Amazon Toy Safety Documentation Not Required Immediately

Amazon claims that toy sellers must comply with the safety they want to sell in its market. However, some vendors are not invited to submit security documents for several weeks, leaving the Amazon market open to potentially dangerous products, CNBC learned.

Amazon has contacted a group of new toy vendors in recent weeks, asking them to provide the "required safety documentation" for toys already available for sale, according to an email read by CNBC. Amazon stated that bids were to be made by September 9, 2019, approximately two weeks after the sellers started selling these products. Sellers who spoke to CNBC stated that they were not invited to submit security documents prior to registering on the site. Several vendors previously mentioned having received the same type of email on the Amazon Vendors Forum.

The email highlights a potential flaw in Amazon's product safety practices, which have been highlighted following a recent report by the Wall Street Journal that revealed more than 4 000 dangerous or federally banned products sold in the Amazon market, including some high-lead children's toys. . The gap between sales and verification of compliance with safety standards could contribute to a proliferation of dangerous products on Amazon, experts say.

"That says a lot about Amazon's mindset of" moving first and repairing later, "said Garrett Bluhm, founder of Vendient, a consultancy for online sellers.

In the third-party market of Amazon, independent vendors sell products directly to Amazon customers. Last year, nearly 60% of the total sales volume on Amazon came from third-party products, compared with just 30% in 2008. Amazon had more than 2.5 million active third-party sellers at the end of the year. last year, or about 3,400 new salespeople on average. every day, according to Marketplace Pulse.

The massive growth of the third-party market has helped Amazon to take over the US e-commerce market, but it is also difficult for Amazon to effectively control the situation, which has led to problems such as counterfeits and false assessments. The WSJ article showed that the Amazon market was not adequately protecting consumers from potential health or safety risks, with thousands of products failing to meet safety standards or lacking safety standards. warning labels.

Amazon's spokesperson told CNBC that the company was requesting documentation "very soon" on security after a product was listed by a third-party seller. Recent requests for documentation fall within Amazon's "long-standing product safety activities" and are "not a new program or reaction to the Wall Street Journal article." "said the spokesman.

"All products offered in our stores must comply with applicable laws and regulations, and we regularly contact sales partners to request safety documentation to ensure that products in our store meet the safety standards of the company. Consumer Product Safety Commission, "said Amazon in a statement.

Vendors who do not submit the required security documents will be immediately removed, the spokesman said. Without specifying, the spokesman also said that Amazon was requesting compliance documents for certain categories of products before listing a product. In a blog post published after the WSJ article, Amazon said it has blocked more than 3 billion suspicious listings for "various forms of abuse, including non-compliance, prior to their publication. in our store ".

The email is quite simple. "We are contacting you because we are showing that you may be selling toys in the Toys category," says the e-mail, which was shared with CNBC by two-thirds vendors. "As part of our ongoing efforts to provide the best possible customer experience, we confirm that your product meets the mandatory security standard in effect."

It includes an Amazon help page stating "Amazon" can request documentation of toy safety at any time to confirm compliance ", as well as links to non-profit testing agency security standards. It also states that vendors should have certificates and test reports that meet safety standards.

The policy of requesting documentation of certain products only after they have been put on sale helps speed up the registration process and quickly expand product selection on Amazon, according to Bluhm. Amazon favors the largest selection of products for sale, which creates a flywheel effect by attracting more customers and sellers to its site. This can lead to lower prices, but is often done at the expense of lax product compliance monitoring, said Bluhm.

"Amazon often considers that customer obsession provides the widest variety of products at the lowest possible price, while in some cases customer security has been treated after the fact," he said.

Amazon uses automated tools to identify products that need more controls, according to Rachel Johnson Greer, a former compliance manager for Amazon, who now runs her own consulting firm, Cascadia Seller Solutions. But given the variety of products that require different types of security documents, it is almost impossible to verify the compliance of each new product before enumerating it, she said. A better approach, she added, would be to put in place a more rigorous vendor integration process for certain categories, such as toys and baby products.

"Amazon does not handle the problem effectively," said Greer.

Some regulators call Amazon to be more responsible. Senators Richard Blumenthal, Bob Menendez and Ed Markey, three Democratic senators, last month wrote to Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, following the WSJ's testimony, asking the company to take steps to end the sale of dangerous products on Amazon. In July, a federal appeals court ruled that Amazon could be held liable for defective products sold on its site by third-party sellers, thus challenging Amazon's long-standing position of denying the responsibility for these products.

To ensure full security compliance for every new product listing, Amazon should invest a lot more in people and technology, said Greer. Although Amazon has implemented several new security protocols over the past year, including requesting certificates in some subcategories, it is unclear exactly how Amazon will block all forms of security. And reprehensible actors, including those who could create red tape, she said.

"Amazon has been built on the trust of customers." "They want to keep it, I think they clearly have the obligation to do better," said Greer.

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