The Amazon Case for Safety at the Consumer Electronics Retailing Site Ars Technica (http://arstechnica.com/media/news/02/113/2011/0110)
“We are disappointed by the CPSC’s decision,” Amazon’s spokesperson said. “We plan to appeal the decision and look forward to presenting our case in court. When we were first notified of the potential safety issues with a small number of third-party products three years ago, we quickly instructed customers to stop using the products and refunds them.
If products remain in consumers’ possession, children will wear unsafe sleepwear garments that can ignite and cause injury or death, consumers will use faulty carbon monoxide detectors that will never alert them to deadly carbon monoxide in their homes, and consumers will be stuck with unsafe sleepwear and carbon monoxide detectors.
Typically, a distributor would be required to specifically use the word “recall” in the subject line of these kinds of messages, but Amazon dodged using that language entirely. Instead, Amazon opted to use much less alarming subject lines that said, “Attention: Important safety notice about your past Amazon order” or “Important safety notice about your past Amazon order.”
Ars Technica is a popular source for technology news, tech policy analysis, reviews and more. Ars is owned by WIRED’s parent company, Condé Nast.
Consumer Product Safety Commission Decision Decreasing Amazon Availability for the Full Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA) Program, and Its Interaction with the US Consumer Protection Commission
Amazon then left it up to customers to destroy products and explicitly discouraged them from making returns. The e-commerce giant also gave every affected customer a gift card without requiring proof of destruction or adequately providing public notice or informing customers of actual hazards, as can be required by law to ensure public safety.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) said in a decision on Tuesday that the retail giant qualifies as a “distributor” and therefore bears a legal responsibility for recalling dangerous products and informing customers and the public.
The company plans to appeal because independent sellers account for more than half of the platform’s sales. “We are disappointed by the CPSC’s decision,” the spokesperson said.
The Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA) program, also called Fulfillment by Amazon, allows third-party retailers to list products for sale on amazon.com and store them at Amazon fulfillment centers. Amazon processes customer payments, ships orders, and serves as a point of contact for customer service issues after an order is placed.