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More Accountability is Needed for Amazon

More accountability is needed for Amazon

 

This week’s article will focus on a legal battle my firm is currently engaged in with Amazon. On Nov. 28, 2015, our client purchased, through Amazon, a hoverboard for her son for Christmas. The hoverboard was manufactured by a Chinese company, TurnUpUp. On Dec. 16, 2015, the hoverboard arrived. The shipping label said that it had been shipped by Forrinix Technology, a company in Alhambra, California. The hoverboard was opened on Christmas and enjoyed throughout the holiday. On New Year’s Eve, after a day of play, the hoverboard was plugged in to charge overnight. When the mother heard a noise coming from her son’s bedroom and went to investigate, she saw that the hoverboard was burning intensely like a firework, and the bed and bedroom were on fire. During the fire, our client suffered severe burns, and the bedroom sustained heavy fire damage. The cause of the fire was determined to be exploding lithium ion batteries.

Unbeknownst to our client and the rest of the world, Amazon had knowledge of a rash of hoverboard fires. Amazon had sold over 400,000 hoverboards in the weeks leading up to Christmas. It had over 60,000 separate listings for hoverboards at the peak of the season. Amazon had been receiving reports of fires associated with hoverboards around the world. According to testimony I obtained during a deposition of the head of Amazon’s Product Safety and Recalls Team, Mr. Jones, by mid-November 2015, Amazon was “monitoring” hoverboard fire issues, reviewing cases from as far back as January 2014. As Christmas approached, Amazon was in almost daily contact with the United States Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) passing along reports of fires that Amazon had received from its customers.

Indeed, the CPSC had asked Amazon to monitor and report all hoverboard fires as Amazon was the largest single seller of these products in the U.S. and Amazon could directly communicate with purchasers. By Nov. 20, 2015, Amazon was aware that Costco, concerned for the safety of its customers, had pulled hoverboards from their shelves and stopped selling them to the public. Because of concern over fires, on Dec. 4, 2010, Amazon had pulled all hoverboard listings from its United Kingdom sales platform but kept selling them in the U.S. Finally, on Dec. 10, 2015, Doug Herrington, head of Amazon’s North American retail business, made the decision to remove all third-party sellers’ hoverboards from its website because of complaints “of hoverboards/batteries catching fire or exploding, or of sparking battery charges for hoverboards,” and because of concerns that the reports “might be indicative of safety issues of these products across Chinese manufacturing.” Over 60,000 separate listings were taken down from Amazon’s “marketplace.”

Although Amazon stopped selling hoverboards, Amazon neither stopped delivery of those in transit, nor did our client receive any notice from Amazon about the potential for fire.

Under California law, anyone or any enterprise in the “chain of distribution” between the manufacturer and the retailer can be held liable for injuries caused by the product. This makes everybody who is involved in the sale of the product is responsible for making sure the products are safe, which is a benefit to every consumer. They can inspect them, reject them, research them and otherwise determine if they are suitable for sale.

Additionally, they are in the best position to purchase insurance, which can cover injuries caused to consumer and at a fraction the cost of that among the many products they sell, thereby increasing the price only slightly while incorporating the true costs of the product into its sales price. If the true costs, including insurance, make the product too expensive, then application of free market principles should lead to it being discontinued from sale. This increases the cost a few pennies spread across all who use the product, which is fairer than having one injured person bear all the costs and losses associated with the product when they are injured. That is, in effect, a subsidy. (OK, I am revealing what I learned in one of my degrees involving law and economics.)

Amazon claims it is not in the chain of distribution: it is just a new form of classified advertising. This is BS. Amazon is the largest single seller of products. In its own documentation, Amazon calls itself a retailer. It gets paid a posting fee for each item listed. Amazon completely controls the content of each posting and has the right to edit and delete it. Buyers and sellers must communicate only through Amazon, and they cannot contact each other directly. The financial transaction is handled through Amazon. Amazon takes a percentage of every product sold, including shipping. Any product difficulties or complaints must go through Amazon. If a product is returned, Amazon charges the seller a return fee. Amazon offers an A-Z guaranty saying it will make the customer satisfied, including a refund, even if the manufacturer goes out of business. And now Amazon has fulfillment centers where it keeps stock on hand to satisfy orders.

