Court Rules Amazon Liable for Customer Injuries
Is Amazon liable when a customer purchases a product from its website, and that product causes injuries to the customer? Does California’s strict liability for defective products extend to Amazon when it offers products for sale on behalf of third-party sellers?
These are the questions the California Court of Appeal answered last week in Bolger v. Amazon.com, LLC.
Angela Bolger purchased a replacement laptop battery from Amazon’s website. The battery was manufactured by Lenoge, a third-party company that used Amazon’s website to reach customers. As we all know, a substantial portion of the goods sold on Amazon’s site are sold by third-party companies using the site to access customers, and these third-party companies pay Amazon a fee on each transaction.
After purchasing the laptop battery, Ms. Bolger suffered serious burns when the battery exploded. She spent two weeks in the hospital. Ms. Bolger sued Amazon, as well as the battery manufacturer Lenoge for strict products liability. Lenoge never answered the complaint, resulting in a default judgment.
Amazon moved for summary judgment, seeking to dismiss the lawsuit on the grounds that it was not involved in the manufacture or distribution of the laptop battery. Rather, Amazon argued that it was merely a “service operator” that offered a service to customers like Ms. Bolger who purchased products on its site offered for sale by third-party sellers. The lower court agreed, dismissing Ms. Bolger’s lawsuit.
The Court of Appeal reversed. The Court pointed out that the battery had been stored in an Amazon warehouse in Oakland, California prior to being shipped to Angela Bolger. Ms. Bolger was an Amazon Prime member, and during her deposition, she testified that she didn’t even realize that she wasn’t actually buying the laptop battery from Amazon. The battery arrived in an Amazon box, with “Prime” tape sealing the box shut. Given these facts, the Court ruled that Amazon was an “integral part of the overall producing and marketing enterprise that should bear the cost of injuries resulting from defective products.” (Vandermark v. Ford Motor Co., 61 Cal.2s 256 (1964).)
Furthermore, third-party sellers often do not even know that a sale transpired until after Amazon remits payment to them, along with a report of all sales made through Amazon’s website for that third-party seller. The third-party seller does not control the transaction, Amazon does. Under the judicially-created strict products liability doctrine, companies and retailers in the chain of manufacture and distribution can be held liable for injuries to customers. The public policy behind the doctrine holds that “retailers, like manufacturers, are engaged in the business of distributing goods to the public. They are an integral part of the overall producing and marketing enterprise that should bear the cost of injuries resulting from defective products.” (Vandermark, Id.)
The Bolger case is a case of first impression, meaning the Court created new law with its decision. The Court of Appeal gave Angela Bolger a second chance in her strict products liability suit against Amazon. This could change the landscape in California, extending liability to Amazon in cases where it sells a defective product on behalf of a third-party customer.
We all shop on Amazon, and it has changed the way we do business and buy the goods we need. If you or someone you know was injured by a defective product on Amazon, whether that product was manufactured by Amazon or a third-party seller, you should talk about the facts of your case with an attorney knowledgeable about strict products liability.
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