Amazon taking action to help brands fight against fake goods

(AP) – Amazon is providing a tool that will allow brands to remove listings from its site that they consider to be for counterfeit goods.

The online giant, which has long struggled with third-party sellers listing fake products, said on its blog Thursday that brands previously had to report fake products to them and the items would be removed after an investigation into the claim. The new self-service tool will speed up the process to remove listings.

Amazon is also launching a product serialization service, which allows brands to put unique codes on their products during the manufacturing process. Amazon can then scan the codes to confirm the authenticity of a brand’s products when purchased in Amazon’s stores.

Amazon announced the actions, named Project Zero, on its blog Thursday.