Quick answer. Project Zero is Amazon’s anti-counterfeiting program for brands enrolled in Brand Registry. It combines automated protections, a self-service tool that lets the brand remove counterfeit listings from the Amazon store itself, and optional product serialization through Transparency. Amazon says a brand qualifies when it is the rights owner of a registered trademark in Brand Registry, has used Report a Violation in the last six months with at least a 90% acceptance rate, and has used both tools in line with Amazon’s policies, plus other criteria Amazon reviews. The self-service tool is for counterfeits only, Amazon recommends a test buy before removing, and brands must keep an accuracy rate of at least 99% to keep access. Every removal sends a notice of complaint to each affected seller, so resellers of genuine goods should know how to answer with invoices.

Most brand owners hear about Project Zero the same way. A counterfeit is outselling the real product, the Report a Violation queue feels slow, and someone mentions a program that lets brands take fakes down themselves. That is true, but it leaves out the part that decides whether the program helps or hurts. The removal button is fast because Amazon trusts the brand to be right, and Amazon measures whether it is.

On the other side of the same button is a reseller who finds a notice of complaint on an offer for goods bought from an authorized distributor.

Educational information, not legal advice. Trademark and counterfeit questions turn on facts and jurisdiction, so confirm your position with a qualified attorney before you rely on a right or act against another seller.

What Project Zero is

Amazon describes Project Zero as three tools working together. Each addresses counterfeits from a different angle, and each has a limit to understand before you enroll.

Automated protections

Amazon says its automated protections “proactively block counterfeits before they impact your brand and customers,” and that each removal a brand makes strengthens them. Automated matching depends on recognizable signals. A counterfeiter who changes the packaging, alters the brand name slightly or uses unbranded photos can slip past a match, so automation cuts the workload but does not replace monitoring.

Self-service counterfeit removal

This is the tool most brand owners mean when they say Project Zero. Amazon says brands can “search for counterfeit listings and immediately remove them from the Amazon store.” There is no queue and no reviewer between the decision and the removal. That speed is the value and also the risk. Nobody at Amazon checks the decision before it takes effect, so the brand carries full responsibility for being right.

Product serialization through Transparency

Serialization puts a unique code on each unit so authenticity can be checked unit by unit. Amazon says serialization through Transparency is optional, that brands choose which products to serialize, and that brands combining it with Project Zero see the best results.

Tool	What it does	What it does not do
Automated protections	Uses brand data and past removals to block suspected counterfeits proactively	Catch every counterfeit, especially ones with altered branding or packaging
Self-service removal	Lets the brand remove counterfeit offers or listings itself, immediately	Handle anything other than counterfeits, such as pricing, unauthorized resale or copyright disputes
Serialization (Transparency)	Gives each enrolled unit a unique code that must be valid for the unit to be listed or shipped in supported stores	Remove a listing on its own, or protect products the brand has not enrolled

Project Zero sits on top of Brand Registry and Report a Violation and does not replace them. Copyright, patent and other non-counterfeit claims still go through the standard process. If you are building the foundation first, our guide to brand protection on Amazon covers registration, Brand Registry and report quality.

Who is eligible, and how Amazon decides

Project Zero is not an open sign-up. Every requirement Amazon lists comes back to one idea. The brand must prove it reports accurately through the slower process before it gets the faster one.

The published requirements

A Brand Registry account in which you are the rights owner of a registered trademark.
Use of the Report a Violation tool within the last six months, with an acceptance rate of at least 90% on those reports.
A history of using Brand Registry and Report a Violation in line with Amazon’s policies.
Additional criteria that Amazon reviews and does not list in full.

Amazon says that if you do not qualify yet, you will be invited to enroll automatically once you meet all the criteria. Its FAQ answers the common frustration directly. A brand with a 90% acceptance rate that is still not eligible should keep using Report a Violation, and Amazon will invite it when every criterion is met.

