The Counterfeit Crimes Unit (CCU) of e-commerce major Amazon has joined forces with luxury brands, including the PRADA Group, to combat counterfeiting.

The partners provided information and evidence to Chinese law enforcement, which has led to a counterfeit seller’s guilty plea.

Statements from Amazon and Prada revealed that a counterfeiter has been sentenced to three years in prison by a Chinese court.

The court also ordered a $25,000 fine and for the counterfeiter to forfeit payment of all revenues from the sale of counterfeit goods.

Amazon’s CCU first noticed the defendant’s attempted counterfeiting in 2021 and provided a criminal referral to the regional Chinese enforcement agency following internal investigations.

Criminal judgments are usually issued when evidence of counterfeiting activities is provided through seizure raids. In this instance, the court leveraged information from Amazon and luxury brands to make the judgement.

Amazon CCU director Kebharu Smith said: “The guilty plea is a significant win for Amazon’s CCU, but more importantly, it’s a win for all of those who share our commitment to tackling the industry-wide issue of counterfeiting.

“This successful result would not have been possible without the collaboration with law enforcement and luxury players such as the Prada Group. We are grateful for their support and look forward to continuing to take the fight to counterfeiters.”

Amazon has been deploying a number of automated protection technologies to keep counterfeits from ever entering the store.

Last month, the retailer’s CCU filed two new lawsuits against alleged counterfeiters in the ‘hidden links’ scheme.