Amazon hit with lawsuit over eclipse glasses

[Teh One Who Knocks]

Reuters News Wire


https://i.imgur.com/t3XRh29.jpg

Amazon.com has been hit with a proposed class action lawsuit by a couple who claims defective eclipse glasses purchased through the online retailer damaged their eyes.

In the lawsuit, filed in federal court in South Carolina on Tuesday evening, Corey Payne and his fiancée, Kayla Harris, said they purchased a three-pack of eclipse glasses on Amazon in early August, assuming that the glasses would allow them to safely view the United States' first coast-to-coast total solar eclipse in a century on Aug. 21.

Later that day, Payne and Harris began to experience headaches and eye watering. In the following days, they developed vision impairment, including blurriness and distorted vision, their lawsuit said.

Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit.

The couple said they did not look into the sky without wearing the glasses when they viewed the eclipse.

Starting on August 10, Amazon said it began to email customers to issue a recall of potentially hazardous solar eclipse glasses it was unable to verify as having been manufactured by reputable companies. Amazon did not disclose the scale of the recall or a list of affected vendors.

Payne and Harris said they did not receive notice of the recall. They are seeking to represent other customers who never received a warning from Amazon and suffered similar injuries from the company's alleged negligence.

Experts cautioned the public to steer clear of unsafe counterfeits flooding the United States in the runup to the event. While no data exists for how many eclipse glasses were in circulation overall, shady distributors of purportedly solar-safe shades abound on the Internet, experts said.

[PorkChopSandwiches]

I dont see how this is Amazons issue

[Teh One Who Knocks]

Exactly...and I doubt that they never received an e-mail from Amazon

[Godfather]

I dont see how this is Amazons issue

From a liability standpoint, everyone involved gets named in a lawsuit when a product fails. I see it all the time in my line of work. Baby toy caused a choking hazard? You bet your ass the retailers, distributor, importers/wholesaler and manufacturer are all likely to at least be named in the lawsuit (keep in mind, suing multiple parties under one claim costs the plaintiff essentially nothing more than only picking one). Ultimately a lot of the liability falls on the manufacturer but retailers are not off the hook that easy...

In Canada we have the Sale of Goods Act which firmed up years of case law before it. Basically a seller can be responsible when you relied on their description:



Section 15 of the Sale of Goods Act 5:

Subject to this Act and any statute in that behalf, there is no implied warranty or condition as to the quality or fitness for any particular purpose of goods supplied under a contract of sale except as follows:

1. Where the buyer, expressly or by implication, makes it known to the seller the particular purpose for which the goods are required so as to show that the buyer relies on the seller's skill or judgement, and the goods are of a description that it is in the course of the seller's business to supply (whether he is the manufacturer or not), there is an implied condition that the goods will be reasonably fit for such purpose, but in the case of a contract for the sale of a specified article under its patent or other trade name there is no implied condition as to fitness for any particular purpose.

2. Where goods are bought by description from a seller who deals in goods of that description (whether the seller is the manufacturer or not), there is an implied condition that the goods will be of merchantable quality, but if the buyer has examined the goods, there is no implied condition as regards defects that such examination ought to have revealed.


It's certainly gray... Amazon hosts the description of the products they sell and provides the medium for said sale.

There's also already-established case law showing that Amazon specifically is not protected from all liability in cases of product failure:
http://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2016/11/section-230-doesnt-protect-amazon-from-products-liability-claims-mcdonald-v-lg.htm