Amazon has announced the introduction of its Transparency anti-counterfeit programme into several new global markets.
Transparency is a product serialisation service that provides a unique code for every unit that is manufactured. Brands put these codes on their products and every time one of these products is ordered in Amazon’s stores, Amazon scans and verifies the code to ensure only authentic units reach customers.
More than 4,000 brands are enrolled in Transparency in the US, generating more than 300 million unique codes. Amazon said this has allowed it to proactively stop over 250,000 counterfeits of Transparency-enabled products from reaching customers. In 2019, for products fully on-boarded into the Transparency service, there have been zero reports of counterfeit from brands or customers who purchased these products on Amazon.
Now Transparency has been expanded to France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK, India and Canada in what Amazon says is a sign of its “continued investment in scalable, technology-driven solutions to prevent counterfeit”.
“Counterfeiting is an industry-wide concern – both online and offline. We find the most effective solutions to prevent counterfeit are based on partnerships that combine Amazon’s technology innovation with the sophisticated knowledge and capabilities of brands,” said Dharmesh Mehta, VP of Amazon Customer Trust and Partner Support.
“We created Transparency to provide brands with a simple, scalable solution that empowers brands and Amazon to authenticate products within the supply chain, stopping counterfeit before it reaches a customer.”
“Blocking counterfeits from the source has always been a tough task for us – it’s something all brand owners face through nearly all channels around the world,” said Bill Mei, CEO at Cowin, a manufacturer of noise-cancelling audio devices. “After we joined Transparency, our counterfeit problem just disappeared for products protected by the programme.”
