Amazon and Nintendo Seek Over $7 Million in Lawsuit Against Sellers of Fake Amiibo 

In a move that will surprise absolutely no one, Nintendo and Amazon have continued to pursue a case filed back in October 2023. They are seeking over $7 million (approximately £5.6 million GBP) in damages against individuals selling counterfeit Amiibos.

Amazon and Nintendo have known the sellers’ identities for some time, yet the sellers failed to respond to the original lawsuit. As a result, the companies have now filed documents asking the court for a default judgment and are hoping to get around $7 million in damages against the sellers.

Amazon and Nintendo Lawsuit

The original complaint alleged that the dealers were instructed not to sell any counterfeit Nintendo goods on Amazon when they signed up as third-party sellers. The sellers, of course, did not comply and sold a range of counterfeit Nintendo products, including posters, Animal Crossing, and The Legend of Zelda amiibo cards, and Nintendo DS cartridges, among other items, across several different selling accounts.

“Nintendo utilizes both internal and external resources to combat counterfeit and infringing products,” lawyers wrote in the complaint. “Nintendo works with a third-party brand protection service vendor on the detection and removal of product listings violating Nintendo’s IP rights that are identified and sold in Amazon’s stores. Nintendo works regularly and collaboratively with Amazon to identify counterfeit Nintendo products and to strengthen automated detection and removal of the products from Amazon’s stores.”

In a new document filed on Tuesday, it was alleged that the sellers sold at least $2,343,386 worth of counterfeit Nintendo items. The document claimed that the scheme caused considerable harm to Nintendo’s reputation and goodwill as if this were the most significant damage to their reputation and not the dozens of lawsuits against fans using their IPs as content creators.

According to the documents, statutory damages could range from $27,000 to $54,000,000, but the $7,030,158 asking price triples the sales of each respective seller. Amazon has since shut down the accounts selling these counterfeit items due to trademark infringement. Although selling these counterfeits was not advisable, this action probably would not have been necessary if Nintendo had not used artificial scarcity to make the amiibos so difficult to obtain in the first place, resulting in minimal stock and rediculous prices that were not fair on gamers and consumers in general.