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With the Spring Festival approaching, many cross-border people have already taken vacation and embarked on their journey home. However, Amazon has been in turmoil recently. Not only has it triggered a wave of tax reimbursement for European local accounts, but consumers have also filed "sky-high claims" against sellers, causing panic in the industry for a while. As the year draws to a close, an Amazon seller unexpectedly received a $15 million (about 100 million RMB) personal injury claim. Currently, the seller's store payment has been frozen , but the account can still sell normally. ▲ The picture comes from Zhiwubuyan It is understood that this "sky-high claim" includes the $5 million that Amazon was sued for and the $10 million that the seller's store was sued for. The reason Amazon gave for freezing the store's funds was that "sufficient funds were needed to cope with the plaintiff's lawsuit against the Amazon platform for compensation." From this operation, it seems that Amazon has transferred the risk of the $5 million compensation to the seller. According to the seller, the consumer who filed the lawsuit purchased the product in December 2020 and was injured while using it in August 2021. However, it was not until January 2024 that the seller received a document from the court requiring him to find a U.S. lawyer to respond to the lawsuit. At present, the plaintiff's lawyer has not yet explained the specific injuries and has not provided any evidence. The seller urgently needs to find an American lawyer to respond to the lawsuit. Generally speaking, in the process of exporting products, cross-border sellers do need to bear certain risks, including platform rules risks, intellectual property infringement risks, tax risks, and product liability risks , etc. Among them, product liability risks are the most common, which means that if a defect in a product causes personal injury or property loss to consumers or users, the product manufacturer or seller should compensate according to law. However, such "sky-high" claims are rare in the industry. Once the news of the seller's request for help came out, it triggered a wave of heated discussion. Many sellers believe that this claim amount is unreasonable: it is simply nonsense, what kind of damage requires 15 million US dollars. Some sellers also said that with so many claims and such a long time interval, the other party’s chances of winning are not great. In addition, some sellers have issued relevant reminders: 1. The amount of the lawsuit is not the amount of the judgment . It can be negotiated before the judgment is made. 2. First check whether the order is within the insurance period and confirm whether the product really caused the customer's injury; 3. Determine whether to make compensation based on the value and importance of the review link and the store. If the cost (claim amount + US attorney fees) is higher than the value of the store, you can choose another approach. Based on feedback from sellers, it is not uncommon for consumers on the Amazon platform to file claims against sellers. Therefore, most sellers still recommend that the seller find a US lawyer to respond to the lawsuit as soon as possible to avoid further impact on subsequent sales. After all, judging from the new policy released by the United States a few days ago, platforms such as Amazon are bound to tighten their review of product safety. As we all know, Amazon's product safety issues have always been the focus of public attention. Just one month into 2024, several Amazon products have been recalled and removed from the shelves due to safety issues: Industry insiders have observed that most of these recalled Amazon products were exported by Chinese sellers , which leads us to speculate that relevant agencies may pay more attention to the safety issues of products exported from China.
It is worth noting that according to foreign media reports, the US government recently issued a new order requiring Amazon to be responsible for the safety of goods provided by third-party sellers , and this rule also applies to products delivered by third-party partners through Amazon logistics. In response, Amazon said that the platform will take measures to prevent suspicious or non-compliant products from being included in the list, and will strictly control product safety issues, delete inappropriate products in a timely manner, and notify relevant companies and government agencies. Meanwhile, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is preparing an order that would classify Amazon's online retail business as a distributor of goods, or a traditional retailer, which could face legal action when products are recalled by the ACCC. From this point of view, it is a foregone conclusion that Amazon and other e-commerce platforms will tighten their inspections on non-compliant and problematic products. Here, we would also like to remind all sellers to pay more attention to product quality when selecting or developing new products for sale, and purchase relevant insurance to minimize product liability risks and avoid affecting sales. Have you encountered similar claims? Welcome to discuss in the comments section.
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