Beauty brands against fakes on Amazon

The beauty industry is changing worldwide at an impressive pace. Companies must adapt and face economic crises, hyper-competitive rivals, and increasingly demanding consumers. To reach or expand their target audience, they need to stand out and develop effective offline and online strategies. When it comes to online spending, Amazon remains the leading player. The platform offers a powerful discovery tool and access to a new customer base, along with easy availability that beauty brands can no longer ignore, even premium ones. Many have realized this, like Kiehl's, owned by L'Oréal, and Clinique, part of Estée Lauder Companies, which announced their debut on Amazon Premium Beauty last May, joining other brands in the portfolio such as Lancôme, It Cosmetics, and Youth to the People, which were already selling on the e-commerce giant. However, alongside the benefits, these brands face a significant problem: counterfeiting.

The Thin Line Between Dupes and Fakes on Amazon

Simply searching for any viral beauty product on Amazon will flood you with offerings so similar that, at first glance, they almost seem identical to the original, often from little-known and ambiguous brands, obviously sold at a lower price than their premium counterparts. We're not talking about dupes designed to make beauty accessible to everyone by interpreting the latest trends at an affordable price or brands like E.l.f. Beauty or Nyx, which have their own brand identity and formulations, similar but cheaper than luxury counterparts. The problem is with the fakes, near-perfect external reproductions of branded products whose contents are unknown or different from what one might be led to believe. Visually emulating an existing leading product in external packaging or design to evoke recognition — does this fall under intellectual property rights violations? And if so, how can a company protect itself?

The Invasion of Beauty Fakes

If you search for Mighty Patch by Hero Cosmetics, the best-selling beauty product on Amazon, among the search results you’ll find an item from a brand called Breiboz with an almost identical design. Those looking to buy the Cooling Water Jelly Tint for lips and cheeks by Milk Makeup will encounter two listings showing the exact packaging of the product from a seller located in the Guangdong province of China. If you want to add Rare Beauty's Soft Pinch Blush to your virtual cart, be careful not to confuse it with Lakerian Beauty's offering, which has an identical bottle, shades, and logo font to Rare Beauty. 

How Beauty Brands Defend Against Counterfeits on Amazon

There are strict copyright and counterfeiting laws that prevent brands from exactly recreating elements of other products' packaging, but proving intent and achieving justice is very complicated. It's equally difficult to track the vast number of imitators out there. As Andrea Lisbona, CEO of Touchland, explains, to secure removal, brands must ensure they have trade dress protection on aesthetics and design patents for packaging design. Even when one is successfully removed, dozens more appear, in a continuous and seemingly endless cycle. To tackle the problem, Amazon is adding more and more new features, and in 2022 it introduced a program called Amazon Patent Evaluation Express for patent enforcement. In just one year, this resulted in a 30% reduction in total valid copyright infringement reports across all platform categories. On the other hand, more and more companies are turning to brand protection agencies and specialized lawyers to help them fight against dishonest sellers crowding Amazon search results. A recent example is the DIY lash extension brand Lashify, which won a lawsuit against Qingdao Lashbeauty Cosmetic Co., which, according to the jury, produced lashes in violation of three of Lashify's patents. However, not all cases end successfully. So, how can the avalanche of fakes flooding the market and Amazon be eliminated? For some, the best solution is to convince consumers to buy the original, offering them a valid and accessible product.