Yes, and awareness lags reality by years. Walmart's third-party marketplace opened the door to the same seller networks that work Amazon, and those sellers face less scrutiny there because fewer brands are watching. A first scan for an established brand almost always turns up live knockoffs.
Most brand protection habits were built on Amazon: Brand Registry, Report Infringement, the whole routine. Walmart's brand portal has its own process and evidence rules, and teams that are busy on Amazon simply never set it up. The result is a channel where the same fakes sell untouched.
Complaints go through Walmart's brand portal with platform-specific evidence requirements. Filings formatted to those rules move; generic complaints stall. As on every platform, removal is only half the job, because sellers pushed off Walmart re-list or relocate to Amazon or TikTok Shop.
Run one scan of Walmart Marketplace against your catalog before doing anything else. Most brands find enough live counterfeits in that first pass to make the priority obvious.
It means a counterfeit made with unusual accuracy and better materials, sometimes priced near retail to seem legitimate. Superfakes defeat casual inspection, which is why authentication services exist and why price alone is no defense.
Photo authentication catches most fakes and is a reasonable screen. The best counterfeits sometimes need physical inspection of weight, materials, and hardware feel. For expensive purchases, paying for an expert review is cheap relative to the risk.
Production concentrates in regions with the manufacturing base to copy complex goods, and distribution runs through social media, messaging apps, and marketplace sellers worldwide. Some superfakes even emerge from the same supply chains that serve legitimate brands.