REUTERS: The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) of the United States announced on Wednesday that it has filed a lawsuit against Amazon.com Inc to compel the retailer to recall hundreds of thousands of hazardous products distributed on its platform. The CPSC voted 3-1 to file an administrative complaint, claiming that the Seattle-based e-commerce behemoth was legally obligated to recall the products because they posed a serious risk of injury or death to customers.
According to the CPSC, the products included 24,000 carbon monoxide detectors that did not go off, nearly 400,000 hair dryers that lacked required shock and electrocution protection, and “numerous” children’s sleepwear garments that could catch fire.
“We need to figure out how to deal with these massive third-party platforms more effectively, and how to best protect the American consumers who rely on them,” said CPSC Acting Chairman Robert Adler.
Amazon had taken unspecified actions for some of the products, according to the regulator, but it wasn’t enough. (https://refini.tv/2UOb7SV) In a statement, Amazon said it was “unclear” why the CPSC rejected its offer to expand its recall program to include products sold by third parties or sued to force actions that were “almost entirely duplicative” of what it had done.
The company stated that “the vast majority” of the products in question had been removed from its store and that customers had received full refunds.
(Bengaluru-based Chavi Mehta and New York-based Jonathan Stempel contributed reporting; Shounak Dasgupta edited the piece.)/n
