Amazon suing its own marketplace for selling fake camera batteries

Amazon marketplace has been selling counterfeit Canon batteries and chargers, apparently. Amazon.com and Canon USA have issued a joint lawsuit against the companies selling fake goods via Amazon.com. In a bizarre twist, Amazon.com is basically suing itself.

The lawsuit was filed against 29 Amazon accounts selling the fake chargers and batteries for infringement of Canon’s trademark.

A trademark infringement pursued by Canon is hardly surprising. However, it is a little bit strange that Amazon is having to sue sellers using its own platform. Surely they have a better handle on what exactly is being sold on the Marketplace? Well, apparently not.

According to Digital Camera World, after doing a quick search on the Marketplace, there are still plenty of shady-looking batteries and chargers for sale claiming to be Canon branded. It’s difficult to know whether this lawsuit will even make a difference in stopping the sales of counterfeit goods.

It’s not just about inferior quality products either. It could actually be a safety issue as lithium-ion batteries can become unstable and spontaneously combust. By buying the real Canon batteries, you are hopefully ensuring a certain level of quality control which simply doesn’t exist for the rip-off versions.

Once again, it comes down to buyer beware. If a battery or charger seems curiously cheap, it’s probably not real.