Amazon Accused of Selling 420,000 Dangerous Products Like Flammable Childrens Pajamas, Hairdryers, And More

Amazon is accused of selling more than 400,000 dangerous products by the U.S. consumer products safety agency as they were posted for sale.

A lawsuit has been filed by the Consumer Product Safety Commission(CPSC) has found items that were dangerous for regular use.

Third-party vendors sold all the items on the list, and they include items such as children's pajamas, carbon monoxide detectors, hairdryers, and more.

CPSC Findings

The findings brought to the investigation of the CPSC is that children's pajamas were too flammable. Hair Dryers could shock people because of improper insulation, faulty carbon monoxide detectors that could not detect what it was assigned to detect.

The CPSC also has the numbers to back it up, saying that Amazon had sold 398,000 hairdryers and 24,600 carbon monoxide detectors. There was no number given to how many children's pajamas or sleepwear was sold in the report.

A spokesperson for the CPSC spoke to Bloomberg, saying that it's very unusual for the agency to file lawsuits against a company as compared to working with Amazon to recall its products from the consumers.

Joe Martyak, the CPSC spokesperson, said that the agency already notified Amazon regarding the products even before the lawsuit was filed. However, they did not remove all of the dangerous products on the list and foregone the courtesy of alerting its customers. As Martyak stated, they "didn't do enough."

Amazon's Take of The Event

Martyak was told by Amazon that they did not want it to be called a recall and that they didn't consider being legally responsible for the said products.

An unnamed CPSC informant spoke to Washington Post, saying that the lawsuit was filed after continuous back and forth from the agency and the company. The CPSC tried to allow Amazon to follow the rules regarding the recall but to no avail.

An Amazon spokeswoman then told the Post that the company had indeed done what the agency had asked.

"We are unclear as to why the CPSC has rejected that offer or why they have filed a complaint seeking to force us to take actions almost entirely duplicative of those we've already taken."

Is Amazon Liable?

Since Amazon is a marketplace for an assortment of third-party sellers, it is difficult for regulators to be able to pinpoint if the company is seen as a "seller." Since it's still unclear, it would be difficult to be able to make the Amazon company liable for all the products within its platform.

With how Amazon dominates the retail world as they handle so many transactions like marketing, shipping, and handling, delivery, and returns. It's difficult to remove the manufacturers of the items sold and putting Amazon solely onto the world spotlight as it is once again.

Customers who still purchase from Amazon and get defective items believed they were buying from the company itself and not from other third-party sellers. Third-party sellers in Amazon consist of almost 60 percent of the items within Amazon's online stores.

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by Alec G.