The mega-retailer Amazon is accountable for distributing unsafe products sold on its platform by third parties, according to a decision released today by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).
The policy came as a unanimous vote by the commission, holding that Amazon was a “distributor” of products that are defective or fail to meet federal consumer product safety standards, and therefore bears legal responsibility for their recall. More than 400,000 products are subject to this order: specifically, faulty carbon monoxide (CO) detectors, hairdryers without electrocution protection, and children’s sleepwear that violated federal flammability standards.
The Commission determined that these products, listed on Amazon.com and sold by third-party sellers using the Fulfilled by Amazon program, pose a “substantial product hazard” under the Consumer Product Safety Act (CPSA). Further, Amazon failed to notify the public about these hazardous products and did not take adequate steps to encourage its customers to return or destroy them, thereby leaving consumers at substantial risk of injury, the CPSC said.
Amazon did not reply to a request for comment.
According to the CPSC, Amazon had argued before an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) and the Commission that it was not a distributor and bore no responsibility for the safety of the products sold under its Fulfilled by Amazon program.
However, under the Commission’s Decision and Order, Amazon must now submit proposed plans to notify consumers and the public about the hazardous products, and to remove the products from commerce by incentivizing their return or destruction. The Commission will consider Amazon’s proposed plans and address them in a second order in this case.
The decision was cheered by the retail sector nonprofit and advocacy group Consumer Reports, which said the decision set an important precedent for consumers’ safety online.
"This is clearly the right decision,” Oriene Shin, policy counsel for Consumer Reports, said in a release. “There’s no good reason for a company to be exempt from these sensible requirements just because it hosts an online marketplace; otherwise, products that could injure or kill people might slip through the cracks. Consumers are affected either way, and need the company to step up.”
According to Consumer Reports, the Consumer Product Safety Act (CPSA), a federal product safety law passed in 1972, empowers the CPSC with the authority to file a lawsuit and conduct an adjudicative proceeding to require a manufacturer, distributor, or seller to carry out a safety recall. This proceeding can lead to a mandatory recall order requiring a company to take various actions, such as notifying the public, offering consumers a sufficient remedy, providing monthly recall progress reports, and destroying defective products in its possession.
