USTR Names Foreign Amazon Websites 'Notorious Markets'; Section 321 Changes Still Being Considered
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative says that Amazon's foreign websites are “Notorious Markets,” the government's term for sites that “reportedly engage in or facilitate substantial piracy or counterfeiting.” USTR says its goal in naming and shaming through the Notorious Markets List “is to motivate appropriate action by the private sector and governments to reduce piracy and counterfeiting.” Specificially, the agency mentioned Amazon's websites in Canada, the United Kingdom, India, Germany, and France.
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This marks the first time that an American company was listed as a Notorious Market, but a senior USTR official, in a call with reporters, did not directly answer a question as to why Amazon.ca is worse for counterfeits than Amazon.com, in the U.S. “We’re considering seeking more information [from stakeholders] regarding e-commerce platforms, including those in the United States,” he said.
In response to a question from International Trade Today, the official said none of the e-commerce companies have yet adopted the “best practices” that the administration identified to combat counterfeit sales on their platforms (see 2001240043). But he said USTR has “ongoing engagement” with e-commerce companies to try to convince them “to adopt and implement those best practices.”
The official also said the fact that some goods ordered on Amazon come directly from China under the de minimis limit is a concern. When asked by ITT what the administration can do to address that, given the de minimis limit is set by law, the official said administration officials are discussing “what steps could be taken in terms of how it is administered and applied.” In January, the administration said it should review the eligibility of non-resident importers for de minimis use, and said CBP should “consider whether new regulations are needed” to “better define and subsequently enforce Section 321 eligibility requirements.”
Commenters told USTR “that Amazon’s counterfeit removal processes can be lengthy and burdensome, even for right holders that enroll in Amazon’s brand protection programs.” According to the filers, Amazon does not sufficiently vet sellers, and that seller information is misleading to the point “that it is difficult for consumers and right holders alike to determine who is selling the goods.”
“We strongly disagree with the characterization of Amazon in this USTR report,” an Amazon spokeswoman said. “This purely political act is another example of the Administration using the U.S. government to advance a personal vendetta against Amazon. Amazon makes significant investments in proactive technologies and processes to detect and stop bad actors and potentially counterfeit products from being sold in our stores. In 2019 alone, we invested over $500 million and have more than 8,000 employees protecting our store from fraud and abuse. We also stopped over 2.5 million suspected bad actors from opening Amazon selling accounts before they published a single listing for sale, blocking more than 6 billion suspected bad listings before they were published to our stores. We have developed industry-leading programs like Project Zero, Transparency, and Brand Registry for brands to partner with us and together, drive counterfeits to zero.”
In addition to the Notorious Markets, USTR issued its annual “priority watch list” of countries that it says do not honor intellectual property of American producers. China, India, Indonesia, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Ukraine, Venezuela, Argentina, Chile and Algeria are on the priority watch list for a variety of IP complaints. Kuwait moved from the priority watch list to the lower-intensity watch list; Greece, Switzerland, Costa Rica and Jamaica all left the watch list in 2019.