Amazon argues it’s not liable for product that severely injured toddler

Re:Amazon argues it’s not liable for product that severely i... by prepend on Friday March 26, 2021 @12:25PM (#26593959)

I think they’re going to lose this. One of the most basic concepts we covered in contract law in the crappy undergraduate business school was the tort responsibility through the entire lifecycle of a product.

If I have a lemonade stand and sell defective lemonade, I’m liable for it. Even the defect was caused by the lemonade mix, even if the defect was caused by the red dye #5 manufacturer. We’re all liable, not just the root.

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Re:Amazon argues it’s not liable for product that severely i... by buescher on Friday March 26, 2021 @12:29PM (#26594001)

Amazon's won these cases (where the defective product came from a seller on amazon) before on the premise that they're not your lemonade stand, they're the flea market where you set up your lemonade stand.

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Re:Amazon argues it’s not liable for product that severely i... by prepend on Friday March 26, 2021 @02:39PM (#26595403)

I guess we’ll see.

From a customer perspective they are the flea market and the Walmart next to the flea market and a bunch of stalls inside the flea market.

There’s no reason why they can’t vet all participants and stand behind their products. It’s not like it’s some onerous process. Walmart does it. They just have to pay out when something harms a toddler.

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Re:Amazon argues it’s not liable for product that severely i... by ChrisLomont on Friday March 26, 2021 @02:50PM (#26595537)

> Walmart does it.

Walmart has 75M SKUs. Amazon has 350M. For many products Amazon never sees one - it only provides a webfront for vendors.

Would WordPress be liable for a vendor products using them as a web store?

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Re:Amazon argues it’s not liable for product that severely i... by prepend on Friday March 26, 2021 @05:14PM (#26597023)

I believe the tort liability is about defect. So if you can’t control quality, don’t have so many skus.

I’m not sure what the difference is between selling and using something to sell. Amazon sells through Amazon.com, even though they allow third parties. I don’t think Wordpress sells under a single storefront.

Maybe the better question is whether eBay is liable when someone sells a defective item.

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