In Germany, the shipping giant Amazon and the business technology provider Brother are filing a lawsuit against a counterfeiting ring that cheated customers.
Berlin - Amazon has filed its first lawsuit in Berlin against suspected product counterfeiters in Europe.
It's about toner cartridges.
Together with the business technology provider Brother, Amazon is suing 18 suspected members of a counterfeiting ring based in Germany, as the online retailer announced on Thursday (February 23).
They are said to have bought empty original toner cartridges from Brother and filled them with fake toner powder, according to the lawsuit at the Berlin Regional Court.
They also sold counterfeit cartridges that were supposed to look like genuine products.
To do this, they also resorted to imitations of hologram security labels.
Amazon files lawsuit: Amazon's Counterfeit Crimes Unit takes action against counterfeiters
The legal steps are initiated by Amazon's Counterfeit Crimes Unit (CCU).
This is a globally active team that specializes in "lawsuits against actors with bad intentions to protect customers, sales partners and brands," according to an official company press release.
Kebharu Smith, head of Amazon's CCU, said: "We do not tolerate counterfeit products in our stores.
This is the first lawsuit of this type that we are filing in Europe.
We are making it very clear that we are taking tough action to hold bad actors accountable wherever they go wrong."
Amazon files a lawsuit: the company has repeatedly struggled with counterfeiting
It may be the first lawsuit of this kind that the company has filed in Europe.
However, Amazon has been struggling with the problem of counterfeit products on its platform for years and created its team of experts precisely for this reason.
There had previously been lawsuits with Cartier, Valentino and the action camera provider GoPro, among others.
(lp/dpa)
