Most defendants promise five-star reviews for a seller's products.
TripAdvisor, the online review site, said it has already closed almost 30 businesses dedicated to posting fake reviews on its site in the last six months, with dozens more now likely to be in its sights.
Legal experts said although the Amazon court case will rely on US law, the move could signal further moves in Britain to track down perpetrators.
Millions of consumers who rely on internet retailers for everything from the weekly shop to annual holiday are thought to have been exposed to fake reviews aiming to boost one company's rankings or knock a rival.
As shops, restaurants, hotels and online retailers increasingly come to recognise the power of online feedback, a trade in embellished reviews has sprung up.
It includes a network of small firms or freelance forgers operating as so-called "optimisers", manufacturing batches of favourable write-ups to order for about £3 each.
Amazon is targeting individuals who offered their services on the website Fiverr.com, an online labour exchange.
The retailer disclosed it had carried out its own investigation, included posing as would-be customers and purchasing fake reviews from those who promised five-star ratings and offered to let the purchaser write the review themselves.
It emphasised that it was not targeting Fiverr, which said it was working with Amazon to resolve the issue.
Ashley Hurst, a specialist in internet disputes at the law firm Olswang, said: "The scale of this action is certainly unprecedented in relation to online reviews.
"The Competition and Markets Authority has recently looked into the sale of fake online reviews and we may well see regulators and internet platforms take further action in the UK over the next few years."
TripAdvisor said it would also use legal action to close down fake review dealers and name and shame those who commission them.
Companies found commissioning fake reviews can have a red warning placed next to them on the site with potentially devastating effects on their reputation.
A spokesman said: "The message from us is that if you do these things we will close in and we probably will catch you and we will penalise you."
The latest legal action comes after Amazon sued a number of websites in April for selling fake reviews.
Despite successful efforts to remove such ads from the site before, Amazon said taking away individual listings does not address the "root cause" of the issue or provide a strong enough deterrent to those "bad actors engaged in creating and purchasing fraudulent product reviews".
The legal action says: "Amazon is bringing this action to protect its customers from this misconduct, by stopping defendants and uprooting the ecosystem in which they participate."
The firm said it had investigated the defendants and found many of them request text from the sellers for the reviews, and take steps to avoid detection by using multiple accounts and unique IP addresses.
It added the defendants acted in the knowledge that Amazon - which described itself as "Earth's most customer-centric company" and the pioneer of the reviews system - does not allow paid for or fictional reviews.
