E-commerce major Amazon is ramping up initiatives to combat the sale of counterfeit products in India by partnering with law enforcement authorities and taking legal measures such as civil suits, and leveraging AI. Earlier this month, it announced the expansion of its Counterfeit Crimes Unit (CCU) to India, which will focus on a co-ordinated action with brands, sellers and authorities to prevent listing and sale of counterfeit products among others.
Kebaru Smith, Director and Associate General Counsel, Counterfeit Crimes Unit, Amazon, told businessline, “India is a significant market with a rapidly growing e-commerce sector and hence its important to protect Indian consumers from the ills and scourge of counterfeit products. We have nearly 1.7 million sellers in India and a large number of them are micro, small and medium sized enterprises. Half of them are based in the tier-2 and tier-3 markets. So part of the mission of expanding CCU in India is to have an on-the-ground team that is focused sharply on the region. So, we can partner more quickly with law enforcement and with brands and other stakeholders in India to go after these bad actors at scale.”
“We want to make sure we protect Indian consumers as well as the intellectual property of Indian brands. We will be going after counterfeiters who were manufacturing, fabricating and distributing counterfeits from India across the globe as well,” he added.
The e-commerce major, which released its first Trustworthy Shopping Experience Report, said that in 2025 its legal actions led to the shutdown of more than 100 websites attempting to facilitate fake reviews and scams. “Since 2020, CCU has pursued more than 32,000 bad actors through litigation and criminal referrals to law enforcement, across 14 countries. For instance in China, last year alone we had over 60-70 raid actions where over 100 bad actors were detained or arrested for manufacturing counterfeits that were being sent across the globe. As we bring the CCU model to Indian consumers, we do foresee success in our partnership with CBI and other law enforcement partners and through the use of civil suits to go after these bad actors,” Smith added. He added that in partnership with Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre, Amazon has helped prevent fraudulent transactions worth ₹17.7 crore last year
Besides proactive controls to stop the counterfeit goods reaching customers and raising awareness among consumers, the e-commerce major is also leveraging AI. “With our automated technology and artificial intelligence (AI), we do billions of scans per day to take down fake reviews and identify counterfeits. So we are using a mix of technology, human engagement and review from investigators and aggressive enforcement against bad actors, in partnership with law enforcement and brands to protect consumers, “ Smith noted.
Published on April 22, 2026