NEWS

Milan, Seattle, October 23^rd, 2023 – Amazon’s Counterfeit Crimes Unit (CCU), the Prada Group, and other luxury brands collaborated to provide information and evidence to Chinese law enforcement, which resulted in a counterfeiter’s guilty plea to crimes related to the sale of counterfeit luxury products. This is a unique and landmark case in the fight against counterfeiters and a turning point for Intellectual Property rights owners.

In common practice, criminal judgements had typically been issued by courts when there was evidence of counterfeits seized during raids by law enforcement. In this instance, the court was able to primarily rely on the information provided by Amazon and luxury brands, such as Prada.

Amazon’s CCU detected the defendant’s attempted counterfeiting in 2021, and following internal investigations, Amazon provided a criminal referral to the relevant regional Chinese enforcement agency, or public security bureau (PSB), to pursue a criminal case. The defendant has been sentenced to three years in prison, will pay a $25,000 fine, and forfeit all revenue gained from the sale of counterfeit goods. The individual’s illicit inventory of counterfeits will also be seized and destroyed.