators

Prada Group and Amazon have just reached a plea bargain with a seller of fakes on the US platform. Following their guilty plea, the accused party was sentenced to three years in prison and a $25,000 fine by a Chinese court. The investigation has been going on for two years, but it is a problem that has existed on Amazon for much longer. In the past, the same had happened to Valentino and to accessories and beauty brands such as KF Beauty, JL Childress and Yeti. The marketplace company bans the sale of counterfeit products and has invested more than $700 million against fraud and fakes since 2020. According to recent studies by Untold Insights and the European Union, buying imitations (also known as dupes) has become a rising trend among Gen Z, who say they are willing to invest in counterfeit goods for convenience. Fashion brands and companies such as Amazon are trying to combat the problem by all possible means, from artificial intelligence to outright investigations, but the ongoing price hikes that are being implemented by the biggest luxury names continue to appear as the main reason behind the success of dupe resale.

In order to take to court the individual who sold fakes, the Prada Group and other luxury executives - whose names are not known - cooperated with the Chinese law enforcement investigation. Fake sales records and logistics centre inventory were used to unmask the defendant, but the total value of the goods in stock was not revealed. «We are firmly committed to eradicating the sale of counterfeit products to protect our brands and ensure that our products meet the level of quality, craftsmanship and care that people expect from us. Thanks to our collaboration with Amazon, we are making great progress in the fight against those who attempt to break the law and negatively impact our customers,» Francesca Secondari, General Counsel and Chief Legal Officer of the Prada Group told WWD. Following the ruling, the goods seized by Chinese law enforcement will be destroyed.

Amazon has been working against the sale of counterfeit goods on its site for years. According to a report released by the platform last April, the company was able to prevent the opening of virtual shop windows to around 800,000 illicit users and was able to remove over 6 million counterfeit products from the platform. To do this, Amazon's Counterfeit Crimes Unit made use of tools such as artificial intelligence and collaborated with authorities such as the U.S. Customs and Border Protection. In 2022 alone, it managed to report and investigate more than 1,300 criminals in the US, UK, EU and China.