Part 2/11:
In 2019, the landscape was ruthless. New product listings would swiftly garner hundreds of fake five-star reviews, often within days. American sellers, in contrast, spent months perfecting product images, writing detailed listings, and building brands—only to see Chinese competitors copy everything, undercut prices, and snatch the Buy Box in mere hours. When Amazon eventually suspended illicit accounts, sellers would simply open a new one, making enforcement nearly impossible.
Chinese sellers operated in a legal vacuum—punished with brief suspensions, but able to rebound rapidly elsewhere. They effectively hid behind the physical borders of China, beyond the reach of U.S. law enforcement, immune to lawsuits and tax investigations that could enforce real penalties in the West.