Amazon recently announced its new counterfeit program called Project Zero. For years Amazon has been blamed for excessive forged products sold by unfaithful sellers. As a result, the e-commerce-based company has lost thousands in counterfeit lawsuits. Finally, they decided to take substantial steps to fight fakes with the Project Zero program. The main goal of this program is “to drive counterfeits to zero”.
Three Steps of Amazon’s Project Zero
Project Zero combines Amazon’s advanced technology, innovation, and machine learning with the knowledge brands have of their intellectual property to detect and eliminate counterfeits. Amazon offers brands three powerful tools developed for Project Zero to make their goal a reality:
- Automated protections
- Self-service counterfeit removal
- Product serialization
What is Automated Protection?
Project Zero’s automated protection is based on the information about products sold on Amazon. In other words, the more effective data a brand provides, the more protected its goods will be.
Brands provide Amazon with their logos, trademarks, and other key data so that Amazon can scan product listings and identify the ones that are not verified.
Everyday Amazon scans over 5 billion listings to search for suspected counterfeits.
Brands to Remove Counterfeits Themselves
Before Project Zero, brands had to report counterfeit listings to Amazon. Amazon would review a suggested listing and remove it, if necessary. Unfortunately this process would take time as Amazon investigated the counterfeit report.
Now Amazon speeds up this process up by giving brands the power to remove suspected listings themselves. Of course, this doesn’t mean that brands can remove any listings they want.
Brands will have to maintain a high bar of accuracy selecting listings for removal. Moreover, the brands that want to use this tool will take obligatory training from Amazon as part of enrollment to Project Zero.
Product Serialization – Danger Or Blessing?
Amazon product serialization is a procedure where brands apply a unique code to every unit they produce for a Project Zero enrolled product. This allows Amazon to scan the code and verify the authenticity of products purchased in Amazon’s store. This is a unique opportunity to detect and stop counterfeiting for every product before it reaches a customer.
Although serializing products is not obligatory, it’s highly recommended to every brand wishing to sell better. According to Amazon: “the brands that serialize their products are seeing the best results.”
Project Zero Enrollment Criteria
Interested brands must have a government-registered trademark and have their brands enrolled in the Amazon Brand Registry. Brands not yet enrolled should first register with the Amazon Brand Registry.
Project Zero Fee
Joining Project Zero is free. The use of automated protections and self-service counterfeit removal tools will also be free for everyone. However, brands that would like to use the product serialization tool incur fees between $0.01 and $0.05 per unit, based on volume.
How to Join Project Zero
Project Zero is now an invite-only program. For now, Amazon has selected some key brands and invited them to test the new tools. The brands that have been testing Project Zero provide very positive feedback on the program.
Project Zero will soon be available for all willing brands. In the meantime, interested brands may join the wait list, fill in the enrollment form, provide required information about their company and wait for an invite from Amazon.
With the help of Project Zero, Amazon hopes to achieve its primary goal – enhance the customer’s shopping experience.
