Amazon has announced the creation of a new Counterfeit Crimes Unit which will be responsible for finding and pursuing those attempting to sell fake goods on the site.

The US tech and e-commerce giant said the new unit would be a global team comprised of former prosecutors, investigators and data analysts.

The group will join existing work the company says it does to prevent counterfeit material appearing on the platform.

Amazon said that in 2019 it spent over 500 million US dollars and had more 8,000 employees fighting fraud – and had blocked more than six billion bad listings in that year alone.

The Crimes Unit will investigate cases where bad actors have attempted to evade Amazon’s systems, the company said, and will be able mine Amazon data and gather information from external sources to find those responsible.

It said the new group would allow Amazon to more effectively pursue civil litigation as well as help law enforcement officials around the world in criminal actions against counterfeiters.

Dharmesh Mehta, Amazon’s vice president for customer trust and partner support, said: “Every counterfeiter is on notice that they will be held accountable to the maximum extent possible under the law, regardless of where they attempt to sell their counterfeits or where they’re located.

“We are working hard to disrupt and dismantle these criminal networks, and we applaud the law enforcement authorities who are already part of this fight.

“We urge governments to give these authorities the investigative tools, funding, and resources they need to bring criminal counterfeiters to justice because criminal enforcement – through prosecution and other disruption measures such as freezing assets – is one of the most effective ways to stop them.”