Birkenstock is walking away from Amazon.com.
Plagued by counterfeits and unauthorized selling on the online shopping site, the sandals company will no longer supply products to Amazon in the U.S. starting Jan. 1. Additionally, Birkenstock won't authorize third-party merchants to sell on the site, according to a letter the company sent to several thousand retail partners July 5.
"The Amazon marketplace, which operates as an open market, creates an environment where we experience unacceptable business practices, which we believe jeopardize our brand," Kahan wrote from the company's U.S. headquarters in Novato, California. "Policing this activity internally and in partnership with Amazon.com has proven impossible."
Birkenstock, founded more than 240 years ago in Germany, is one of the many brands, big and small, struggling with Amazon's growth in counterfeits. It's a problem that's exploded since Chinese merchants started flooding the site in the last couple of years.
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