Illustration by Eliot Wyatt
On September 8, 2026, Meta launched Muse, a personal AI agent designed to act on a user’s behalf: filling out forms, negotiating, booking travel, and making purchases. Twelve days later, Amazon blocked Muse from shopping on its site, arguing that third-party agents should identify themselves and obtain a retailer’s permission before transacting on behalf of its customers.
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The problem of imitation—which ranges from illegal counterfeit to legal products intentionally designed to mimic another—is becoming more urgent for businesses. Recent figures suggest that both its scale and the channels through which it spreads are expanding rapidly. In the United States, customs authorities seized more than 78 million counterfeit goods in fiscal year 2025, more than twice the number seized a year earlier. Its estimated value had risen nearly 40% to more than $7.4 billion. In the EU, the value of counterfeit goods detained reached a record €3.8 billion, while the value intercepted at the EU border alone almost doubled in a year.