Amazon is responsible for hazardous items sold by third-party sellers, US agency says Boston 25 News [Video]

Amazon is responsible under federal safety law for hazardous products sold on its platform by third-party sellers and shipped by the company, a U.S. government agency ordered Tuesday.

In a unanimous vote, the Consumer Product Safety Commission said it determined that the e-commerce company was a “distributor” of faulty items sold on its site and packed and shipped through its fulfillment service.

That means the company is on the hook, legally, for the recalls of more than 400,000 products, including hairdryers and defective carbon monoxide detectors, the agency said. It ordered Amazon to come up with a system for notifying customers who purchased faulty items and to remove the products from circulation by offering incentives for their return or destruction.

Amazon said it planned to appeal the decision in court.

Overall, Amazon accounts for roughly 40% of e-commerce sales in the U.S., according to the market research firm Emarketer. The company sells many …