The Wall Street Journal has investigated and concluded that Amazon is selling thousands of mislabeled products, or has been banned or declared unsafe by US federal agencies. It also found that at least 4,152 items that met those criteria were freely available for purchase on the front of the Amazon store.

The list of products that were found to be mislabeled, banned or unsafe, which they found was “appalling”, including products under the FDA license, although the FDA has never checked them.

The paper also found drugs that lacked child safety warnings, banned sleeping pillows for children, illicitly imported medical drugs, and electronics that were falsely claimed to be in compliance with safety labs for insurance labs and toys in unsafe amounts of lead, or at risk of suffocation.

The Wall Street Journal said many of the products found contain Amazon Choice mark, which should not be automatically documented. Worse still, it found 157 items sold by Amazon although it explicitly states that they are banned.

The problem is believed to be Amazon’s vast network of third-party vendors who sell freely on the Amazon store, and even their goods may be shipped from the company’s warehouses if they participate in the Fulfilled by Amazon program.

It can be difficult to distinguish between Amazon itself or outside vendors in determining who sells the product. Here is a big difference between buying from Amazon itself, or buying elsewhere from Amazon, as Amazon does not take legal responsibility for unsafe products from overseas stores because it is not – technically – it sells.

Source : The Wall Street Journal