Amazon strives to be Earth’s most customer-centric company. We are obsessed with listening to our customers, working backwards from their needs and endeavouring vigorously to earn and keep customer trust.
Our goal is to ensure that when our customers shop on Amazon, they have the safest and most seamless shopping experience and that they choose from the widest collection possible of authentic and safe products. We work hard to earn and maintain customer trust and constantly innovate on behalf of our customers.
Here are some ways in which we ensure that our customers have a safe experience every single time they shop on amazon.in.
Robust proactive controls
Amazon.in is a third-party marketplace where sellers list their products for sale to millions of customers who shop with us. We understand that sellers are the most critical to making sure the customer experience is safe, at all times. And to do so, Amazon has built industry-leading tools to verify potential sellers’ identities by using a combination of advanced technology and expert human reviews.
Seller verification
Our in-person verification program requires prospective sellers to have one-on-one conversations with our team members to verify their identity and documentation. We also leverage machine learning models to detect risk, including a potential seller’s relations to previously enforced bad actors.
Continuous monitoring
We are constantly monitoring our marketplace for potential infringement. Starting with product listings, our advanced technology continually scans for potential counterfeit, fraud, and abuse, factoring in future changes that are submitted for the product. In case we identify an issue, we act quickly to protect customers and brands. Amazon’s actions include removing the problematic content or listing, blocking accounts, withholding funds, and referring bad actors to law enforcement.
Powerful tools that empower consumers, brands to protect their rights
Amazon understands the importance for brands to protect their intellectual property and we ensure that by reducing opportunities for counterfeiting through a variety of innovative solutions such as:
Amazon Brand Registry
It is a free service that helps brands, regardless of whether they sell on our marketplace, to manage and protect their brand and intellectual property rights on Amazon. Through the ‘Report a Violation’ tool, brand owners can search for, identify, and report infringements and subsequently track their submissions within a dedicated dashboard.
Project Zero
Combines Amazon’s advanced technology with the sophisticated knowledge that brands have of their own IP and its potential counterfeiting. With this, brands have the unprecedented ability to directly remove listings from our marketplace.
Transparency
This is a product serialisation service that prevents counterfeits from reaching customers around the world. Here, Amazon verifies 100% of these product units and unidentified items are stopped from reaching customers.
Educating and supporting customers
Amazon also partners with customers to make our marketplace safe. We do so by empowering customers in several ways, including:
Customer guarantee
Our A-to-Z guarantee ensures customers can get a full refund for any item they purchase. If we identify that a customer purchased a counterfeit from a third party seller on Amazon, we proactively contact the customer, inform them that they purchased a counterfeit product, and fully refund their purchase – without the need for the customer to take any action.
Grievance redressal mechanism
Amazon has in place a comprehensive and adequate grievance redressal mechanism proportionate to the number of grievances received on a daily basis. For reporting any violation and for timely resolution, sellers and brands can always reach out to the in-house Grievance Officer. Amazon’s website displays the name, contact details and designation of the Grievance Redressal Officer, and also provides a convenient option for customers, sellers and brands to track their requests.
Furthermore, Amazon is a convergence partner with the National Consumer Helpline (since 2016). Aggrieved consumers across the country can register their grievances by either calling the toll-free number 1800-11-4000 and talking to an agent or by registering oneself on the NCH portal and lodging their grievances along with necessary documents (if any). At Amazon, we endeavour to resolve complaints within 48 hours to 5 days, even though the allowed period for grievance closure is up to 45 days. We have been maintaining a 98% resolution on the National Consumer Helpline portal since 2016.
Customer awareness
a. Capacity building workshops with law enforcement agencies
In partnership with FICCI Cascade, India’s largest industrial association working against counterfeiting, we have undertaken capacity building programmes for law enforcement agencies. In 2022, we trained over 350 law enforcement officers covering Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh. Through such initiatives, we highlight Amazon’s efforts in mitigating fraud and abuse on the Amazon marketplace.
b. #FightTheFraud initiative
To drive consumer awareness around online scams and frauds, we launched the #FightTheFraud initiative in collaboration with knowledge partners CyberPeace Foundation and Rashtriya Raksha University, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. The initiative was launched by the National Cyber Security Coordinator from the Prime Minister’s Office and aims to develop a collective response against cybercrime and online scams through various online and offline activities. Through our webinar series, we have presently sensitised more than 2,000 students across the country.
c. ‘Mission GraHAQ’
Mission GraHAQ is Amazon’s latest initiative to educate consumers about safe online shopping. Currently in its first phase, Mission GraHAQ educates customers on their rights as they navigate the ecommerce space through street plays across Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat.
Focusing primarily on Tier 2 and 3 cities, the plays weave in themes around making informed decisions, provide information on payment methods, showcase grievance redressal mechanisms, and highlight the duties of online shoppers. Till date, we have covered 116 markets across 66 towns and cities, enacting over 245 plays with more than 26,000 people watching them.
Holding bad actors accountable
Amazon Counterfeit Crimes Unit (CCU)
To increase our litigation efforts and collaboration with global law enforcement, we established CCU in 2020. This team is made up of experienced investigation experts who work with customs agencies/ law enforcement to track down counterfeiters, shut down bad actors’ accounts, seize counterfeit inventory, and prosecute those involved.
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Blueprint for private and public sector partnership to stop counterfeiters
In October 2021, Amazon launched the blueprint for public and private sector partnerships to stop counterfeits. We identified three opportunities for increased collaboration:
- Exchanging information about counterfeit activity to help stop it at the border
- Sharing information about blocked counterfeiters to help the industry stop more counterfeiters in their tracks
- Increasing resources for law enforcement to prosecute counterfeiters
The blueprint prompted a dialogue among Amazon and policymakers about industry and government cooperation, particularly around information sharing on counterfeiting criminal networks, as well as the attempted importation of counterfeit products.
Removing counterfeits from across the supply chain
The fight against counterfeiting is a global issue, across all channels. Amazon wants to ensure that when we find a counterfeit, it is appropriately disposed of so that it cannot be resold anywhere in the supply chain. This ensures customers purchase genuine products, whether shopping on Amazon or elsewhere.
Sharing best practices and continuous improvement
Amazon works with leading industry associations and non-profit organisations to continue to improve our programs, share our best practices to help others be more successful, identify trends, pilot new capabilities, and ultimately better protect customers and brands.
