WASHINGTON (BRAIN) — In a unanimous vote that should benefit legitimate bike suppliers, the Consumer Product Safety Commission ruled that Amazon is a distributor and bears responsibility for products sold by third-party sellers that are defective or fail to meet federal safety standards and has a legal responsibility for their recall.
I also agree that this is a helpful development, since lots of people with Amazon Prime subscriptions will naturally gravitate towards products that they can receive within 2 days or sometimes even overnight. And that’s really only possible with either Amazon directly selling something (eg Amazon Basics), or with Fulfilled by Amazon sellers, which this order covers.
I just wanted to provide the context for the brief headline, so people don’t just assume that all of Amazon’s listings would soon become safety-compliant. They won’t.
Unsafe product “sludge” will continue to be a problem even outside Amazon, as platforms like eBay and recently Temu continue to flog some fairly dangerous goods. But addressing that requires a holistic educational approach, such as why unrecognizable e-scooter brands with no UL labels are a problem, among other concerns.
I also agree that this is a helpful development, since lots of people with Amazon Prime subscriptions will naturally gravitate towards products that they can receive within 2 days or sometimes even overnight. And that’s really only possible with either Amazon directly selling something (eg Amazon Basics), or with Fulfilled by Amazon sellers, which this order covers.
I just wanted to provide the context for the brief headline, so people don’t just assume that all of Amazon’s listings would soon become safety-compliant. They won’t.
Unsafe product “sludge” will continue to be a problem even outside Amazon, as platforms like eBay and recently Temu continue to flog some fairly dangerous goods. But addressing that requires a holistic educational approach, such as why unrecognizable e-scooter brands with no UL labels are a problem, among other concerns.
Basically, it’s slow progress but good progress.
Yeah, I try to avoid Amazon but every once in a while when I need something I can’t get locally I give in.