Amazon refuses to take legal responsibility for consumer safety, sues federal watchdog agency: Consumer Reports statement
advocacy.consumerreports.org
WASHINGTON, D.C — Consumer Reports (CR), the nonprofit and nonpartisan research, testing, and advocacy organization, today denounced a lawsuit filed by Amazon against the U.S.…

cross-posted from: https://programming.dev/post/27108135

In the suit, Amazon argues that the company should not have legal responsibility to recall and remedy consumers for unsafe products sold on its marketplace by third-party sellers. Amazon claims that it is just an intermediary and logistics provider for third-party sales, similar to a delivery service, not a distributor or retailer that has a legal responsibility to carry out recalls. The CPSC ordered Amazon to recall more than 400,000 unsafe products in July 2024, after more than three years of adjudication.

“Instead of demonstrating its commitment to consumer safety, Amazon has fought the CPSC every step of the way for more than three years, and now it’s going to court. The law is clear that Amazon is a ‘distributor’ in this case and must carry out a recall. It’s absurd to suggest that because a company hosts a marketplace online it should be exempt from sensible requirements that help get hazardous products out of people’s homes and prevent them from being sold. The court should reject Amazon’s arguments. Taking Amazon at its word would mean hazardous products slipping through the cracks, even when they are capable of injuring or killing people.”

  • HotChickenFeet@sopuli.xyz
    5·
    2 days ago

    Amazon is helping TimmiXyZ29 sell me a new washer. TimmiXyZ29 is not a certified salesman for Whirlpool Washers. Timmi is actually refurbishing old washers and selling them as new. My washer burns the house down. I think we all agree Timi is responsible, but where do I start?

    • The manufacture says they can’t be responsible because Timi/Amazon aren’t selling certified Whirlpool goods.
    • Timmi says he is just selling a product, it’s not his fault
    • Amazon says they’re just selling a product, it’s not their fault

    Now add an additional level; the order is fulfilled by Amazon. Timmi, Whirlpool and other sellers now give Amazon these washers, and Amazon keeps them in a communal pool and sends it on Timmis behalf. Now we don’t even know where the original washer came from.

    What if amazon deletes, hides, or deprioritized disparaging reviews that showed the product was dangerous, and you now buy it?

    There’s so many levels of possible problems that it can be hard to consistently ascribe blame to any one party when sold through amazon.

    I do expect that if a party is selling goods that end up being dangerous, and users have consistently reported the failures/problems in amazon, amazon should perhaps be responsible if they did not block the seller/product or adequately raise awareness about the concern.