Bezos on counterfeit goods on Amazon: I'd rather lose a sale than lose a customer

When pressed by Rep. Hank Johnson about counterfeit goods available on Amazon -- from bogus medicine to car tires and dangerous kids products -- Bezos said the company does "a lot" to prevent the issue, including investments of "hundreds of millions of dollars" into systems to prevent it and a team of more than 1,000 people who address what he described as a "scourge."

Johnson said third-party sellers and brands have said the company has used knockoffs as leverage to pressure sellers into doing what "Amazon wants." For example, the founder of PopSockets testified in January that Amazon itself was selling knockoffs of its product. The company reported the issue, but said it wasn't until PopSockets committed to spending $2 million on ads that Amazon appeared to stop diverting sales to the knockoffs. Bezos responded: "That's unacceptable. ... I will look into that."

Bezos also said he would rather "lose a sale than lose a customer" when Johnson pointed out that Amazon profits from counterfeit sales.

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