Amazon Brand Protection: Hijackers, Counterfeits and How to Fight Back

Once a product starts selling well on Amazon, it attracts attention, and not all of it is good. Hijackers jump onto your listing with their own offers. Counterfeiters sell fake versions of your product. Copycats change your images or title. Each one can cost you sales, reviews and trust.

Here is a practical guide to protecting your brand on Amazon, from the basics to Amazon’s more advanced tools.

Know the threats

• Hijackers: other sellers who add an offer to your listing, often claiming to sell your product. Some sell real stock bought elsewhere. Many sell fakes or nothing at all.
• Counterfeits: fake products using your brand name or look.
• Listing tampering: unwanted changes to your title, images or details.
• Copycat listings: new listings that copy your images and copy.

Step 1. Brand Registry

Everything starts with Amazon Brand Registry. It gives you more control over your listings, access to reporting tools and faster handling of your reports. If you are not enrolled, do it first.

Step 2. Monitor your listings

• Check your top listings for new sellers on the offer list every week.
• Watch for changes to your title, images and bullets.
• Read new reviews for words like “fake”, “different” or “not genuine”.
• Use alerts from monitoring tools if you have many products.

Step 3. Report violations properly

Use the Report a Violation tool in Brand Registry. Strong reports include:

• The exact ASIN and seller.
• The type of violation, such as trademark or counterfeit.
• Clear evidence, such as test buy photos showing differences from your genuine product.

Accurate reports build your credibility with Amazon. Inaccurate ones can hurt it.

Step 4. Use Transparency

Amazon’s Transparency program puts a unique code on every unit you make. Amazon checks codes before shipping, so units without valid codes are stopped. Shoppers can also scan codes to check authenticity. It has a per unit cost, but for brands with counterfeit problems it can be very effective.

Step 5. Project Zero

For eligible brands, Project Zero adds automated protections and lets you remove counterfeit listings yourself. We covered it when it launched in our post on Project Zero. Use it carefully. It is only for counterfeits, not genuine resellers.

Step 6. Control your supply

Many unauthorized sellers get real stock from loose distribution. Tighten agreements with distributors and retailers, and track where your stock goes. That reduces the supply hijackers can use.

Step 7. Make your brand harder to copy

• Use distinctive packaging and branding on the product itself.
• Bundle or kit products in ways that are hard to copy exactly.
• Build a strong Brand Store and content that copycats cannot easily match.

The bottom line

Brand protection on Amazon is ongoing work. Enroll in Brand Registry, monitor your listings, report violations with strong evidence and use Transparency or Project Zero if counterfeits are a real problem. If you want help cleaning up hijacked listings, our catalog and account operations team handles this work, or request a free audit.

FAQs

How do I remove a hijacker from my Amazon listing?

Do a test buy to gather evidence, then file a report through Brand Registry’s Report a Violation tool with clear proof of the issue.

What is Amazon Transparency?

Transparency is an Amazon program that puts a unique code on each unit. Amazon checks the codes before shipping to stop counterfeits.

Can I stop resellers of my genuine product on Amazon?

Not through counterfeit reports. Genuine resellers are allowed. Control them through distribution agreements and supply chain management.