Epson and Amazon in the US have filed a joint lawsuit accusing numerous individuals of selling counterfeit Epson ink bottles.
In the complaint – filed on 6 May with a Seattle (WA) district court – the companies said the defendants had “advertised, marketed, offered, distributed and sold counterfeit Epson products” on the Amazon online store at various times between January 2023 and February 2024.
The named individuals – who are all believed to be residents of either the UK or Turkey – are said to have acted together in the manufacture, distribution and selling of the fake ink products, the latter through 24 selling accounts on Amazon.com.
Epson and Amazon are seeking damages and equitable relief, although specific amounts were not given in the lawsuit.
Amazon revealed that, in 2023, it stopped more than 700,000 bad actor attempts to create new selling accounts, stopping them before they were able to list a single product for sale on its platform. During the year, the e-commerce giant said it spent more than $1.2 billion and employed over 15,000 people to protect its stores from counterfeits, fraud and other forms of abuse.
Seattle (WA), USA