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
merchants — and can't hide behind their connecting-the-world technology to shield them from responsibility for distributing unsafe goods.” https://www.latimes.com/... Glenn Fleishman / @glennf : Maybe Amazon will stop selling illegal and dangerous laser cutters and other products now too. https://www.latimes.com/... https://www.fastcompany.com/ ... David Lazarus / @davidlaz : 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/... @exavierpope : “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/... Martin Sfp Bryant / @martinsfp : 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://twitter.com/... Nilay Patel / @reckless : 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/... David Lazarus / @davidlaz : 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/... David Lazarus / @davidlaz : 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/... @latimes : “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/... @latimes : 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/... @juokaz : 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/...
Los Angeles TimesDavid Lazarus
Context & Ripple Effects
Amazon has spent years defending a legal identity — marketplace connector rather than retailer — that courts have been steadily dismantling. A federal appeals court first ruled in 2019 that Amazon could be held liable for defective third-party products, arguing the company's model lets vendors conceal themselves from customers; after an intermediate loss, a California appeals court reversed course again in 2020 and found Amazon liable for Marketplace defects. The new California appellate decision closes the loop by rejecting Amazon's Craigslist-style defense outright, making safety responsibility stick at the state level too.
First-order effects
Injured buyers in California gain a direct path to hold Amazon accountable for third-party product harm, ending the practical dead-end of pursuing anonymous overseas merchants.
Amazon can no longer litigate its 'we only connect buyers and sellers' position in-state; every Marketplace listing now carries retailer-grade exposure it must price or police.
Second-order effects
The ruling pressures Amazon to tighten merchant vetting, restrict high-risk categories like the laser cutters flagged by Glenn Fleishman, or raise seller fees to fund compliance — costs that flow back into Marketplace pricing.
Regulators get precedent to lean on: the CPSC's later determination that Amazon must remove recalled third-party goods and notify purchasers (2024) shows how liability rulings translate into enforcement duties.
Third-order effects
Marketplace economics shift from volume-at-arm's-length toward curated retail, since liability makes Amazon the de facto guarantor of goods it never warehouses or inspects.
If state and federal rulings converge, platform-vs-retailer becomes a settled legal question industry-wide, forcing marketplaces everywhere to build governance-as-access-control rather than treat listings as untouchable speech.
The trend: Courts and regulators are progressively collapsing the distinction between platform and retailer, converting marketplace scale from a liability shield into a liability magnet.
E-commerce sites, like Amazon (and, for that matter, Apple's app stores) need to decide if they are the shop or the shopping mall. https://twitter.com/...
How much will this hurt small businesses who use Amazon as their e-commerce platform if Amazon's (quite reasonable) response is to be much more restrictive about who can sell through Marketplace? https://www.theverge.com/...
My heart goes out to Amazon for not being able to sell me something that burns my house down, then tell me to seek redress from some fly-by-night company seven time zones away. https://twitter.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…
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/...
#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/...
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/...
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/...
Maybe Amazon will stop selling illegal and dangerous laser cutters and other products now too. https://www.latimes.com/... https://www.fastcompany.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/...
“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/..…
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/...
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/…