Is that real? I find it hard to believe that Amazon effectively accepted stock from third parties "as is" and lost track of where it came from. It's more likely that they don't tell you than they don't track.
In the seller documentation they say they can track the source of commingled inventory - they achieve this by never putting them on the same physical shelf location.
Also mentioned by Amazon spokesman in e.g. this article: https://archive.is/ra6RT
> Amazon can also track the original seller of each unit
The OP article is exhibit A for how common of an issue this was.
I'm glad to see this change.
It's not that hard to then track back from an order exactly what bin or tote or shelf the item was pulled from, then look at what shipment(s) that bin's items came from to figure out what supplier it came from.
They know the counterfeit goods came in and were stowed to bin XYZ and they know that someone pulled from XYZ...