

Most people don’t realize this, but the majority of listings on Amazon aren’t actually for items sold by Amazon-they’re run by third-party sellers. But make no mistake: The problem is extensive. The rise of counterfeit goods and other phony products sold on the Internet has been swift-and it has largely gone unnoticed by many shoppers. This scenario isn’t all that far from what’s happening in e-commerce retailers’ massive, hard-to-police markets of third-party sellers.

The only discernible difference-and it’s barely discernible-is that there’s a tiny tag on one carton saying the milk is sold by a third-party seller.

Imagine walking into your local grocery store and seeing two virtually identical cartons of milk right next to each other.
