Amazon Not Liable for Exploding Hoverboard

[Megalith]

A judge has ruled that Amazon isn’t responsible for selling a hoverboard that burned down a family’s home in 2016. According to this legal victory, Amazon should not be blamed because it only serves as a marketplace that connects buyers with sellers.

Increasingly those products are coming from third-party sellers in China and other places all over the world, who are sometimes impossible to find when something goes wrong. More than half of products sold on Amazon now come from Marketplace merchants.

 

[ProfessorUtopia]

Losing a home is tragic, but ultimately you are responsible for what you bring into your own home. If you don't do your due diligence to vet the products you buy, especially things like cheap Chinese electronics, the fault lies with you and the OEM when something goes wrong; don't blame the middle man. Oh, and good luck getting compensation from a no-name foreign manufacturer.

 

[viper_0307]

This is one ruling they got right. It's between the seller and the buyer. Most of those boards are prohibited on mass transit systems anyway. I hope my next door neighbor got rid of theirs kids' hoverboard, like everything else it is just a short term trend.

 

[tetris42]

Now that's the sort of headline I want to be reading in this day and age.

 

[MrDeaf]

Record earnings? check
Sitting on a massive pile of cash? check
Zero obligations of vetting products so that they are compliant in the market they are sold in? check
Have not lost lawsuits because all they do is facilitate sales of cheaply made and oftentimes shoddy or counterfeit goods from China? check

IDK if other people agree, but maybe Amazon could create some jobs for Americans by having a product vetting team that can guarantee the quality and authenticity of products sold on Amazon...

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

I wish there were an easy checkbox you could check to show only results shipped directly from Amazon, so I never have to deal with third party marketplace sellers ever again.

 

[hlfbkd420]

I do think that Amazon sellers should be required to have a us contact. After so many incidents they should be removed.

And yes, I know it is trivial to change accounts...

On the flip side, I 100% agree with this ruling. I always check out the seller info on Amazon and rarely buy from a 3rd party.

Was this a prime shipping eligible seller? That is the only way I could see this as a problem. (If so Amazon can contact them in some way)

 

[NeghVar]

Good! Can you imagine if grocery stores were liable for an E. Coli or listeria contamination instead of just the packaging company. Or toy stores due to recalled item for unsafe or containing lead-based paint? In any case, the responsibility of the retailer is to pull the items from the shelf as soon as they get word of a recall.
Besides, doesn't the hover boards already have a checkered history concerning battery explosions and fires?

 

[Retronym]

Great Scott!!!

 

[Megaslug]

The counterfeit business from China is going so strong, even buying from reputable electronic component suppliers does not prevent receiving counterfeit items. Couple li-Ion batteries with non-existent protection circuits, or protection circuits made with counterfeit components, and you have a recipe for disaster.
But this is the correct ruling. Amazon didn't make the hoverboard. Amazon acted as the last mile distributor for a company that had a merchant account. It's not Amazon's job to verify every single product sold by every single merchant. It IS Amazon's job to immediately halt sales of a product if there is a recall.