Why the 90% acceptance rate matters more than it looks

Rejected reports pull the acceptance rate down, and Amazon’s page for rights owners lists the common reasons for rejection. Amazon does not enforce minimum advertised price agreements, does not enforce exclusive distribution except in countries whose laws specifically provide for it, does not enforce ownership of barcodes, UPCs or EANs, does not remove truthful compatibility statements, and only acts on a registered trademark or patent from the country where removal is requested. Each of those rejected reports moves the brand further from Project Zero.

Country by country access

Amazon says Project Zero is available in 22 countries and regions, including the US, Canada, the UK, Germany, Japan and India, and that a brand gets the self-service tool in each country-based store where its brand has an active, registered trademark. A US registration gives access in the US store, not in a store where the brand has no registration. Before you plan enforcement in a second marketplace, check that the trademark is registered there.

Amazon invites brands to Project Zero once every criterion is met. Toggle the checks your brand has in place to see where it stands.

How to verify your own standing before you count on Project Zero

A trademark and a Brand Registry login do not make a brand eligible. Run these checks in order, because each depends on the one before.

Check the trademark in the official register

Open the USPTO’s Trademark Status and Document Retrieval system (TSDR) and look up the registration number. Confirm the mark is registered, not just applied for, that the owner in the record is the same legal entity that holds the rights owner role in Brand Registry, and that the goods listed cover the products you sell. The USPTO notes that common law rights from use alone are limited to the area where you operate, and that the ® symbol may be used only after registration and only with the goods or services in the registration. Amazon’s eligibility rests on a registered trademark, not on use, so these details decide the question.

Check roles and reporting history

In Brand Registry, confirm that the brand’s own accountable people hold the rights owner role, since Amazon says rights owners submit notices for IP they own while registered agents act on their behalf. Then open Submission History, count accepted and rejected reports from the last six months, and read every rejection reason. The rejections show which habits hold the rate down.

Question	Where to check	What to look for
Is the trademark registered and owned by us?	USPTO TSDR, by registration number	Status registered, owner matches the Brand Registry rights owner, goods match your products
Is the mark registered in the store where we want to act?	The national trademark office for that country	An active registration in that country, since access is per store
Who holds the rights owner role?	Brand Registry user permissions	The brand’s own accountable people, not only an outside agent
What is our recent acceptance rate?	Brand Registry, Submission History	Reports in the last six months, accepted versus rejected, and the reason for each rejection
Are we already enrolled?	Brand Registry menu, Protect, then Project Zero	Whether the tool is available and in which stores
Are our products serialized?	Transparency enrollment	Which GTINs are enrolled and whether protections are active

Enrolling, step by step

Once the brand meets the criteria, enrollment is short. Confirm you meet all eligibility requirements, enroll on the Project Zero page by selecting Get started, complete a 10-minute training, and optionally begin serialization enrollment through Transparency. After enrollment, the tool sits under Protect, then Project Zero, in the Brand Registry menu.

The training is not the end of preparation. Before the first removal, decide who may press the button, what counts as a counterfeit for this brand, and what evidence must exist first. Assume every removal will be judged later.

What Project Zero costs

Amazon says the self-service removal tool and the automated protections are free for enrolled brands. Transparency serialization codes are paid, and Amazon publishes per-code pricing on its Transparency page, with lower rates at higher volumes. Pricing can change, so check the current figure before you budget.

Three hypothetical objects decide whether a Project Zero removal holds up. Open each one to see what it can prove and what it only suggests.

What counts as a counterfeit, and what does not

This question decides every removal. Amazon’s Project Zero FAQ says the self-service tool is meant only for counterfeit listings. It defines a counterfeit as an unlawful full or partial reproduction of a registered trademark, or a mark similar to it, used to imply that a product is genuine, whether on the product, its packaging or the detail page.

The definition concerns a fake mark on goods that are not the brand’s. It says nothing about who sells the real goods or at what price.

