US blacklists five Amazon foreign websites

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Five of online retail giant Amazon鈥檚 foreign websites have been placed on a blacklist by the Trump administration.

Its e-commerce platforms in the UK, Germany, France, India and Canada have been added to a 鈥渘otorious markets鈥 register.

The US trade representative鈥檚 office said the sites facilitated the sale of counterfeit and pirated products.

Amazon said the move was politically motivated and that it has invested heavily to prevent illegal activities.

The trade representative鈥檚 office said that the adding of the Amazon sites was the result of complaints from US businesses over the sale of fake goods.

While the list carries no legal weight, it puts the spotlight on those companies included on it, especially when they are household names like Amazon.

Amazon described the inclusion of its sites as a 鈥減olitical act鈥 motivated by President Donald Trump鈥檚 apparent dislike of Jeff Bezos, its founder and chief executive.

鈥淭his purely political act is another example of the administration using the US government to advance a personal vendetta against Amazon,鈥 the company said in a statement.

The online shopping giant also said it has made significant investments in technology to stop counterfeit products from being sold on its platforms. Amazon鈥檚 US website was excluded from the list.

According to the report, complaints said the Amazon sites didn鈥檛 provide clear information about sellers and that the process to remove platforms selling counterfeit goods was 鈥渓engthy and burdensome鈥.

In Amazon鈥檚 statement it said it had invested significantly in tackling the problem, and had blocked more than 6 billion bad listings before they were published to the platform last year.

鈥淲e are an active, engaged stakeholder in the fight against counterfeit,鈥 an Amazon spokesperson added.

Mr Trump has frequently clashed with Amazon and personally with Mr Bezos, who owns the Washington Post newspaper. In the past Mr Trump has said that Amazon doesn鈥檛 pay enough in taxes.

Last year, Amazon challenged the US Department of Defense in court after being passed over for a $10bn (拢8bn) Pentagon cloud computing contract, which went to Microsoft. The deal is currently being blocked while federal judges investigate the claims.