Yeah I'm skeptical. It's such a huge problem that their retail revenue has only doubled in 3 years:

http://www.statista.com/graphic/1/266282/annual-net-revenue-...

If this was a serious problem wouldn't their be some noticeable effect? Possibilities:

• Anecdotal complaints aren't representative of overall customer experience

• Customers are willing to deal with the hassle of returning the occasional counterfeit item but it doesn't stop them from buying on Amazon

The thing is, just like Backpage, Amazon is disincentivized from stopping the sale of counterfeit goods-- they profit from each and every sale whether it's counterfeit or not.

Their decision to turn a blind eye to fraud could easily have contributed to such a rapid growth rate. Of course their sales doubled; you have to buy two of everything in order to get one that works. Try buying car parts or batteries and you'll see what we're all bitching about.

The noticeable effect hasn't happened yet. Eventually consumers will catch on. People avoid the Dollar Store because the products, while brand-name and cheap, are noticeably subpar in quality. Amazon will develop a similar reputation if they keep this up.

Bargain and dollar stores are the fastest growing segment of retail stores in the US:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-fastest-growing-re...

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2018/01/16/ulta-dollar-...

> Anecdotal complaints aren't representative of overall customer experience

"I bought some unspecified item on Amazon and as far as I could tell, it wasn't a counterfeit" is just as much the anecdote you are hastily generalizing the other viewpoint of.

> Customers are willing to deal with the hassle of returning the occasional counterfeit item but it doesn't stop them from buying on Amazon

You keep saying that you're skeptical, but so far most of your points have been neutral or defending the existence of counterfeit products (not refuting their existence), defending Amazon selling them (not refuting Amazon sells them), but in all cases you claim to be skeptical but not really back up your skepticism with any actual skepticism or counter facts.

You're not skeptical - you don't get it. Amazon is complicit in fraud. They sell fakes as the real stuff and that is why sales have increased.

Well this is the only reason Amazon still has competitive pricing. Their sales tax advantage is gone, and their delivery services, while impressive, can't compete with having customers simply drive the product home themselves.

So what's replacing their tax "avoidance" ? Bezos is done cheating the government, and of course now he's cheating his customers.

(sorry but I have very little respect for a man who is known to steal the businesses of his customers [1], and of course there's how he's (attempting to) use his customers as a weapon against Google [2])

[1] https://www.inc.com/stacey-macnaught/amazon-is-stealing-your...

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16499124