April 25 (UPI) -- Amazon Friday was ordered by Tokyo District Court to pay $244,167.02 to a Japanese medical device distributor for failing to remove Chinese counterfeit products from the platform.
Pulse oximeters distributor Excel Plan reported the counterfeit products listed on Amazon in Japan, but according to Judge Yuko Shintani Amazon failed to investigate and instead removed the entire product page.
That action, Excel Plan argued, hurt their ability to sell the genuine devices that measure blood oxygen levels.
Shintani ruled Amazon Japan's response was "indicative of willful misconduct, or at the very least, gross negligence."
The company argued that a "shared listings" Amazon feature put Chinese counterfeit pulse oximeters selling for roughly one-tenth the price side-by-side with real products. That, they argued in court, harmed both sellers and manufacturers of the real products.
"The ruling was a landmark in terms of acknowledging the obligation to build an appropriate (authentication) system, as businesses practically have no other option but to use platforms such as that of Amazon," An attorney representing Excel Plan and oximeter maker Try and E said.
Try and E made the oximeters but that company was not awarded any money in the court ruling.
When Amazon removed the page listing the genuine oximeter, Excel Plan said the company could not sell the genuine oximeters while Chinese counterfeits were still available.
Excel Plan asserted that Amazon's system of promoting the lowest priced products led to fake products being more visible, harming the company's ability to sell genuine products.
