CA appellate court rules Amazon is responsible for the safety of third-party products it sells, rejecting Amazon's claim of merely connecting buyers and sellers
Should Amazon, which accounts for roughly half of all online sales, be legally and financially responsible for the safety …
Los Angeles TimesDavid Lazarus
Context & Ripple Effects
This ruling is the California chapter of a legal arc that has run since 2019, when a federal appeals court first held Amazon liable for defective third-party seller products, arguing the platform enables vendors to conceal themselves from customers. A California appeals court had already reversed its own 2019 stance in 2020, finding Amazon liable for Marketplace defects in that state — so today's decision cements a consistent judicial position against Amazon's preferred framing of itself as a neutral connector, the Craigslist-like role it defended in the earlier liability debate.
The significance is scale: with roughly half of all online sales flowing through Amazon, the question of whether it is legally and financially responsible for third-party product safety touches most e-commerce. The courts' answer has now been echoed by regulators — in 2024 the CPSC ruled Amazon responsible even for recalled third-party goods and must remove them and notify purchasers.
First-order effects
Amazon can no longer argue it merely connects buyers and sellers in California: it bears responsibility for the safety of third-party products sold on its Marketplace, exposing it to injury claims it previously deflected to anonymous sellers.
Consumers injured by defective Marketplace products gain a solvent, identifiable defendant — Amazon itself — instead of chasing third-party sellers the platform's structure makes hard to find.
Second-order effects
Third-party sellers face tighter vetting and compliance demands as Amazon absorbs safety responsibility, raising the cost of listing on Marketplace and potentially squeezing marginal sellers out.
Rival marketplaces (eBay-style models, Craigslist-style classifieds) must decide whether their own 'we just connect buyers and sellers' legal posture survives now that the largest platform has been reclassified as a seller under court precedent.
Third-order effects
If state appellate rulings like this one plus the CPSC's recalled-products decision converge, US law effectively treats large marketplaces as distribution-layer sellers regardless of who lists the item — shifting product-safety liability from individual vendors to platforms with the balance sheets to absorb it.
That reclassification could reshape marketplace economics: platforms internalizing safety costs may favor fewer, better-vetted sellers over long-tail breadth, eroding the open-marketplace model that distinguished e-commerce from retail chains.
The trend: US courts and regulators are steadily collapsing the legal distinction between marketplace and merchant, making platforms like Amazon liable as sellers of third-party goods rather than mere intermediaries.
“Amazon's own business practices make it a direct link in the vertical chain of distribution under California's strict liability doctrine,” justices ruled, rejecting Amazon's claim its site is merely a platform connecting buyers & sellers" - This is BIG https://www.latimes.com/..…
My description of an #Amazon spokeswoman 'requesting anonymity even though she's, you know, a spokeswoman' is getting a lot of attention today. I use this phrase to highlight the alarming trend of corporate spokespeople withholding their names https://www.latimes.com/...
More than half of all the stuff sold by Amazon comes from third parties. In a major legal ruling, a panel of L.A. judges says the e-commerce giant is responsible for any safety issues https://www.latimes.com/...
“'We are persuaded that Amazon's own business practices make it a direct link in the vertical chain of distribution under California's strict liability doctrine,' the justices ruled, rejecting Amazon's claim that its site is merely a platform connecting buyers and sellers.” https…
Experts told columnist @Davidlaz this week's decision “makes clear that online merchants are just that — merchants — and can't hide behind their connecting-the-world technology to shield them from responsibility for distributing unsafe goods.” https://www.latimes.com/...
I get the whole ‘naming spokespeople holds them accountable’ argument, but often these are mid-level PR bods sharing messages agreed by people more senior than them, who don't get paid enough to have themselves thrown into the public spotlight with all that entails. https://twitt…
Love to see this kind of pushback against the games every single tech company is playing with the press right now. I am so extremely on the warpath about this lately https://twitter.com/...
In major product-liability ruling, L.A. judges say Amazon and other online retailers are responsible for the safety of third-party products they sell. This is huge https://www.latimes.com/...
A California woman being ‘severely burned’ by a Chinese-made hoverboard purchased from #Amazon results in a landmark legal decision affecting all consumers https://www.latimes.com/...
“This week's Amazon ruling lays down a legal marker that consumers can demand satisfaction from online merchants for the goods they sell, regardless of whether those goods originated elsewhere.” Columnist @Davidlaz explains: https://www.latimes.com/...
Should Amazon be legally and financially responsible for the safety of products sold on the site, including those offered by third parties? Amazon says no. But a trio of state Court of Appeal justices this week said otherwise. Column by @Davidlaz: https://www.latimes.com/...
This week, 3 Court of Appeal justices in Los Angeles reject Amazon's “we're just the marketplace and have no responsibility for product safety” argument. https://www.latimes.com/...
A trio of state Court of Appeal justices in Los Angeles ruled Amazon accountable for the products it allows third parties to sell on its website. Surely Amazon will appeal it. Amazon would have to rethink the marketplace if it was held liable for sellers. https://www.latimes.com/…
Maybe Amazon will stop selling illegal and dangerous laser cutters and other products now too. https://www.latimes.com/... https://www.fastcompany.com/ ...
#Amazon reporting more profit is getting lots of attention. But this court ruling involving the safety of the products Amazon sells is the bigger story https://www.latimes.com/...