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Judge rules that Amazon isn't liable for damages caused by a hoverboard it sold

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Re: Judge rules that Amazon isn't liable for damages caused by a hoverboard it sold

#31
post #23
post #4

I’ll be curious to see what happens when Amazon sells a fake Apple iPhone charger, which subsequently burns a house down. The difference here is that Amazon advertised it as Apple brand. Or is that going to be on the shoulders of the wholesaler^W”seller”, too?

I would assume that all iPhone chargers on Amazon are fake. Would Apple be ok selling their products through Amazon?

I know that all "Apple" wired headphones on Amazon are fake. The AirPods are probably genuine.

Re: Judge rules that Amazon isn't liable for damages caused by a hoverboard it sold

#32

Rightfully so, how can this be seen any other way? It's the manufacturer's responsibility to make a product that doesn't burn down your house.

The consumer has no contract with the manufacturer. It is the vendor's responsibility. Of course, the vendor can sue the manufacturer but that's a separate thing. However, Amazon is successfully arguing that they are not the vendor. The vendor is a third party using Amazon's platform. Edit: that said, I think this needs to change.

When I buy something, the warranty included with the unit is from the manufacturer, not Amazon.

Re: Judge rules that Amazon isn't liable for damages caused by a hoverboard it sold

#33
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Suppose the foreign entity decided to flout that law, and never did acquire a bond, or reported a nonexistent bond. Would it be Amazon's responsibility to detect this situation, and what remedy would be available to the customer regardless?

It should be a registered bond with a trusted source. You wouldn't trust escrow funds that weren't held by a trustworthy party if you were involved in real estate.

Would Amazon then check and enforce the status/claims against the bond as part of processing each order? It's an interesting idea for sure.

It seems like this would put a total stop to inventory commingling, which does sound attractive, at an abstract level.

Re: Judge rules that Amazon isn't liable for damages caused by a hoverboard it sold

#34
post #8

Sounds like there needs to be a “know your merchant” law. It makes sense to me that Amazon might not be liable, but it makes no sense at all that people can’t get in touch with the actual seller.

The entire interaction is via the Amazon interface and amazon.com storefront. Amazon inserts itself between buyer and seller every bit as much as Sears or Macys. So they let some fly-by-night Chinese merchants fulfill the orders? That definitely should not be the buyer's problem.

Re: Judge rules that Amazon isn't liable for damages caused by a hoverboard it sold

#35
post #27

This is just going to make me more and more wary of buying through Amazon. Good companies aren't afraid of accountability.

I learned that a friend was (maybe still is) selling vitamins and probiotics through Amazon. I wasn't able to learn who was producing it only knew that it was made in US and most likey a neighbor. He also was selling vitamin K, when asked my doctor about she said she would recommend not to take it, and the daily dose suggested is typically prescribed and usually taken one time. That seriously made me cautious about i…

Well seeing that most experts think that taking vitamins and are worthless anyway, it wouldn't really matter if they were fake....

https://www.webmd.com/vitamins-and-supplements/news/20131216...

I'm not convinced that taking probiotics isn't junk science.

Re: Judge rules that Amazon isn't liable for damages caused by a hoverboard it sold

#36
Forget about the main focus of the article... (I would prefer liability to lie with the manufacturer, no store online or offline is equipped to expertly and independently analyze and judge the safety of all the things they sell, but whatever.)

But how on earth can Amazon sell something and then lose track of the merchant, especially a foreign one? There seem to be so many necessary guarantees this breaks, not just product liability but obeying import/export laws, handling taxes, financial regulations preventing money laundering, and so on.

How is it legal for an American company to sell, or even list foreign products to American consumers where the "manufacturer is unknown"? Is there some kind of loophole in the laws?

Re: Judge rules that Amazon isn't liable for damages caused by a hoverboard it sold

#37

Forget about the main focus of the article... (I would prefer liability to lie with the manufacturer, no store online or offline is equipped to expertly and independently analyze and judge the safety of all the things they sell, but whatever.) But how on earth can Amazon sell something and then lose track of the merchant, especially a foreign one? There seem to be so many necessary guarantees this breaks, not just pr…

That was my first takeaway too. It’s one of the biggie no-no’s in banking to not know the customer. I’m at a loss on why that would be ok here.

I’m also fine with the manufacturer taking the liability but for the retailer to say we don’t know, is at best incompetence and at worst a middle finger to the US consumer.

Re: Judge rules that Amazon isn't liable for damages caused by a hoverboard it sold

#38
I understand that making the shop rather than the manufacturer liable for such a thing would prima facie seem strange.

But since amazon profited from the sale, where I'm from (Australia) they might need to show they weren't recklessly indifferent to the safety standards of the manufacturers they stock - especially this one, but also as a policy in general.

Perhaps there is some useful question here, seeing the number of comments regarding fake, counterfeit or unsafe products. Might these outcomes be "reasonably foreseeable"? Again, where I'm from this could cause Amazon some issues - I only hope other legal systems have similar principles.

Re: Judge rules that Amazon isn't liable for damages caused by a hoverboard it sold

#39
post #7

Rightfully so, how can this be seen any other way? It's the manufacturer's responsibility to make a product that doesn't burn down your house.

In your eyes, what would be the mechanism for a US citizen to sue a manufacturer who has no presence outside of China other than the Amazon marketplace?

This isn't a hypothetical; you can already buy stuff from tons of Chinese companies online -- good luck getting any recourse in a Chinese court if you have a dispute.

Re: Judge rules that Amazon isn't liable for damages caused by a hoverboard it sold

#40
post #23
post #4

I’ll be curious to see what happens when Amazon sells a fake Apple iPhone charger, which subsequently burns a house down. The difference here is that Amazon advertised it as Apple brand. Or is that going to be on the shoulders of the wholesaler^W”seller”, too?

I would assume that all iPhone chargers on Amazon are fake. Would Apple be ok selling their products through Amazon?

Amazon is known to mix stock based on the EAN/UPC. If a merchant is inserting counterfeits that bear the same barcode as the original, they will be mixed together with the real thing with no traceability, and buyers could end up with the fake even if they bought it from a legitimate seller.
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