Federal government sues Amazon for “forcing” recalls of unsafe products; Amazon says recall has already been made

A federal regulator sued Amazon in what it called an attempt to “force” the online retailer to recall unsafe products sold on the site. But Amazon said it had already withdrawn most of the products in question before the trial and addressed the concerns raised by the agency.

The United States Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) filed a complaint, acknowledging that Amazon had made efforts to protect consumers over some of the items it had reported, but arguing that the company’s actions were “Insufficient”.

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“Today’s vote to file an administrative complaint against Amazon was a huge step forward for this small agency,” CPSC Acting Chairman Robert Adler said in a statement. “But it’s a big step in a vast wilderness – we have to ask ourselves how to more effectively deal with these huge third-party platforms and how best to protect the US consumers who depend on them.”

“The complaint accuses the specific products of being defective and of posing a risk of serious injury or death to consumers and Amazon is legally responsible for recalling them,” said a press release from the agency. “The named products include 24,000 faulty carbon monoxide detectors that do not trigger an alarm, many children’s sleepwear that violate the safety standard of flammable fabrics that could burn children, and nearly 400,000 dryers. hair sold without the required immersion protection devices that protect consumers from shock and electrocution. “

The CPSC wrote in the complaint that after Amazon was informed by the regulator of the dangers presented by the products, the company removed Amazon’s standard identification numbers (ASINs) for some of the products, and “also unilaterally, and without CPSC participation or input regarding the content of the reviews or its other actions, advised consumers who have purchased some of the affected products that they may pose a danger. The CPSC also acknowledged that Amazon had offered a reimbursement to these buyers in the form of an Amazon gift card.

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But Amazon said it had already removed the products in question from its site, issued refunds, issued warnings and added that it agreed that unsafe products should not be sold – saying it had acted quickly on them. problems.

“Customer safety is a top priority and we take swift action to protect customers when we are aware of a security issue,” Amazon told FOX Business in a statement. “As the CPSC’s own complaint acknowledges, for the vast majority of the products in question, Amazon has already immediately removed the products from our store, notified customers of potential safety issues, advised customers to destroy the products, and provided customers a full refund. “

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The statement continued, “For the few remaining products in question, the CPSC has not provided Amazon with enough information for us to take action and despite our requests, the CPSC has gone unanswered. Amazon has a program. industry-leading recalls and further proposed to expand our capabilities to handle recalls for all products sold in our store, whether those products were sold or fulfilled by Amazon or third party sellers. We do not know why the CPSC rejected this offer or why they filed a complaint to force us to take action almost entirely identical to what we have already taken. “

The complaint says the agency wants Amazon to stop selling the products mentioned in the lawsuit, issue notices to affected consumers that are approved by the CPSC, issue a watchdog-approved press release, refund the price to consumers and destroy any reported product. products that are returned with monthly progress reports to CPSC, among other requests.

The lawsuit against Amazon was approved by a 3-1 vote.