Amazon has changed the landscape of our world, causing people to lose retail jobs by the hundreds of thousands. Amazon is one of the most valuable companies in the world. It must step up and be responsible corporate citizens instead of just not caring what it sells and if the consumer gets hurt.

To change this, I am working with the Consumer Attorneys of California to get a law passed, which would make Amazon just as responsible as any other retailer when the products it sells cause harm. It’s part of what I think a lawyer representing injured people should do: protect their rights and fight against corporate greed.

Christopher B. Dolan is owner of the Dolan Law Firm. Email questions and topics for future articles to help@dolanlawfirm.com.

We serve clients across the San Francisco Bay Area and California from our offices in San Francisco, Oakland, and Los Angeles. Our work is no recovery, no fee or also referred to as contingency-based. That means we collect no fee unless we obtain money for your damages and injuries.

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Increased Fee In Utility Bills May Come To PG&E Customers Due To North Bay Fires

This week’s column expands on last week’s discussion of the implications of CalFire’s recent reports faulting PG&E for a dozen of last October’s wildfires. While last week I focused on the ramifications for direct victims of the firestorm, this week I will look at the broader impacts to the California public. Sadly, this topic feels more timely than ever as Northern California’s first major wildfire of year continues to burn out of control since it began in Lake County on Saturday.

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New Legislation Will Require A Permit For Electric Scooter Companies

Today’s column continues where last week’s left off regarding legal responsibility for injuries caused by hazardously placed Bird, LimeBike and/or Spin electric scooters. Today, I will first discuss new legislation designed to reduce the risks these scooters present and next address responsibility for injuries caused when motorized scooters are driven on the sidewalk.

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What Rights Do Workers Have When They Get Hurt On The Job?

This week’s question comes from Tracey F. in Hayward who writes: “My boyfriend works at Tesla’s manufacturing plant on the assembly line and is always in pain when he comes home. Often, he is required to work mandatory overtime and I have to give him a massage because his shoulders and arms hurt really bad.

People at Tesla are getting injured all the time. Last week a guy got rammed by a robot moving around the warehouse. It seems that while the robots are modern and can work all the time, the humans are just that, human, and they are getting worn out and hurt. Tesla is a tech company; shouldn’t they be able to do something with all that knowledge to protect the humans working in the facility? What rights do workers have when they get hurt?”

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Who Is Responsible If Your Hit By A Ball During A Game

It’s baseball season again and, therefore, that time of year for me to remind readers of an important legal issue relating to their enjoyment of baseball namely, “who is responsible if someone gets hit with a line drive, foul ball and/or broken bat while watching a game?” As a lawyer, and a big Giants fan, I like to start off the season by saying, put down your cell phone and “keep your eye on the ball” during play. A distraction can lead to serious and even life threatening injury.

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Falling Debris: Negligence In Construction Zones

This week’s question comes from Dawn E. in the Mission District who asks: “I live on 23rd Street near the construction site where two pedestrians were injured when materials were blown off the job site and onto them as they were walking by on the sidewalk. It is unfathomable that this could happen. What is the law on a situation like this?”

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Is Serving Or Selling Alcohol To A Drunk Person Illegal In California?

drunkdriver

This week’s question comes from Trisha from Hayward who asks; “My son and his friend were home from college and were out to the movies when a young man, who was drunk, ran into them and caused some real bad injuries. All I know so far is that the kid was coming from his uncle’s house where there had been a New Year’s Eve party where alcohol was present.  There was a 1/4 full bottle of vodka in the trunk in the bag it came in. The receipt showed he purchased the alcohol at 12:30.00 a.m. The kid blew a .21.” Can the uncle be held liable for providing the alcohol ?
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