Originally Posted by
phltraveler
Amazon's margins are not insane. Running a business at a profit vs. a loss is still a thing.
Amazon polices its vendors retroactively, which is the best you can reasonably hope for without an increase in expense that wouldn't be worth it. They already started divesting Fulfilled by Amazon merchandise from the Amazon.com articles because Amazon was buying real iPhone chargers, most of the sellers were sending fakes, and they were all being dumped into the same bin at the warehouse. That's reasonable, but requiring all merchandise clear an Amazon warehouse isn't for a lot of goods (Due to shipping expense/cost). You'd get to the point where 98% of legitimate transactions would become uneconomical in order to eliminate the 2% of counterfeits. Amazon already is "responsible" in the fact that they basically unilaterally side with the buyer in case of a claim on goods (e.g. "not as described" like a counterfeit).
Amazon's policy is the opposite and in pretty much all cases you're given free return shipping + refund or just a refund without having to send the item back if you claim it is not as described (example: counterfeit).
In regards to whatever US Customs decides to do, that isn't Amazon's decision or choice. If someone is sent tons of fake cell phones or tablets or suitcases or whatever, then I can see why customs might go after the individual recipient (importer). I definitely don't agree with people in GE being banned for a single counterfeit that they had shipped to them. I find it hard to imagine no matter the letter of the law that a customs agent would give someone guff over a counterfeit item they bought at a market when on vacation and then cleared by themselves either.
Unless we're going to go full protectionism and bar direct overseas sales / make Amazon be the importer of record (both of which would increase cost and decrease the amount of items available on the site), it's basically impossible for Amazon to 100% guarantee items are legitimate before they are received by the customer unless they were only to sell items that they themselves had sourced directly.
I understand the points you are making but disagree. First off no claim was made that Amazon's margins were insane. I said Amazon seems to be making healthy profits. Their growth and expansion would support that belief.
There are numerous ways to monitor what goods are being imported. Amazon could secretly order suspect products from a vendor. They could require in house inspection of manufacturing facilities, and ban any vendor that is found selling knockoffs. There are ways to deal with this but there first has to be a stiff penalty for Amazon if they don't.