Counterfeit ring loses $500K in European court

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Amazon plans to automate 75% of jobs. 

But don’t worry, the bots still haven’t mastered packing your impulse buys just right… yet.

• You can’t 10× with your setup, here’s why 🛠️
• Amazon slams fake sellers with $500K fine 💥
• From $200 to $560K on Amazon 💸
• How AI shopped Black Friday this year 🤖

BLACK MARKET

Amazon and Brother won a major legal victory in Europe after a Berlin court ruled against an organized group selling counterfeit Brother toner cartridges.

The decision marks Amazon’s first joint civil lawsuit with a brand in Europe.

🔧 How the counterfeit operation worked

The case exposed deliberate attempts to deceive both Amazon and customers:

• Defendants refilled authentic Brother cartridges with fake toner
• Fake holographic labels mimicked legitimate Brother packaging
• Unregulated toner posed risks to printers, health, and the environment

In 2024, German authorities conducted a large-scale dawn raid tied to the investigation.

🕵️ What the court decided

The ruling made one thing clear: this wasn’t a one-off mistake. It was coordinated.

• All 18 defendants were confirmed to be part of an organised counterfeiting network.
• Brother was awarded €500K (≈ $587K) in damages, with the right to claim more.
• The court ordered the destruction of counterfeit goods and the disclosure of supplier and sales data.
• 14 rulings are final, while 4 defendants have appealed, without affecting the rest of the judgment.

This ruling raises the bar for brand protection across Amazon’s E.U. marketplace. 

For brands, it shows that marketplaces are taking action against counterfeits in court, but make sure you have your own defenses in place too.

TOGETHER WITH THREECOLTS

You can’t 10× your business on a broken stack

You’re surviving Q4. You’re hitting your targets, but it’s chaos.

Thirty days of stress, spreadsheets, and disconnected tools that barely hold together.

❌ You can’t scale that. 

❌ You can’t hire a VA to manage five different apps.

❌ You’ve hit the ceiling of what your current setup can handle.

To grow, you might think you just need more tools. But no. 

You just need a better system.

Seller 365 is the unified operating system for your Amazon business.

It’s the all-in-one software bundle that scales with you, from your first sale to your first million and beyond.

Sourcing, accounting, repricing, reimbursements, and more. Every app you need, connected and working together.

This is what you graduate to when you’re ready to stop juggling and start building.

Try Seller365 for free

BITES OF THE WEEK

• Twitter’s Trademark Twist: Operation Bluebird aims to reclaim “Twitter” and “tweet” for a potential platform revival.
• Meta Boosts Creator Ads: New tools make it easier for brands to find, partner with, and activate creators.
• AI Doubles Revenue: Learn how high-converting AI images can instantly boost Amazon sales and profitability.
• Influencer-Driven Hits: Six brands that leveraged creators and ShopMy to drive massive 2025 sales growth.

AMAZON NEWS

Seller turns $200 test shipment into $560K business

Ever wondered if you could quit your 9-to-5 and make serious money on Amazon? Damilola Olaleye did.

In a feature by Business Insider, she shared that starting with a $200 test shipment during maternity leave, she grew it into a full FBA business and hit $560K in revenue just over a year later.

🚀 It started small but intentional

Every move was deliberate, not guesswork

• Started in 2023 aiming to replace her W-2 income
• First shipment consisted of 12 bottles of sunscreen, costing around $200
• Focused on retail arbitrage from outlets and discount stores like Nike Factory, Walmart, and T.J. Maxx
• Used the Amazon Seller app to check approvals, fees, and margins

💥 The turning point

Within five months, Damilola grew $20K in capital (plus 0% APR credit) into $60K in sales. She outsourced, hired VAs, and used tax-advantaged prep centers, building a business that ran while she slept. 

A late-2024 tech layoff pushed her all-in for Q4, finishing the year with ~$560K in sales at ~20% margins. She relied on Seller Central, Keepa, Aura, and Sellerboard to let data, not emotion, drive decisions.

Think you can do that?

TECH MARKETING

Black Friday was a stress test for AI

Black Friday isn’t just about deals, it’s a crash course in how AI sees shopping. Large language models show how they process product info, rank retailers, and influence the future of ecommerce. 

Here’s what 10,000 AI responses revealed:

💡 AI leans on the usual suspects

Shoppers may feel they’re exploring, but AI sticks to familiar sources. 

• Generalist retailers dominate, capturing nearly half of all mentions.
• Walmart, Best Buy, Amazon, and Target lead the AI “memory” for products. 
• Social and user-generated content also spikes during peak shopping days (+8%).

📺 Video and comparisons carry weight

Structured content and human insight often beat flashy brand sites. 

• Platforms like YouTube and Reddit heavily influence AI recommendations.
• “Best of” lists, comparisons, and reviews matter more than brand-owned pages.
• Brand websites still help, but only if the content is clear, factual, and structured.

🛠 Different AIs, different approaches

Not all LLMs shop the same way:

• Gemini: long, detailed answers with lots of lists
• OpenAI: balances essays with structured lists
• Perplexity: short, concise, and executive-ready

To stay visible, brands need semantically structured homepages and product pages, a presence in reviews, comparison sites, and social discussions, and rich media like videos to showcase real use and value.