US trade body the Natural Products Association (NPA) has urged Amazon to work with it to prevent counterfeit supplement products getting to market.
Last week, the online retail giant warned customers that Align Probiotic products on its US site were “probably counterfeit”.
The incident brought some unwelcome publicity for Amazon on a sensitive issue for online retailers – namely, the proliferation of fake products.
In a statement, the company said: “We investigate every claim of potential counterfeit thoroughly, and often in partnership with brands, and in the rare instance where a bad actor gets through, we take swift action, including removing the item for sale, permanently banning bad actors, pursuing legal action, and working with law enforcement when appropriate.”
The Align case prompted the NPA to restate its offer to be a “resource” to Amazon.
NPA president and CEO, Daniel Fabricant, said: “We are still learning about what exactly the problems Amazon is dealing with related to these warnings, but what we do know is that there’s a much more systematic approach to protecting consumers from bad actors.
“We met with Amazon over a year ago to encourage their participation in the Supplement Safety and Compliance Initiative, to play a role, industry-wide to establish a system of continuous improvement, that manufacturers and distributors must meet or exceed to be accepted in major retailers. We’re confident that NPA membership and all of the benefits and information that comes with it could offer Amazon a more streamlined approach to handling bad actors.”