Amazon is looking to clamp down on scammers with the launch of its new Anti-Counterfeiting Exchange (ACX).

The ACX is a programme that will allow retailers to share information about confirmed counterfeiters who attempted to use their services to try to sell counterfeit products.

The move is part of wider efforts from Amazon to crack down on organised crime on its platform, with the company arguing that sharing information about counterfeiters retailers to identify and stop perpetrators more quickly than they would in the absence of this collaborative data sharing. The data will be housed on a third-party database, which can subsequently be accessed by retailers and Amazon marketplace sellers to avoid doing business with bad actors.

The new scheme operates similar to data exchange programmes used by the credit card industry to identify scammers.

Platforms such as Amazon which offer online marketplaces in addition to typical direct-to-consumer selling, are increasingly encountering hurdles to keep fake merchandise from entering their warehouses.

ACX was first piloted by the ecommerce giant in 2021, with the company noting that participants use this information in their ongoing efforts to detect and address counterfeiting, improve their individual risk evaluation systems, and make more robust referrals to law enforcement so bad actors can be held accountable.

Dharmesh Mehta, Amazon’s vice president of Selling Partner Services, said: “We want our customers to have confidence in their shopping experience and for brands to know they are protected from counterfeits.

“As we laid out in our blueprint for private and public sector partnership to stop counterfeiters, we think it is critical to share information about confirmed counterfeiters to help the entire industry stop these criminals earlier. By leading the way in creating an industry-wide solution to share information about known counterfeiters, we are excited to have helped improve the industry’s collective ability to fight counterfeit crime, providing consumers and rights owners with greater peace of mind.”

Elsewhere, Amazon has said that it plans to expand its business selling office supplies in Europe and internationally. The unit, which saw significant growth between 2020 and 2022, is seen as a high growth, high margin business for Amazon at a time when it is looking to curb its experimentation with physical retail in the US and UK to just the Fresh grocery stores.

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