US sues Amazon to force recall of potentially dangerous products: NPR

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The Consumer Product Safety Commission has sued Amazon to pressure the retail giant to recall hundreds of thousands of potentially dangerous products. Johannes Eisel/AFP via Getty Images Hide caption

Toggle caption Johannes Eisel/AFP via Getty Images

The Consumer Product Safety Commission has sued Amazon to pressure the retail giant to recall hundreds of thousands of potentially dangerous products.

Johannes Eisel/AFP via Getty Images

A federal agency is suing Amazon in an effort to force the retail giant to recall hundreds of thousands of potentially dangerous products — from hair dryers to children’s sleepwear — that the agency says pose a risk of serious injury or death.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission said the online retailer should “accept responsibility” for and recall products listed on its platform.

Robert Adler, the commission’s acting chair, said Wednesday’s complaint is “a huge step across a vast desert — we must deal with how to deal with these massive third-party platforms more efficiently, and how best to protect the American consumers who depend on them.”

The products concerned include:

nearly 400,000 hair dryers that did not offer “integrated immersion protection,” reducing the risk of electric shock, according to standards set by Underwriters Laboratories, a global safety company; 24,000 carbon monoxide detectors failed to sound their alarms when carbon monoxide was present during tests by the CPSC; Children’s sleepwear, such as flannel and fleece bathrobes, that failed to meet federal flammability requirements when tested by the CPSC.

In a statement, Amazon indicated that it had already removed the majority of the products in question from its website, sent email notifications to customers who purchased them and returned refunds to customers. The complaint said the refunds were issued as a credit to customers’ Amazon accounts.

“For the few remaining products involved, CPSC did not provide Amazon with enough information for us to take action and despite our requests, CPSC remained unresponsive,” an Amazon spokesperson said.

The spokesperson also said Amazon was “unclear” about why the CPSC “is filing a complaint that seeks to compel us to take actions that are almost entirely duplicate of those we’ve already taken.”

According to the CPSC complaint, “Amazon’s unilateral actions are insufficient to address the risks” posed by the products in question.

The agency wants Amazon to take additional steps, such as notifying the public about potentially dangerous products and requiring the company to take back and destroy products sold, at no cost to customers.

Editor’s note: Amazon is among NPR’s financial backers.

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