Amazon is responsible under federal safety law for hazardous products sold on its platform by third-party sellers and shipped by the company, a U.S. government agency ordered Tuesday.
In a unanimous vote, the Consumer Product Safety Commission said it determined that the e-commerce company was a “distributor” of faulty items sold on its site and packed and shipped through its fulfillment service.
That means the company is on the hook, legally, for the recalls of more than 400,000 products, including hairdryers and defective carbon monoxide detectors, the agency said. It ordered Amazon to come up with a system for notifying customers who purchased faulty items and to remove the products from circulation by offering incentives for their return or destruction.
Amazon said it planned to appeal the decision in court.
I work for ups and can tell you with 100% certainty that Amazon is violating several laws by allowing third party shippers to ship mystery items. They send all kinds of shit through Amazon prime which needs to be loaded in planes. They are putting every pilot that flies their packages in danger. One day someone will be killed and their business model will go up in smoke; literally.