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Amazon can be held responsible for faulty goods sold on its marketplace

A judge said Amazon's fulfillment program for sellers give it "far-reaching control" over the products sold on its platform.

Federal regulators have determined that Amazon can be held responsible for defective goods sold by third-party merchants on its online marketplace, rejecting the company's position that it's merely an intermediary between consumers and sellers. In a landmark order released Tuesday, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said the agency unanimously agreed Amazon "fits squarely" within the definition of a distributor of goods, "and therefore bears legal responsibility for their recall." At issue were 418,818 goods sold through Amazon, including faulty carbon monoxide detectors, hairdryers without electrocution protection and children's sleepwear that posed a burn risk.

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