Amazon has challenged the product recalls since 2021
Amazon is suing the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to challenge the commission's order that Amazon is obligated to recallhundreds of thousands of dangerous products.
The lawsuit, filed March 14 in Maryland, where the CPSC is located,argues that Amazon doesn't have a legal obligation toissue recalls or provide refunds for products sold on its marketplace by third-party sellers because it only provides the logistics.
While Amazon sells some of its own products, most items on its marketplace are offered for sale by third parties who pay Amazon to "fulfill" orders by listing them on its site and also by storing and shipping them when they are purchased.
"The [CPSC] may issue recall orders to the manufacturers, distributors, and retailers of a product, but not to third-party logistics providers who store the product in their warehouses and transport it to customers," Amazon said in the lawsuit.
In January, after an administrative hearing, the CPSC orderedthatAmazon wasresponsible for the recall ofmore than 400,000 recalled products it distributed, including faulty carbon monoxide detectors, hairdryers without electrocution protection and childrens sleepwear that violated federal flammability standards.
"It is the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commissions job to hold companies like Amazon accountable for distributing hazardous products. No company is above the law," said commissioner Richard Trumka after the order was issued in January. "The resolution of this case brings protection to consumers exposed to hazardous products. This is an essential step toward ensuring every consumer, regardless of where or how they shop, can trust the safety of the products they bring into their homes."
The CPSC has been at odds with Amazon over the recalls since 2021.
The commission's order, effective Jan. 26, requiredAmazon to provide full refunds to buyers who submit proof of destruction or disposal of the products and to notify buyers of the recalled products because it was a "distributor" under the law.
But Amazon said it isn't required to do so under the law although it said it voluntarily "took prompt and decisive action," including blocking further sales of the products, destroying products in warehouses and contacting each of the 376,009 purchasers.
An 'absurd' argument
Not everyone is buying Amazon's argument.
The court should reject Amazon's lawsuit, which relies primarily on proceduralarguments in its attempt to skirt responsibility under product safety law, saidWilliam Wallace, director of safety advocacy for the nonprofit publication Consumer Reports, in a statement.
"Its 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 peoples homes and prevent them from being sold," Wallace said. The three other commissioners issued similar statements.
Amazon didn't immediately respond to ConsumerAffairs's request for comment.
Although the CPSC's decision only covers previously recalled products that were identified, it puts pressure on e-commerce platforms to take more responsibility for future recalls, said Courtney Griffin, director of consumer product safety at the nonprofit Consumer Federation of America, to ConsumerAffairs.
Online marketplaces need more robust systems to vet products before the products make their way into American homes, Griffin said. E-commerce giants must ensure consumers are safeguarded adequately in the rapidly expanding online marketplace."
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Posted: 2025-03-18 00:46:23
