Dangerous Counterfeit Kids' Products Turn Up on Amazon
ALLEN: You buy a Rolex off the street for $50, you know it's fake. While it's illegal, it's probably not dangerous. But that is not true of all counterfeits. An months-long CNN investigation turned up dozens of bogus baby and children's products for sale on Amazon, a retailer trusted by millions of shoppers. Those fakes could put kids at serious risk. Our Clare Sebastian has our report.</s>CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT (voice over): In a simulated 30-mile-per-hour collision, this infant car seat lurches forward and fractures near the seat belt path, sending shards of plastic into the air, failing a standard test required under U.S. federal safety regulations. This is where we bought the car seat, on Amazon, part of an alarming trend. Copycat or counterfeit versions of popular children's products are turning up for sale unchecked, unregulated and in this case potentially unsafe. The seat we purchased is designed to look like a Doona, a sought after brand of car seat that folds out into a stroller. The Amazon listing even used some of Doona's promotions images and its about $200 cheaper than the real thing. Two pediatricians who watched this video said a child in the seat would have been at serious risk of head and neck injuries. We also showed the results to Doona.</s>RAVIV: It is unbelievable to see how a product that looks very much like ours performs completely differently in a crash test.</s>SEBASTIAN (voice over): We put a genuine Doona through the exact same test in the same lab, it remained intact, meeting federal standards. Doona says this is not just an Amazon problem, it's been working with various e-commerce platforms for more than two years now to take down counterfeit products.</s>RAVIV: We've taken down just this year more than 40 pages which had infringing products or fake products just on the Amazon platform alone. If you assume each of these pages is up for three to seven days, then you are talking about a good period of the year in which fake products, dangerous products are being sold on Amazon.</s>SEBASTIAN (voice over): Shortly after we purchased the fake car seat in October, the Amazon listing was taken down.</s>SEBASTIAN: After seeing our crash test report Amazon e-mailed customers who had bought the product, urging them to stop using it immediately and offering a full refund. We reached the seller, a company based in china called Strolex by phone. A man who refused to identify himself told us, "My products are safe," and then refused to answer more questions." An Amazon spokesperson told us, "Safety is a top priority at Amazon. We require all products offered in our store to comply with applicable laws and regulations and have developed industry leading tools to prevent unsafe or noncompliant products from being listed in our stores." We have spoken to seven different baby and children's brands selling on Amazon, all of whom tell us they face a constant game of whack a mole when it comes to counterfeit and copycat versions of their products on the site and it's hurting their businesses. Several of them also tell us they have safety concerns.</s>SEBASTIAN (voice over): The U.S. distributor of these popular infant swaddles told us one customer contacted them about a fake that the zippers were falling off, a serious choking hazard for an infant. The manufacturer of this white noise machine that Baby Shusher designed to help infant sleep, says they have had multiple complaints from customers who it turned out had bought fakes. One customer who bought the product last year told us it fell apart when she tried to change the battery.</s>SEBASTIAN: Amazon says they strictly prohibit counterfeits and told us these are isolated incidents. They're investigating and will take appropriate action against the sellers involved. Part of the issue is that consumers look at Amazon as a trusted retailer, but most of the items sold on Amazon and not actually sold by Amazon. In 2018, 58 percent of the company's sales came from third party sellers.</s>SEBASTIAN (voice over): Amazon has stepped up its efforts against counterfeits with three different programs brands can opt into to help them protect their trademarks and make the process of taking down fakes more efficient. Sellers tell us it's not enough.</s>JASON DRANGEL, INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAWYER: This is an authentic Baby Shark product--</s>SEBASTIAN (voice over): Jason Drangel has been working with the toy industry on counterfeiting cases for 15 years. He now represents some of the biggest toy companies in the U.S. and deals regularly with online platforms.</s>SEBASTIAN: Do you worry that it's going to take a serious incident, a child getting injured for something to really be done about this?</s>DRANGEL: Yes, I mean, I'm actually shocked it hasn't happened already, given the severity of the problem.</s>SEBASTIAN (voice-over): Clare Sebastian, CNN, New York.</s>ALLEN: What a revealing story there from Clare. We want to take you now to Hong Kong. This was the scene moments ago during a pro-democracy protest in support of human rights for China's Uyghur Muslim ethnic group and against Beijing's security crackdown. China has repeatedly denied accusations that they have rounded up thousands of Uyghurs into what are essentially prison camps. Beijing calls them "vocational training centers" with the focus on deradicalization and counterterrorism. Again, we are following this latest protests in Hong Kong, these in support of the Uyghur minority. We'll be right back.