Lawyers for Amazon, the e-commerce giant with $575 billion in revenue, filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) on March 14. The lawsuit was submitted in federal district court in Maryland and marks the latest development in a three-year-long battle between Amazon and the government agency responsible for protecting citizens from unsafe products.
In 2021, the CPSC filed an administrative complaint against Amazon demanding that the company “accept responsibility for recalling potentially hazardous products sold on Amazon.com.”
The products were purchased by customers between 2018 and 2021 and included children’s pajamas that failed to meet federal flammability standards, hair dryers that didn’t protect against electrocution in water, and faulty carbon monoxide detectors.
Amazon officials have insisted that the company is not responsible for conducting a recall, describing itself as a third-party provider.
The products were sold through Amazon’s “Fulfilled by Amazon” (FBA) program. The program is made up primarily of small, unknown sellers, many from other countries, who face minimal oversight and often fail to meet U.S. safety standards.
Through the FBA program, business owners can list products on Amazon and store their goods at Amazon’s fulfillment centers, while Amazon is responsible for processing payments, shipping the orders, and handling customer service inquiries.
Although Amazon stopped selling the dangerous products and extended refunds to customers who had purchased the items, the company continued to refuse to take on the responsibility of conducting recalls. After three years of adjudication, on July 30, 2024, the CPSC issued a Decision and Order that Amazon “be classified as a distributor under the Consumer Product Safety Act and bear a legal responsibility for recalling dangerous products and informing customers of those dangers.”
Amazon still disagreed, even after the CPSC announced its final order on January 17, 2025, demanding Amazon adhere to a process the commission outlined to “notify purchasers and the public about the hazardous products.”
When Amazon filed the lawsuit against the CPSC several weeks later, the lawyers expressed again Amazon’s position as a third party.
“The commission may issue recall orders to the manufacturers, distributors and retailers of a product, but not to third-party logistics providers who store the product in their warehouses and transport it to customers,” the lawsuit states.
Lawyers also included serious allegations against the commission itself, accusing the CPSC of being unconstitutional and operating with a “potent combination” of governmental function and the ability to be a “judge, jury and prosecutor” at the same time.
“Amazon is suffering, and will continue to suffer, irreparable harm from being subjected to an order issued by an unconstitutionally structured agency,” the lawsuit states.
Consumer Advocate Weighs In
William Wallace is the director of safety advocacy for Consumer Reports. He describes it as “absurd’’ for Amazon to be exempt from sensible requirements laid out by the CPSC.
In his statement concerning the Amazon lawsuit, Wallace also weighed in on the allegations of unconstitutionality on the part of the commission.
“Amazon wants to be held blameless for the safety of products sold by third parties on its platform, which is bad enough—but what’s even worse is that the company is attacking the legal foundation on which the CPSC rests,” he said. “Amazon’s suit suggests the company thinks the people of the United States would be better off without an independent, bipartisan safety agency to enforce our laws and protect consumers from dangerous products. We strongly disagree and condemn Amazon’s reckless constitutional claims.”
Additional Lawsuits Against Other Regulators
The lawsuit against the CPSC is the second active lawsuit involving Amazon and a U.S. regulator. In November, Amazon joined SpaceX (owned by Elon Musk) and filed complaints against the National Labor Relations Board. The complaints were initiated after the National Labor Relations Board filed its own complaints against both Jeff Bezos, the owner of Amazon, and Musk.
At Amazon, the issue was the company’s refusal to collectively bargain with the Amazon Labor Union. At SpaceX, the complaint involved eight employees who said they were fired in retaliation for speaking critically of Musk.
While some believe the lawsuits may be solved favorably for the companies due to Musk and Bezos having strong relationships with the new president, others hypothesize that the disputes with government regulators and questions over how much power entities like the CPSC and the National Labor Relations Board should have may become a heated topic for the Supreme Court.
Source: www.legalexaminer.com – All rights belong to the original publisher.
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