Amazon Sues Bad Actors Attempting To Use Social Media To Knowingly Sell Counterfeit Luxury Items

RTTNews | 644 days ago
Amazon Sues Bad Actors Attempting To Use Social Media To Knowingly Sell Counterfeit Luxury Items

(RTTNews) - Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) and its Counterfeit Crimes Unit (CCU) announced Wednesday the filing of two new lawsuits against Kamryn Russell, Ashley Hawat, and their co-conspirators who knowingly attempted to evade Amazon's brand protection systems in an effort to promote, advertise, and facilitate the sale of counterfeit luxury fashion goods such as jewelry, handbags, and accessories.

Amazon works across the globe to fight counterfeiters, filing joint lawsuits with brands to eliminate the sale of counterfeits not only in Amazon's store but across the supply chain. In 2022, the CCU sued or referred for investigation over 1,300 criminals in the U.S., UK, EU, and China.

In this case, both Russell and Hawat attempted to use a "hidden links" scheme in which they posted links on their social media pages that directed their followers to seemingly generic product listing pages in the Amazon store.

Russell and Hawat's co-conspirators disguised the infringing nature of the products they were selling in order to avoid detection by Amazon and the brand, often by blurring the brand's logo.

Russell and Hawat's social media posts then made it clear to their followers that if they purchased these seemingly non-infringing and non-branded products, they would actually receive counterfeit luxury products.

These bad actors also urged their followers to buy these products before Amazon could take down the listings.

When Russell or Hawat's followers used the posted links to purchase the counterfeit products, Russell and Hawat received a commission for that sale.

Russell and Hawat not only attempted to profit off of the sale of fake goods that could damage the reputations of the multiple luxury brands they counterfeited, but their actions also negatively impact the thousands of legitimate content creators.

read more
CPSC Recalls: 3.8 Mln Dumbbells, 1.7 Mln Air Conditioners, Golf Cars, CO Detectors, Casters, E-Bikes

CPSC Recalls: 3.8 Mln Dumbbells, 1.7 Mln Air Conditioners, Golf Cars, CO Detectors, Casters, E-Bikes

The U.S. Consumer Product safety Commission or CPSC has announced various recalls including around 3.8 million units of dumbbells by Johnson Health Tech Trading, 1.7 million air conditioners by Midea America Corp., around 352 thousand units of Yamaha golf cars including previously recalled ones, and around 50 thousand units of Apollo America's Combination Smoke and Carbon Monoxide or CO Detectors.
RTTNews | 5 days ago
Amazon Places Bid For TikTok Ahead Of US Sale Deadline

Amazon Places Bid For TikTok Ahead Of US Sale Deadline

As the April 5 deadline is looming for TikTok, owned by China-based ByteDance Ltd, to find a buyer or to face shutdown in the United States, its biggest market, Amazon has entered the picture, submitting a takeover bid to the White House for the business, reports said. With this, the tech major joins the list of potential bidders including private equity firm Blackstone and mobile technology...
RTTNews | 69 days ago
Amazon Q4 Upbeat, Sees Sales Growth In Q1; But Stock Down

Amazon Q4 Upbeat, Sees Sales Growth In Q1; But Stock Down

Shares of Amazon.com Inc. declined around 4 percent in the extended trading on Thursday and are currently down around 3 percent in the pre-market activity on the Nasdaq, after the tech major projected slower sales growth in the first quarter than the fourth quarter, with a significant unfavorable foreign exchange imapct. This was despite reporting higher earnings, above the Street estimates...
RTTNews | 124 days ago
Amazon's AWS To Invest At Least $11 Bln In Georgia For Cloud, AI Infrastructure

Amazon's AWS To Invest At Least $11 Bln In Georgia For Cloud, AI Infrastructure

Amazon Web Services or AWS, affiliated to tech major Amazon.com Inc., announced its plan to invest at least $11 billion in the U.S. state of Georgia, aiming to expand infrastructure to support cloud computing and artificial intelligence technologies. The landmark investment in Butts and Douglas counties, which is expected to create at least 550 new high-skilled jobs, would enhance Georgia's...
RTTNews | 154 days ago
Amazon To Expand Same-Day Prescription Deliveries To 20 More US Cities

Amazon To Expand Same-Day Prescription Deliveries To 20 More US Cities

Amazon revealed its plan to expand same-day delivery of medications to nearly half the US in 2025 by opening new pharmacies. Amazon Pharmacy, a digital-first pharmacy, will offer fast, free delivery of prescription medications in 20 more U.S. cities next year, more than doubling the number of cities, where customers can get Same-Day Delivery of their medications.
RTTNews | 244 days ago
Amazon's Prime Big Deal Days Starting Oct. 8

Amazon's Prime Big Deal Days Starting Oct. 8

Amazon has unveiled deep discounts and millions of early holiday deals worldwide from top categories for Prime Members during Prime Big Deal Days, ahead of the upcoming holiday season. Starting October 8, the e-commerce giant is offering some of its lowest prices of the year so far on select products in various categories of electronics, home, toys, beauty, and apparel.
RTTNews | 251 days ago