Amazon Needs to Tame Its Wild West Marketplace
The web retailer is in the best position to police third-party merchants who sell defective goods on its platform.
For entertainment purposes only.
Photographer: Ralph Crane/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesOne day in January 2015, Heather Oberdorf took her dog for a walk, using a $20 retractable leash she had bought from Furry Gang, a third-party seller on Amazon. It did not go well: her dog lunged, causing the collar to break; the leash snapped back, hitting Oberdorf in the face and permanently blinding her in one eye. She tried to seek recourse from the original merchant, but no luck -- Furry Gang had vanished.
This story is extreme, but it illustrates a fundamental characteristic of Amazon's business. Although Amazon.com Inc. is, of course, a huge web-based retailer, it also hosts millions of sellers of varying repute. The resulting marketplace can be a bit of a Wild West, with little or no accountability for the merchants hawking their wares. If something goes wrong, Amazon generally disclaims liability, shielding itself behind a 1996 law that is usually interpreted as meaning that online platforms are just “publishers” of content owned by others.