Amazon Brand Protection Guide: Stop Counterfeits and Hijackers

How to spot counterfeits and hijacked listings

A hijacker is any seller who attaches their offer to your ASIN without your permission. A counterfeiter goes further, selling a fake version of your product under your listing. Both cost you money, but they leave different fingerprints.

Signals of a hijacked listing

• Buy Box loss on a single-seller ASIN: If you are the only authorized seller and suddenly lose the Buy Box, another offer has appeared. Check the "Other Sellers on Amazon" section immediately.
• Price undercutting: Hijackers often price 5-15% below your offer to capture the Buy Box. A sudden drop in your Buy Box win rate on a stable ASIN is the most reliable early warning.
• Listing-content changes: Unauthorized sellers sometimes alter your title, bullet points or images to match their inferior product. If your A+ content disappears or your main image shifts, someone has edited the listing.

Signals of a counterfeit product

• Spike in negative reviews mentioning quality: Reviews that say "this is not the same product" or "packaging looks different" are the clearest indicator of counterfeits entering your supply chain.
• Higher return rates on specific ASINs: Monitor your return-reason data in Seller Central. A jump in "item not as described" returns on a previously stable product points to counterfeit inventory in FBA commingled stock.
• Test buys that fail inspection: Order your own product from a suspicious offer. Compare packaging, labeling, weight and product quality against your known-good sample.

One detail that catches many brands off guard: if you use FBA without labeling each unit with your own FNSKU, Amazon may commingle your inventory with units sent in by other sellers. A counterfeiter shipping fakes to the same fulfillment center can end up with their product shipped under your listing, even to customers who bought from you directly. Always use the "Manufacturer Barcode" labeling preference set to seller-specific or apply FNSKU stickers.

Brand Registry, Project Zero, Transparency: which tool does what

Amazon offers three primary programs for brand protection. Each operates at a different level, and the strongest posture uses all three together.

Brand Registry

Brand Registry is the foundation. You need an active registered trademark (not just a pending application) to enroll. Once enrolled, you gain access to the Report a Violation tool, which lets you submit infringement claims directly from Amazon Brand Registry. You also get proactive protections: Amazon's automated systems scan for potential infringements using your brand data and remove suspected counterfeits before you even see them. According to Amazon, these automated protections blocked or removed more than 7 million suspected counterfeit listings in 2023 alone.

Filing a violation report is straightforward:

1. Log in to Brand Registry: Navigate to "Report a Violation" under the Protect tab.
2. Select the violation type: Options include trademark infringement, counterfeit, copyright infringement and patent infringement. Pick the most specific match.
3. Provide evidence: Include the ASIN, screenshots, test-buy photos and any documentation proving ownership. The stronger your evidence, the faster Amazon acts.
4. Submit and track: Amazon assigns a case ID. Typical response time is 5-7 business days, though counterfeit reports often resolve faster.

Project Zero

Project Zero gives brands the ability to remove counterfeit listings themselves, without waiting for Amazon to investigate. This is an invitation-only program, though brands with a strong Brand Registry track record and low false-positive reporting rates can apply. The self-service removal tool is powerful: you identify the counterfeit listing and remove it in near real time. Amazon holds brands accountable for accuracy. If your removal rate shows patterns of targeting legitimate resellers rather than actual counterfeits, Amazon will revoke access.

Project Zero also includes automated protections that use your brand's trademarks, logos and key product data to scan listings continuously.

Transparency

Amazon Transparency is a unit-level serialization program. You apply unique Transparency codes (T-codes) to every unit you manufacture. When those units arrive at an Amazon fulfillment center, Amazon scans the code. If the code is missing, invalid or has already been scanned, the unit is rejected. This stops counterfeit inventory from ever reaching the customer.

The operational cost is real: you need to integrate T-code generation into your manufacturing and packaging workflow. For brands selling more than 50,000 units per year, the per-unit cost drops significantly. If counterfeits are a recurring problem on your top ASINs, the ROI is almost always positive. One supplement brand we work with eliminated 100% of its counterfeit issues within 60 days of Transparency enrollment on its top five ASINs.

Dealing with unauthorized resellers

Unauthorized resellers and counterfeiters are different problems that require different responses. Amazon's marketplace is built on the principle that any legitimate seller can offer an authentic product on an existing listing. You cannot force Amazon to remove a reseller who is selling genuine units of your product, even if you never authorized them.

