Amazon is accused of promoting fake American Eagle products

American Eagle Outfitters has reportedly filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against Amazon.

The lawsuit alleges that Amazon used trademarks of the clothing retailer's Aerie line in search results, redirecting shoppers to “lower-quality counterfeits,” CNBC reported Wednesday (Sept. 25).

The lawsuit accuses the e-commerce giant of “blatant, unauthorized use” of the Aerie and Offline by Aerie trademarks on its website to deceive consumers into believing the products were available on Amazon, drive traffic to its platform, and sell competing products.

American Eagle said it did not allow the sale of clothing from the Aerie line and even “intentionally refused to do so so that Aerie could promote its own brand identity and customer experience,” the report said.

However, the lawsuit says, shoppers searching for Aerie products on Google will see sponsored and organic links to the Amazon website, but will only find counterfeits. American Eagle said it notified Amazon of the infringing products “over a month ago” and that those goods were relabeled with misspelled Aerie trademarks (things like “Aeries” and “Aries”).

The report added that many of the alleged Aerie knockoffs mentioned in the lawsuit are sold by third-party sellers on Amazon's marketplace. PYMNTS has reached out to Amazon for comment but has not yet received a response.

The company has stated that it is trying to crack down on counterfeits on its website. Earlier this year, Amazon released its 2023 Brand Protection Report, which said that the company has removed millions of counterfeit products in collaboration with brands and law enforcement.

“Since its launch in 2020, Amazon's Counterfeit Crimes Unit has prosecuted more than 21,000 offenders through litigation and criminal complaints to law enforcement,” wrote Dharmesh Mehta, the company's vice president of worldwide seller services, in the press release announcing the report. “In 2023, we identified, seized and properly disposed of more than 7 million counterfeit products globally, preventing them from harming customers or being resold elsewhere in the retail supply chain.”

As PYMNTS noted at the time, the scale of this problem is significant. For example, this winter, U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced the seizure of three shipments of counterfeit luxury goods that would have cost a combined $1.2 million at retail “had the goods been authentic.”

And a study from Michigan State University last year found that nearly 70% of consumers had unknowingly purchased counterfeit items through e-commerce channels at least once in the past year.