Amazon can now be held responsible for dangerous products sold on its platform, government
A US safety regulator announced Tuesday that it voted unanimously to hold Amazon responsible for faulty or unsafe products sold by third-parties on its website and app.
The US Consumer Product Safety Commission, tasked with ordering companies to recall dangerous products sold in America, said it found more than 400,000 defective products sold on Amazon’s platform that the online retailer now must recall or face legal consequences.
More than 60% of sales in Amazon’s stores come from independent sellers, the company said in January, and the battle over who should be held liable for these products when they fail has been battled in court for years. But the CPSC Tuesday said an administrative law judge sided with the agency, ruling that Amazon acted as a distributor for third-party goods, and the company’s notifications to customers that products they purchased had a “potential” safety issues were insufficient to protect consumers.