What you can do:

• MAP (Minimum Advertised Price) policies: A well-drafted MAP policy, enforced consistently across all channels, discourages resellers from undercutting your pricing. MAP violations do not give you grounds for Amazon takedowns, but they give you leverage in your wholesale and distribution agreements.
• Selective distribution: Control who gets your product. If you sell through distributors, require contracts that prohibit resale on Amazon. Audit your supply chain regularly to find leaks. The gray-market units on your listing almost always trace back to a specific distributor, liquidation buyer or retail arbitrage source.
• Unique product variations: Create Amazon-exclusive bundles, colorways or packaging that are not available through any wholesale channel. Unauthorized resellers cannot sell an SKU they cannot source.
• Cease-and-desist letters: For resellers violating your distribution agreements, a formal C&D letter from your attorney is often enough. Document everything, because if you need to escalate to litigation, you will need a paper trail.

If an unauthorized reseller is selling modified, expired or counterfeit product, that changes the calculus entirely. In those cases, file a Report a Violation claim through Brand Registry with test-buy evidence. Include photos of the product, packaging discrepancies and any lab results if the product is ingestible or topical.

Keep in mind that aggressive or unfounded takedown claims can damage your account health. Amazon tracks the accuracy of your infringement reports. False claims lead to warnings, and repeated false claims can result in loss of Brand Registry privileges.

A monitoring routine that catches problems early

The brands that suffer the most from hijackers and counterfeits are the ones that discover the problem weeks after it started. A negative review mentioning "fake product" from three weeks ago means three weeks of counterfeit units shipped, three weeks of damaged brand perception and a review you cannot remove.

Here is the monitoring cadence we run for brands under our brand protection program:

Daily (automated)

• Buy Box monitoring: Set up alerts for any ASIN where you lose the Buy Box. Tools like Helium 10 Alerts or your own Seller Central reports can flag this automatically.
• Pricing alerts: Track your offer price against any new sellers on your ASINs. A new offer priced below your MAP is an immediate red flag.
• Listing-change alerts: Monitor title, bullet points, images and A+ content for unauthorized edits. Any listing change you did not make warrants investigation.

Weekly (manual review)

• New-seller audit: Check the "Other Sellers on Amazon" section for your top 20 ASINs. Identify any new seller names and research their storefronts.
• Review sentiment scan: Read recent 1-star and 2-star reviews for language that suggests counterfeits or quality discrepancies. Keywords to watch: "fake," "different," "not the same," "cheap knock-off."
• Return-reason analysis: Pull return data from Seller Central and filter by "item not as described" or "defective." Compare against your historical baseline.

Monthly (deep audit)

• Test buys: Purchase from any suspicious third-party offers on your top ASINs. Inspect the product against your quality standards and document discrepancies.
• Full catalog ASIN sweep: Extend monitoring beyond your top 20 to your entire catalog. Hijackers often target mid-tier ASINs where brands pay less attention.
• Brand Registry case review: Audit all open and resolved cases. Track resolution times and identify repeat offenders who may be creating new seller accounts.

This cadence sounds like a lot of work, and it is. But the alternative is discovering a counterfeit problem after it has already generated dozens of negative reviews and an account suspension risk. Proactive monitoring is cheaper than reactive damage control every time.

When enforcement is not enough: building structural moats

Reactive enforcement (filing violations, sending C&D letters, removing counterfeits) is necessary. It is also insufficient on its own. The brands with the strongest protection posture build structural barriers that make counterfeiting and hijacking economically unattractive.

Transparency serialization is one such barrier. Another is investing in A+ content and brand storytelling that makes your listing visually distinct and difficult to replicate. Custom packaging with tamper-evident seals, holographic stickers or QR codes that link to authentication pages adds friction for counterfeiters. None of these measures is foolproof alone, but stacked together they raise the cost of counterfeiting your product above the profit margin the counterfeiter can earn.

Finally, monitor beyond Amazon. Counterfeit sellers often list on eBay, Walmart Marketplace and standalone Shopify stores. If they are sourcing fake versions of your product, they are usually selling it everywhere, not just on Amazon. A broader brand-protection strategy includes marketplace-wide monitoring through services like Amazon Transparency for Amazon-specific serialization and third-party tools like Red Points or MarkMonitor for cross-platform coverage.

Brand protection is a recurring operating cost, not a project with an end date. The brands that treat it as a permanent function of their Amazon operations are the ones that keep their margins, reviews and customer trust intact.

If counterfeiters or hijackers are costing you revenue and reviews, Hyperzon's brand protection team will build the monitoring, enforcement and serialization infrastructure to shut them down. Get a free Amazon audit.

Article was originally published on 31 October, 2026