Cases that fit the definition

A test buy arrives with the brand’s logo on packaging the brand never produced, materials that do not match, and no matching lot or batch code in the brand’s production records.
An offer ships a copy of the product in packaging that imitates the brand’s mark closely enough to imply it is the genuine item.
A serialized product arrives with a code that is missing, invalid or belongs to a different product.

Cases that do not fit, and belong elsewhere or nowhere

A reseller selling genuine, unaltered units bought from a distributor. Being unauthorized is not the same as being counterfeit.
A seller pricing below a minimum advertised price agreement. Amazon says MAP violations are not IP infringement and it does not assist with that enforcement.
A detail page using your trademark truthfully to say an accessory is compatible with your product.
Copied product photos or copied listing text. That may be copyright infringement, which goes through Report a Violation as its own notice.

Our explainer on inauthentic versus counterfeit complaints covers how Amazon treats each.

Only a confirmed counterfeit belongs in the self-service tool. Everything else goes to the standard process or is not an IP matter at all.

The removal workflow that keeps a brand above 99%

Amazon recommends a test buy to confirm a suspected counterfeit before removing individual offers or entire listings. The rest of the workflow makes sure the result is read correctly and recorded.

Offer level or listing level

The self-service tool can remove individual offers or entire listings, and the choice matters. If the brand’s own genuine product sells on a detail page and one seller on that page ships fakes, the target is that seller’s offer, not the page. Amazon’s rights owner guidance says the same for standard reports. When only some sellers are infringing, identify those sellers so the entire ASIN is not affected, and check that you are not reporting your own offer. A listing-level removal is for a detail page where the product itself is not the brand’s, such as a copy listed under the brand’s name.

Every stop on a Project Zero removal leaves a record. Tap each stage to see what happens there and what the brand should have ready.

A worked example

In a hypothetical case, a skincare brand sees three new low-priced offers on its best-selling serum and orders one unit from each seller. Two units arrive with the brand’s real lot codes, matching a shipment the brand sold to a regional distributor. The third arrives in a box with a slightly different shade of print, a lot code the brand never issued and a seal that does not match.

The approver confirms only the third unit meets the brand’s criteria, so the brand removes that one offer and logs the evidence. The other two sellers are unwelcome but genuine, and the brand reviews its distribution agreements instead. Removing all three would have meant two wrong removals out of three.

For a closely related case, read Amazon UPC and Barcode Rules.

The 99% accuracy rule and how misuse costs a brand its access

Amazon says brands “must maintain an accuracy rate of at least 99%” to keep access to Project Zero, and that it uses training during enrollment and ongoing monitoring to prevent misuse. Amazon does not publish the full formula on its Project Zero page, so a brand cannot see its official number the way it sees an account health metric. Track your own accuracy as if every removal will be reviewed.

Why 99% is a hard target

At 99%, there is room for roughly one wrong removal in every hundred. A brand that removes ten offers a month could reach that limit with a single mistake in a quarter. A brand that removes in bulk on gut feeling, without test buys, will almost certainly exceed it.

Two hypothetical brands each make 100 Project Zero removals. Compare each row to see where wrong removals come from and why one falls under 99%.

What misuse looks like

Misuse is any removal that does not meet the definition of a counterfeit. That includes removing an unauthorized reseller of genuine goods, a seller who undercuts on price, a competitor in a dispute, a whole listing when one offer was the problem, or anything removed without a test buy. Each one pulls the accuracy rate down.

What it can cost

The first cost is the tool itself, since Amazon ties continued access to the 99% accuracy rate. The second reaches beyond Project Zero. Amazon’s page for rights owners warns that “Multiple submissions of inaccurate or inauthentic notices could lead to the removal of your submission privileges.” A brand that loses the ability to submit notices has lost both its fast tool and its standard one. The third cost is outside Amazon. Every Project Zero removal sends a notice of complaint to the affected seller, and for valid infringement notices Amazon says it shares the rights owner’s contact details with the sellers involved, so a wrongly removed seller can find out who acted. An unjustified removal can become a legal dispute, so base each decision on evidence a lawyer would be comfortable with.

