Now where do you think these counterfeit tools are coming from.

Could Amazon be Selling Counterfeit Tools & Construction Supplies, Wall Street Journal

Posted by Jay Amstutz 

When you walk into a retail store and you pick up an item with a trusted brand name on it you should feel very confident it is what it says, has been tested for safety and caries a good amount of liability insurance if something were to go wrong because of poor manufacturing. Whether it is a cordless drill, abrasive wheel, utility knife, safety glasses, impact socket, trash bags, jack stand, duct tape, saw blade or whatever, if you’ve used that brand before you have a good expectation how it will work again. If it’s a new product you know what claims the packaging makes, what the price is and you may take a chance it’ll work as promised. You take that chance trusting, at least here in the US, that you are not buying counterfeit products which could be poorly manufactured and/or possibly dangerous to use.

When you get to the internet certainly things can become a little more questionable, a “too good to be true offer” on an auction site or website you’ve never heard of could result in product delivered not as advertised. As a diligent shopper you may steer away from those marketplaces and stick to trusted websites recommended by the product manufacturer. In this recent Wall Street Journal article, some are making claims Amazon is aware that products sold directly by Amazon are counterfeit and they continue to sell them anyway.

When a company gets to be a very large size and has a wide circle of influence can it become above the laws that protect consumers and US commerce as we know it? Selling counterfeit products is of course illegal for many good reasons. You can get into very serious trouble as an established retail business if you were to be involved in these types of transactions, even unknowingly.

It’s not clear which if any of the tool manufacturers and/or construction related supplies might be considered “high value” enough to be excluded from commingling with third party suppliers that seem to be the root of Amazon’s alleged problems. Tools & construction supplies in general are very highly counterfeited around the world and even more so than other products can be incredibly dangerous to operate. In this older press release from Makita Tools they warn of counterfeiters who “typically sell power tools from the trunk of their rental car”, at that time probably never imagined one of the largest retailers in the world might be accused of knowingly selling counterfeit merchandise.

This is an ever prevalent problem in the tool industry; in this news article from just last week Empire Levels has filed papers because their counterfeited products were openly on display at the National Hardware Show. From the article however it sounds like their battle with counterfeit products is far from over and we would imagine the story of Empire Levels is a pretty common one. Certainly cutting off the avenues and marketplaces to sell these types of illegal and potentially dangerous product would be a big step in the right direction.