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Comment by mikestew | Hacker News Reader

I’ll be curious to see what happens when Amazon sells a fake Apple iPhone charger, which subsequently burns a house down. The difference here is that Amazon advertised it as Apple brand. Or is that going to be on the shoulders of the wholesaler^W”seller”, too?

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Apple has said that 90% of the "genuine" chargers on Amazon are fake and they've sued some sellers [1]. They haven't sued Amazon, and this story is probably why.

[1] http://fortune.com/2016/10/19/apple-amazon-charger-lawsuit/

Plenty of fake iPhone chargers bought on Amazon have caused fires and serious injuries. So far nothing of note has happened as a result.

I would assume that all iPhone chargers on Amazon are fake. Would Apple be ok selling their products through Amazon?

I know that all "Apple" wired headphones on Amazon are fake. The AirPods are probably genuine.

I know this not to be the case. Many of them are but there is some legitimate inventory there, I know several people in the industry.

I just searched on Amazon for "Apple headphones". On at least the first page, all of the reviews stated they were fake.

Can you find a link for genuine Apple headphones from Amazon?

The first link has almost 11 thousand reviews and currently 34 sellers. 44% of those reviews are 5 star. 34% are 1 star.

It is certainly the case that some of those sellers are selling fakes. It is also likely that some are selling authentic products.

This is the first link

https://www.amazon.com/Apple-MD827LL-EarPods-Remote-Mic/dp/B...

The Q and A section and many of the reviews are saying that they are fake.

They are $13.99. The real Apple headphones are $29.99

https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MNHF2AM/A/earpods-with-35...

Apple never sells anything at wholesale at over a 50% discount. Where would a third party company be getting new Apple headphones from where they could sell them profitably at $13.99?

Carrier auctions, mostly.

Anyway, if many of the units sold are fake and some are real, you'd expect a large number of reviews both ways, which is what you can see.

Some wouldn't know they were fake and others wouldn't care.

Amazon is known to mix stock based on the EAN/UPC. If a merchant is inserting counterfeits that bear the same barcode as the original, they will be mixed together with the real thing with no traceability, and buyers could end up with the fake even if they bought it from a legitimate seller.

Amazon is an Authorized Apple Reseller. They sell plenty of stuff, iPods, Airpods, Macs, Apple Pencil directly. Then, there are many third party sellers, some of which are likely selling fakes and some selling legitimate goods.

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