The governance file every enrolled brand should keep

Treat the tool like any powerful permission inside a company, with written rules, named people and records.

The five papers a brand should hold before its first Project Zero removal. Open each tab to see the rules, the proof and the register it keeps.

Facing a counterfeit complaint, or preparing to use Project Zero?

Send us the notice or your removal setup and we will tell you plainly where the evidence stands.

Submit Case →Book a call

Serialization with Transparency

Removal acts after a counterfeit is listed. Serialization aims to stop it earlier. Amazon describes Transparency as assigning a unique code to every unit of an enrolled product, applied as a small square barcode on the packaging, with Amazon recording every code and the product it belongs to.

How the check works

Amazon says codes are scanned when units arrive at a fulfillment center for Fulfillment by Amazon, and that for self-fulfilled orders the seller provides codes at order confirmation in Seller Central. In stores where Transparency is supported, Amazon says “a valid Transparency code must accompany every unit listed or shipped” once a product is fully protected. Units without a valid code fail the check, Amazon investigates and notifies the brand, and the brand’s performance report tracks blocked units and rejected listing attempts. Protections are not active until the product passes an operational performance review, so enrollment and protection do not happen on the same day.

Eligibility and practical requirements

Amazon’s Transparency page lists a Brand Registry account with the rights owner role, an active registered trademark, a GTIN for each product enrolled, and, for Amazon-issued codes, the ability to put a code on every unit you manufacture wherever it is sold. In practice the code goes on at the packaging line, for every channel.

Which products to serialize

Amazon lets brands choose which products to serialize. Start with the products counterfeiters target, the high value, high volume items that show up in test buys and complaints. Customers can also check Amazon-issued codes with the Amazon Shopping app or the Transparency app, which gives the brand an extra signal when buyers report a suspect unit.

What resellers should know when a Project Zero brand removes their offer

Amazon says that when a counterfeit is removed through Project Zero, “a notice of complaint is sent to each seller associated with the removal.” Its anti-counterfeiting policy says counterfeit complaints can be viewed on the Account Health page in Seller Central. The same policy says selling inauthentic products can lead to suspension, withheld funds and disposal of inventory, so even a mistaken removal has to be answered with evidence.

Diagnose before you write anything

Read the notice in Account Health and note the ASIN, the complaint type, the rights owner named, and whether only your offer or the whole listing was affected. Then pull your invoices for that ASIN, check that the quantities cover what you sold, and inspect any remaining units against the genuine product, including any Transparency code. Before you respond, know whether your goods are genuine and whether you can prove it.

The evidence Amazon describes

Amazon’s Intellectual Property Policy says that for trademark or counterfeit infringement on the product or packaging, the seller can use the Account Health Dashboard to provide an invoice or order ID that demonstrates the authenticity of the product, after which Amazon re-evaluates the notice. For sellers with multiple warnings, the policy lists invoices proving authenticity, Amazon order IDs demonstrating authenticity, an authorization letter from the rights owner that cannot be a forwarded email, or a court order. Amazon’s anti-counterfeiting policy sets a firm limit. You may remove pricing information from documents, but documents edited in any other way, or that are misleading, violate the policy and lead to enforcement. If the genuine paperwork does not exist, say so and stop selling the item. Never create or alter a document to fill the gap. Our guide to invoices Amazon accepts covers what a strong supplier invoice contains.

Every Project Zero removal sends the seller a notice of complaint. Open each notice to see what Amazon is looking for and how we answer it.

