‘Help! My Code’s Being Copied!’ So, What’s New?

‘I really need help,’ posted a brand owner who used Amazon to ship its products, referring to the serialised ‘Transparency’ QR codes that brands apply to individual product units to verify authenticity and combat counterfeiting.

‘Our brand is enrolled in the Amazon Transparency programme. We thought this would protect our products. But now we’re dealing with something very serious – and honestly, I don’t know what to do anymore,’ lamented the brand owner, posting on Amazon’s ‘Seller Central’ forum.

He continued: ‘a Transparency code that we generated and used to ship a real product through Amazon FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) was later reused by a fake seller to list and deliver a counterfeit item. Same code. Same label. Different (fake) product. Amazon’s system accepted it. The listing went live. A customer received the fake product.

‘I’ve emailed the Transparency team many times. I keep asking: shouldn’t the system block a code that’s already been used in a previous FBA shipment? How can the same code be valid more than once? What’s the point of calling it ‘unique’ if it can be reused?