On Wednesday, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission sued Amazon.com Inc in an effort to have it recall hundreds of thousands of dangerous products it had sold on its platform.
The CPSC voted 3-1 to file an administrative complaint against Seattle-based ecommerce giant to claim that it was legally responsible for recalling the products because they posed a grave risk of injury or death for consumers.
According to the CPSC, there were nearly 400,000 hair dryers with no protection against shock or electrocution and 24,000 carbon monoxide detectors which failed to turn on. There was also a large number of children’s sleepwear that could catch fire.
Robert Adler, Acting Chairman of CPSC, stated that “we must grapple with the how to deal with these huge third-party platforms more efficiently and how to best protect the American consumers who rely upon them.”
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Amazon stated in a statement that it was not clear why the CPSC refused to expand its recall program for products sold by third parties. Amazon also sued to force it to take actions “almost completely duplicate” of what it had done.
The company stated that it had removed “the vast bulk” of the incriminating products from its online store and offered full customer refunds.