Birkenstock announced last week that starting January 1st, 2017, their footwear will no longer be available for purchase from Amazon.com.
In a letter sent to thousands of retailers, Birkenstock CEO, David Kahan, slammed the ecomm behemoth for allowing a surge of counterfeits to flood their inventory, saying “The Amazon marketplace, which operates as an ‘open market,’ creates an environment where we experience unacceptable business practices which we believe jeopardize our brand. Policing this activity internally and in partnership with Amazon.com has proven impossible.”
The announcement comes after scores of other brands have voiced complaints about a sharp rise in fraudulent activity on the site – ranging from copyright infringement to manipulation of customer reviews – due to Amazon’s recent partnerships with a number of large Chinese manufacturers.
Amazon has denied the claims saying the company “does not allow the sale of inauthentic items” and that occurrences are “rare.”
You can read more about Birkenstock’s Amazon beef over at CNBC. What do you guys think, does Amazon have a responsibility to protect the brands it sells?
