Amazon doesn’t think that it should be responsible for the quality and safety of products that are sold by third-party merchants, but one of California’s appellate courts believes differently. As reported by the Los Angeles Times, a trio of state Court of Appeal justices in Los Angeles have ruled that Amazon should be legally and financially responsible not only for the safety of products sold directly by Amazon.com, but those from third parties as well. The ruling is attributed to a case filed in December 2015 in which a third-party seller sent a customer a hoverboard that ended up bursting into flames. While an L.A. judge initially ruled in Amazon’s favor, that ruling has now been overturned by the appellate court, which could force the Seattle e-tail giant to update its policies.
Experts told columnist @Davidlaz this week’s decision "makes clear that online merchants are just that — merchants — and can’t hide behind their connecting-the-world technology to shield them from responsibility for distributing unsafe goods." https://t.co/Wj1vi8R1TG
— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) April 29, 2021
“Amazon is the retailer. They’re the one selling the product,” said Christopher Dolan, a San Francisco lawyer who spearheaded the case against the e-commerce behemoth. “Because of this ruling,” he told me, “you can be sure Amazon is rewriting all its rules for third-party sellers, and it’s doing it today.”
Sources: Los Angeles Times, Engadget