It's not the first time, and it's highly unlikely to be the last
(Image credit: Future, www.vecteezy.com)
Canon has filed a lawsuit in conjunction with Amazon.com against sellers of counterfeit toner cartridges being sold on the Amazon US store. Canon Inc. and Canon USA, Inc. announced on Wednesday October 3 that they had filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington against 18 sellers accused of selling counterfeit products, infringing Canon's trademark rights. This isn't the first time Canon and Amazon have joined forces to clamp down on trademark infringement - in May 2023 Amazon sued 29 of its own Marketplace sellers for selling fake Lithium-ion batteries that carried Canon branding.
Canon batteries are another prime product for being counterfeited (Image credit: Future)
According to Canon, batteries, printer ink and toner are common products to be counterfeited, likely due to their relative ease of production and potentially high profit margins. In response to the issue, Canon has become increasingly strict on which batteries can be used in its Cameras, with recent news reports claiming cameras like the EOS R5 Mark II are incompatible with third-party batteries. Preventing non-genuine ink and toner cartridges from working in a printer through the use of security chips has long been common practice. However, it should be noted that this latest Canon lawsuit isn't targeted at sellers of third-party, compatible toner cartridges clearly marketed as being non-genuine, but rather fake toners carrying the Canon logo and branding.
(Image credit: Amazon)
As with the counterfeit battery lawsuit in 2023, this issue continues to raise questions over Amazon's ability to police its own Marketplace platform. If Amazon already had tighter control over its Marketplace listings, fraudulent sellers could potentially never have been allowed to sell on the platform, and therefore counterfeit Canon products wouldn't have reached consumers.
Ben is the Imaging Labs manager, responsible for all the testing on Digital Camera World and across the entire photography portfolio at Future. Whether he's in the lab testing the sharpness of new lenses, the resolution of the latest image sensors, the zoom range of monster bridge cameras or even the latest camera phones, Ben is our go-to guy for technical insight. He's also the team's man-at-arms when it comes to camera bags, filters, memory cards, and all manner of camera accessories – his lab is a bit like the Batcave of photography! With years of experience trialling and testing kit, he's a human encyclopedia of benchmarks when it comes to recommending the best buys.
