Amazon Under Fire Again - Counterfeit Apple® Chargers

Apple says 90% of “Genuine” Apple items it purchased were counterfeit

October 21, 2016 - Los Angeles, CA – Still reeling from pubic exposure over sales of counterfeit Birkenstock® footwear, Amazon has gained the ire of global giant Apple® (AAPL)  for the sale of counterfeit Apple chargers and other Apple products on its website.

Apple Inc. says it has been buying Apple chargers and cables labeled as genuine directly from Amazon, and found nearly 90% of them to be counterfeit. Apple says the chargers and cables were being sold on Amazon as “genuine” Apple products.

“Policing this activity internally and in partnership with Amazon.com has proven impossible.” says Birkenstock CEO David Kahan. And he’s is right -- it is a complaint common with manufacturers.

Could you spot a counterfeit Apple charger? Look closely and you will see the word “information” spelled incorrectly on the fake.

While the chargers may look the same on the outside, they are much different inside and pose a fire threat to users.

View the counterfeit Apple chargers: Apple A1265 Charger   Apple A1385 Charger   Apple 1401 Charger

Amazon sells directly from Amazon, fulfills and ships orders for third party sellers through Amazon Fulfillment, and operates Amazon’s Marketplace adding to the problem.

Amazon’s Marketplace allows global sellers to market their products on Amazon for a fee, but ship directly to buyers. China merchants flood the e-commerce websites with an avalanche of counterfeit listings which easily dupe consumers. China produces 90% of the worlds $1.7 trillion in counterfeits which cost US business $250 billion and 750,000 US jobs.

The Counterfeit Report®, a popular consumer protection and education website, conducted dozens of name-brand test purchases from Amazon Fulfillment and Amazon Marketplace sellers, but never received an authentic item.

e-Commerce giants, Amazon® (AMZN), eBay® (EBAY) and Alibaba® (BABA) are no strangers to allegations of selling counterfeit goods. The e-commerce giants face a “credibility crisis” fueled by a failure to crack down on counterfeit goods and making it easy for the world’s largest criminal enterprise to peddle $1.7 trillion in counterfeit goods to unsuspecting consumers. Social media sites Facebook®, Twitter® and Instagram® have also become popular counterfeit outlets, and Walmart and Best Buy were caught selling counterfeits.

When the e-commerce websites don’t pay sufficient attention to these problems, consumer confidence fades and their brand integrity is tarnished. Regulation of the e-commerce marketplace is severely lacking, allowing very profitable online marketing, credit card processing, financing, and shipping services that effectuate the sale of the counterfeit products.