Amazon has been ordered by the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to take full and proper responsibility for recalling faulty and dangerous products sold by merchants through its website and app.
The order [PDF] this week directs the internet giga-souk to develop a remediation plan to notify those who have purchased risky things from its bazaar as well as warning the general public, and to remove said products from people’s homes.
Whether the web titan will comply has yet to be determined: Amazon says it plans to appeal.
The e-commerce giant has been trying to avoid this outcome for several years, claiming it is not obligated under American law to protect shoppers from hazardous products sold on its website via its Fulfilled by Amazon program.
Despite conclusive testing that the products were hazardous, Amazon’s messages advised the customer only ‘of a potential safety issue’
Fulfilled by Amazon is the service third-party sellers use to, among other things, offer two-day free shipping to Amazon Prime subscribers, by having their goods sent to, stored at, and distributed from Amazon warehouses to buyers. Vendors list their wares on Amazon’s marketplace, and the internet goliath takes care of the order processing, warehousing, and shipping.
Amazon argued this program made it a “third-party logistics provider” under the US Consumer Product Safety Act (CPSA), rather than a “distributor,” and was thus not legally responsible for handling recalls.
At the heart of the CPSC’s beef with Amazon is that 400,000 hazardous items – faulty carbon-monoxide detectors, electrocution-prone hairdryers, and flammable sleepwear for kids – were purchased via the cloud-platform-with-a-gift-shop, and yet Amazon, according to the commission, failed to undertake proper recalls of that dodgy gear when it was made aware of the danger.
The biz sent emails to those who purchased the hazardous products flagged by the CPSC, and took other steps such as destroying certain items and quarantining others in its warehouses.
But those moves were insufficient, the CPSC alleged in its complaint [PDF] against the mega-corporation. The watchdog agency argued Amazon failed to adequately make clear the risk posed by the products and failed to track or assess the effectiveness of its cautionary notes.
“Despite conclusive testing that the products were hazardous, Amazon’s messages advised the customer only ‘of a potential safety issue that may impact your Amazon purchase(s),” the complaint alleged.
The supposed weak-sauce notifications also provided no way for customers to return recalled products nor show proof of destruction. The messages, it’s claimed, discouraged returns and urged customers to dispose of risky products on their own.
The legal dispute, which began in 2021, looks likely to remain unresolved while Amazon challenges the CPSC order in court.
“We are disappointed by the CPSC’s decision,” an Amazon spokesperson told The Register on Tuesday.
We swiftly notified customers, instructed them to stop using the products, and refunded them
“We plan to appeal the decision and look forward to presenting our case in court. When we were initially notified by the CPSC three years ago about potential safety issues with a small number of third-party products at the center of this lawsuit, we swiftly notified customers, instructed them to stop using the products, and refunded them.”
Amazon’s spokesperson said the biz removes recalled products from its store upon receipt of recall information from an appropriate agency and notifies customers through its website while providing US selling partners with the option to use its Recalls Logistics Service.
“We stand behind the safety of every product in our store through our A-to-z Guarantee, regardless of whether it is sold by Amazon or by one of our selling partners,” Amazon’s rep added. “We have proactive measures in place to prevent unsafe products, and we continuously monitor the listings in our store. If we discover an unsafe product available for sale, we address the issue immediately, and refine our processes.”
As to actually taking responsibility for handling the recall of third-party products, Amazon in February published some ideas about educating customers, getting better information from manufacturers, improving the sharing of product risk data, and modernizing the recall process. ®