Amazon is suing the Consumer Product Safety Commission over its decision to hold the company legally responsible for faulty products on its platform, demanding that Amazon be considered a “third-party logistics provider” instead of a distributor and calling the CPSC “unconstitutionally constructed.”
Quick Backstory: In July 2024, the CPSC unanimously decided that Amazon is responsible for hazardous or defective products sold by third-party retailers through its platform and simultaneously determined that amazon failed to properly notify buyers about faulty products it previously sold. The origins of the legal fight trace back to 2021 when the CPSC sued Amazon to force it to recall faulty carbon monoxide detectors, hair dryers, and children's sleepwear.
Classifying Amazon as a distributor last year made the company responsible for issuing recalls and refunds for products sold through its FBA program, but Amazon takes issue with the decision because it says it doesn't own or make the faulty products. Amazon sees itself as more of a hands-on FedEx. Hmm, that's funny. I've never ordered a product from FedEx before…
Amazon said, “The remedies ordered by the CPSC are largely duplicative of the steps we took several years ago to protect consumers, which are the same steps we take whenever we learn about unsafe products.” If true, then what's the difference?
Amazon also has a problem with the CPSC itself.
The CPSC's commissioners are appointed by the President, approved by the Senate, and serve for seven years. Amazon says that the commission's invulnerability is unconstitutional and makes them “judge, jury, and prosecutor” in proceedings. Amazon's made similar claims about the National Labor Review Board.
Amazon, you're literally suing the CPSC right now — which you're legally allowed to do! Doesn't that kind of negate your claim that they are the “judge, jury, and prosecutor”?