Amazon is scaling up the operations of its Counterfeit Crimes Unit (CCU) in India, targeting stronger ground-level enforcement and closer collaboration with local law-enforcement agencies to protect 1.7 million Indian sellers and consumers from fake products. CCU Director Kebharu Smith confirmed the expansion on 21 August, underscoring the unit's growing footprint in one of the company's largest and fastest-growing markets.

What the CCU Does

Launched in June 2020, the CCU is a global team with members across multiple countries, including India. Since its inception, the unit has pursued more than 32,000 bad actors worldwide through civil litigation and criminal referrals to law-enforcement agencies. Amazon's legal actions have resulted in more than $300 million in court-ordered restitution and have helped incarcerate more than 290 criminals globally.

'Our mission is to take the fight to these bad actors,' Smith said. He also noted that the CCU has ongoing investigations with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in India, signalling a deepening of its institutional partnerships within the country.

Scale of the Problem — and Amazon's Response

In 2025, Amazon helped identify, seize, and appropriately dispose of more than 15 million counterfeit products globally. The company also conducted more than 70 raids against counterfeit manufacturers, suppliers, and distributors alongside its partners during the year. Separately, Amazon proactively blocked more than 285 million suspected fake reviews worldwide in 2025 — a figure that illustrates the breadth of the trust-integrity challenge facing major e-commerce platforms.

More than 15,000 Amazon employees are currently dedicated to protecting customers from scams, fraud, and abuse. The company's Transparency Programme has verified more than 2.7 billion product units as genuine, providing a layer of authentication that sellers and buyers can rely on.

India's Seller Ecosystem at the Centre

Smith highlighted the scale of Amazon's seller base in India: 'Amazon today works with more than 1.7 million sellers in India and half of them are from tier two and tier three cities,' he said. This geographic spread makes counterfeit enforcement particularly complex, as supply chains extend well beyond metro hubs into smaller markets where verification infrastructure can be limited.

The CCU's India expansion is designed to address precisely this complexity — by embedding more resources on the ground and working more closely with agencies that have local reach and jurisdiction.

Festive Season and Consumer Trust

With India's festive shopping season approaching, the timing of the CCU's expansion is deliberate. Smith acknowledged the stakes plainly: 'We understand that customer trust is hard to earn and easy to lose.' Amazon's first global Trustworthy Shopping Experience Report, released in April, outlines the company's use of proactive controls, seller verification, brand-protection tools, and enforcement partnerships to tackle counterfeit activity at scale.

As online retail volumes surge during the festive period, the pressure on anti-counterfeit systems intensifies — making the CCU's expanded India presence a timely and strategically significant move.