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Amazon: US agency sues over dangerous third

2021-07-15T00:30:12.747Z


It's about hundreds of thousands of items with sometimes risky malfunctions: US consumer advocates have sued Amazon. The shipping giant feels that it has been treated unfairly.


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Photo: Pascal Rossignol / REUTERS

The world's largest online retailer Amazon is threatened with a lawsuit by the US consumer protection agency CPSC due to deficiencies in the product safety of third-party providers.

"We have to deal with how we can deal with these massive third-party platforms more efficiently and how we can best protect the American consumers who rely on them," said CPSC chairman Robert Adler on Wednesday.

The Seattle-based e-commerce giant is responsible for recalling hundreds of thousands of dangerous products because they pose a serious risk of injury or death for consumers, the CPSC explained its decision to file a lawsuit.

The products included 24,000 carbon monoxide detectors that did not work in an emergency, almost 400,000 hair dryers that lacked the necessary protection against possible electric shock, and "numerous" children's pajamas that could catch fire.

Amazon said it removed "the majority" of the products in question from its platform and gave customers full refunds.

It is, however, "unclear" why the CPSC rejected the company's offer to expand the recall program to include products that were sold by third parties, and now wanted to enforce measures through a lawsuit that were almost identical to the steps taken by Amazon have already taken.

Attack on antitrust law expert

It was not until the end of June that Amazon caused a stir with an attack on another consumer protection agency.

At that time, the group attacked the lawyer Lina Khan.

She is a member of the new management body of the US antitrust regulator FTC and is regarded as a proven expert on antitrust law.

Amazon has now demanded that Khan stay out of investigations into his competitive position because it was biased.

The company submitted a corresponding official application to the FTC.

The FTC is responsible for consumer protection in the United States and also conducts competition investigations.

The 32-year-old Khan drew attention to herself a few years ago with a paper on Amazon in which she argued that common US approaches to assessing the competitive situation with regard to Internet companies failed.

jok / Reuters

Source: spiegel

All business articles on 2021-07-15

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