Bigstock Photo
In the fall of 2016, Angela Bolger ordered a replacement battery for her HP laptop for $12.30 through Amazon Prime. Once it arrived at her San Diego home, she popped it in and then noticed a weird sound.
She flipped the laptop to her ear, then back over to her lap, and then “it suddenly exploded like a bomb, flaming melted battery shrapnel went everywhere. My bed was on fire, my floor was on fire, my room was like a warzone.”
Bolger used a pillow to try to smother the flames, later realizing she was so severely burned she had to spend weeks in a hospital’s burn unit and required extensive skin graft surgery for her arms and legs.
“My hands and feet were charred and blistered beyond belief,” Bolger, a previous marathon runner, said. She told her story virtually, her voice laden with emotion, to California state lawmakers during a committee hearing last week.California’s Senate is expected to vote on a bill this week that, if passed, would be the first of its kind in the nation to hold Amazon and other online marketplaces strictly liable for defective third-party products sold on their websites, and give people like Bolger a method of recourse for defective products that isn’t reliant on the courts.
Supporters say the measure is crucial to leveling the playing field for brick-and-mortar stores that are already liable for such products. But critics say that the bill places an unnecessary burden on small businesses and startups with tighter budgets to address such issues and compete while already under tremendous strain during a global pandemic.
The measure, AB 3262, authored by Assemblyman Mark Stone (D, Santa Cruz) has already passed the state Assembly with a 54-14 vote.
Bolger found that neither she nor Amazon could reach the Chinese company who sold her the defective battery and that though Amazon gave her her money back, and later warned users, it never did accept responsibility. She sought out recourse in the court system, which has, so far, handled such cases in one-off fashion.
California’s 4th District Court of Appeal ruled this month in Bolger’s case that Amazon can be held strictly liable for defective products sold to Californians via third-party vendors on its ecommerce site.
Amazon has argued that it shouldn’t be held liable because it did not distribute, manufacture or sell the product. But the court noted that Amazon had made itself a crucial part of the supply chain, utilizing its warehouse, staff and materials to ship the product.
The idea, “is to ensure that when a product is sold in California, and someone is injured, that there is a remedy,” Stone said.
Online marketplaces have “significant competitive advantage” over local, brick-and-mortar stores in communities and are leaving California consumers “in the lurch,” Stone added.
The Internet Association, a Washington, D.C.-based lobbying group that represents Amazon and other internet companies, urged the state Senate to reject the measure.
“This law couldn’t come at a worse time, as businesses still reeling from the pandemic have turned to online marketplaces, large and small, to reach customers, sell their products, and keep the lights on, said Dylan Hoffman, the association’s director of California government affairs, in a statement to dot.LA. “Now is not the time to fundamentally alter the rules or increase costs for online commerce.”
No hay comentarios.:
Publicar un comentario