We have clients who deal with this problem every day. By failing to properly manage third-party sellers operating on its platform, Amazon has effectively created a black-market for fraudulent retailers. By infringing the intellectual property of legitimate small businesses, these fraudulent sellers offer counterfeit goods, usurping the markets earned by the real creators, and very often cheating consumers in the process.
As NBC Washington reports about artist Cecilia Granata, whose works are being infringed by unlicensed sellers on Amazon, “Not only is she missing out on royalties, but the consumers who buy these products could lose out, too. Granata said that a lot of these items don’t even exist and they’re never shipped to the people who paid for them.”
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Copyright infringement of artwork and photographs is a major problem with Amazon’s sellers. If you are having a problem like this, give me a call.