What can be done to make Amazon take responsibility for the things sold on its platform?
Dangerous toys, paintings with unacceptable levels of lead, banned products, unauthorized cosmetics, unsafe tools, unapproved helmets, you name it, a Wall Street Journal investigation into products on Amazon found 4,152 products that stores would not be able to sell.
The conclusion is clear: Amazon’s obsession with offering the largest range of products in the world means it doesn’t apply even the most basic oversight. This isn’t about increasingly rigid labeling and consumer protection which in some cases might be considered excessive, but that at Amazon you can literally find anything, including items that are just flat illegal. Manufacturers know that the bans they face in the real world don’t apply on Amazon, a channel with a 49% share of the US online market and 5% of overall commerce, where there is virtually no supervision.
The problem is not unique to the United States, where the investigation was carried out. A few searches on any of Amazon’s platforms in other countries shows how easy it is to find all kinds of products unavailable in the stores. If there’s a problem with a product, Amazon will say it’s the manufacturer or third-party seller’s fault, will try to avoid litigation and probably offer some money to the purchaser to withdraw their complaint, and possibly even withdraw the product, especially it the case attracts media attention. But there has been no commitment to implement greater oversight.
Amazon has been fined and ordered to pay compensation for products sold on its platform, but the amounts pale in comparison to the profits obtained by becoming the default place to buy illegal stuff. For example, flick knives are illegal (link in Spanish) in Spain, but as a quick search shows, the company’s Spanish site has any number on offer (pdf), and that was just the first item that came to my mind. There’s also the matter of badly translated product information… but no problem, Amazon, in its quest to be the largest retail outlet on the planet, has decided that everything goes and that the law is for others to comply with.
If you run a platform used by third parties for business purposes, you have a responsibility for what is sold on that platform. That’s just plain common sense.
(En español, aquí)