When the root cause is your supply chain

If the units were not genuine, or you cannot prove they were, the response becomes a plan of action rather than a rebuttal. The plan names the root cause specifically (which supplier, which purchase, why it was not verified). It lists the corrective actions already completed, with proof (stock quarantined or removed, supplier dropped, affected customers handled). And it sets preventive controls with an owner and a start date (verifying every new supplier before purchase, buying only from the brand or its authorized distributors for brands that enforce, inspecting first units of each new lot). Our guide to Amazon’s anti-counterfeiting policy covers how these cases are reviewed, and the risks of selling unauthorized brands explains why brands with strong enforcement programs call for extra care in sourcing.

When you believe the removal was misuse

If your goods are genuine and you can prove it, answer the notice with evidence through the channel Amazon names. Keep the notice, invoices, photos of your stock and any messages with the rights owner in one file. Do not retaliate with complaints of your own. If a pattern of wrongful removals causes real financial harm, speak with an attorney.

A monthly routine for brands enrolled in Project Zero

Assign each step to a named person.

Weekly

Monitor top ASINs for new offers, price drops and complaints that mention fakes.
Order test buys from suspect offers and compare them against reference units.
Remove only confirmed counterfeits, at the offer level where possible, and log each one the same day.

Monthly

Review the removal register for total removals, any that were challenged, and any that turned out to be genuine goods.
Calculate your internal accuracy and compare it with the 99% line.
Update the authorized distributor list and reference units for new packaging versions.

Quarterly

Confirm trademark status in TSDR and in each country where you use the tool.
Review which products to serialize based on where counterfeits are appearing.
Retrain approvers and refresh the written counterfeit criteria.
Review where counterfeits enter. U.S. Customs and Border Protection says it targets and seizes imported counterfeit goods, so keep your rights records with it current.

For help building the governance file, reviewing a removal register or responding to a dispute, our rights owner complaints service works with brands and sellers on both sides of these cases. If you are new to the reporting process, start with what an intellectual property complaint is.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Amazon Project Zero?

Project Zero is Amazon’s anti-counterfeiting program for Brand Registry brands. It combines automated protections, a self-service tool that lets the brand remove counterfeit listings itself, and optional serialization through Transparency.

Who is eligible for Project Zero?

Amazon says eligible brands are rights owners of a registered trademark in Brand Registry, have used Report a Violation in the last six months with at least a 90% acceptance rate, and have a policy-compliant history, along with other criteria Amazon reviews. Amazon invites brands automatically once they meet every criterion.

Does Project Zero cost anything?

Amazon says the self-service tool and automated protections are free for enrolled brands. Transparency serialization codes are paid per code, and current pricing is on Amazon’s Transparency page.

What accuracy rate does Project Zero require?

Amazon says brands must maintain an accuracy rate of at least 99% to keep access.

Can a brand use Project Zero to remove unauthorized resellers?

No. Amazon says the self-service tool is only for counterfeit listings. A reseller of genuine, unaltered goods is not a counterfeiter, and removing them counts against the brand’s accuracy.

What happens to a seller when a brand removes their offer?

Amazon says a notice of complaint is sent to each seller associated with the removal. Counterfeit complaints appear on the Account Health page, where the seller can respond with invoices or order IDs that demonstrate authenticity.

What should a reseller do if the removal was a mistake?

Respond through Account Health with genuine, unedited invoices or order IDs, removing only the pricing if you wish. You can also contact the rights owner through the details on the notice and ask whether they will retract it.

Get Help With Project Zero and Counterfeit Complaints

Brands preparing to use self-service removal and sellers facing a notice of complaint both win or lose on evidence. You can submit your case for a review of the notice and your documents, or book a consultation to go through your brand’s enforcement setup.

This article is for general educational purposes and reflects Amazon and government guidance at the time of writing. Amazon’s programs, eligibility criteria and pricing change, so confirm current details on Amazon’s own pages, and consult a qualified attorney about any legal question. Got Suspended? does not guarantee any outcome.

Our rights owner complaint team can take the case from here. If the account itself is restricted, start with our Amazon suspension service. You can also see all our marketplace suspension services.

Amazon Project Zero for Brand Owners and What Resellers Should Know