California Appeals Court Finds Amazon Responsible for Third Party Sellers’ Products
1st May 2021
At issue was the case of a woman who suffered burn injuries after a hoverboard she purchased on Amazon in 2015 via a third party merchant caught on fire. Amazon argued that it was merely the platform connecting customers with sellers, but the appeals court found there was a “direct link in the vertical chain of distribution under California’s strict liability doctrine.”
California’s strict liability doctrine was the hook upon which my Torts professor in law school used to hang his You Can’t Make This Shit Up stories on Friday when nobody wanted to do any work.
If necessary, Amazon can just refuse to sell products in California. Let’s see how long California can hold out.