WASHINGTON, D.C. (WKRC) - A unanimous vote from the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission placed legal responsibility on Amazon for faulty products sold on their site.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) held a vote to decide if Amazon should be held responsible for faulty products sold on their site, even by independent sellers. This decision followed the Commission's discovery of over 400,000 faulty products on Amazon. The CPSC specifically called out:
- "Faulty carbon monoxide (CO) detectors"
- "Hairdryers without electrocution protection"
- "Children's sleepwear that violated federal flammability standards"
The CPSC said that Amazon had not done enough to notify and warn their customers of these faulty products, which the Commission determined posed a "substantial product hazard" according to the Consumer Product Safety Act.
Amazon argued that because they are just a distributor, not the actual seller, they should not have legal responsibility for the faultiness of a product.
The Commission now expects Amazon to respond with a plan to rectify the identified issues of faulty product awareness and recall procedures.
Amazon disagreed with the ruling in a statement released on Tuesday, and said they intend on appealing the decision.
“In the event of a product recall in our store, we remove impacted products promptly after receiving actionable information from recalling agencies, and we continue to seek ways to innovate on behalf of our customers,” an Amazon spokesperson said. “Our recalls alerts service also ensures our customers are notified of important product safety information fast, and the recalls process is effective and efficient.”
This isn't the first time the CPSC has gone after Amazon. The Commission launched a lawsuit against the online retailer in 2021 over similar complaints. At the time, the presiding judge agreed with the CPSC that Amazon was legally considered a distributor under the Consumer Product Safety Act, and therefore had some responsibility over faulty products.
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