WASHINGTON, DC — Consumer Reports (CR) released a report today calling for stronger laws and consumer protections to hold online marketplaces—like Amazon, Temu, and Facebook Marketplace—accountable for unsafe products sold on their platforms. Over the past decade, online shopping has surged, with more than 90 percent of Americans reporting making at least one purchase online in the previous year, according to a 2022 nationally representative CR survey of 2,324 US adults. Yet, consumer product safety and liability laws haven’t kept pace, leaving shoppers vulnerable when products bought online turn out to be unsafe or harmful.
Oriene Shin, manager of safety advocacy at Consumer Reports and co-author of the report, said: “Our laws and policies were written for a very different shopping landscape and should be updated to better reflect current realities. CR’s report outlines key steps policymakers and regulators can take to ensure that when consumers shop online, they are protected from dangerous products, no matter who the seller is.”
Online marketplaces range widely. Traditional retailers, like Macy’s, sell the same products online found in their brick-and-mortar outlets, while platforms such as Etsy and Temu only host third-party sellers. Peer-to-peer platforms like eBay and Facebook Marketplace allow individual consumers to buy and sell directly, while hybrid marketplaces like Amazon, Walmart, and Target operate as both direct retailers and hosts to third-party sellers.
Each type of platform can bring challenges for consumers. On peer-to-peer sites, recalled products are a significant issue; individual sellers often aren’t aware of recalls, and platforms may lack strong systems to prevent the sale of dangerous items. On hybrid marketplaces, products sold by third-party sellers may appear indistinguishable from the platform’s own retail listings, leading to confusion and potential risks for consumers. In 2023 alone, the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s (CPSC) eSAFE team requested the removal of more than 50,000 recalled or illegal products from online commerce sites.
Currently, consumers who buy directly from retailers have certain protections. But for third-party purchases—which account for over 60 percent of Amazon’s sales—a platform’s responsibility to address product risks or consumer harms is often unclear. This gap can lead, in the worst cases, to a risk of injury or death. For instance, recalled inclined sleepers linked to infant deaths have been available on Facebook Marketplace, and uncertified bike helmets have been sold on Amazon. A CR story published today identified five dangerous infant sleep products still available online. Following CR’s outreach, several listings of these products were removed from Amazon and Walmart.
Some digital platforms, including Amazon, argue that they are just intermediaries for third-party sales, similar to delivery services, and are therefore not liable for product safety. However, the CPSC decided earlier this year that Amazon may be accountable for distributing unsafe products sold on its platform by third parties. Amazon said that it planned to appeal the decision in court.
CR’s report outlines policy recommendations and calls on lawmakers to update these outdated legal standards with two critical factors in mind: the type of marketplace, and the level of control and influence it has over transactions.
CR advocates for all online shopping platforms to adhere to certain basic standards. These include clearly indicating when a product is sold by a third-party vendor, providing accurate and complete product information, removing listings for all recalled or banned products, and promptly notifying customers if a product they purchased is later recalled.
To learn more about CR’s recommendations for strengthening consumer protections in the digital marketplace, read the full report here.
How Consumers Can Protect Themselves:
Whether or not product safety and liability laws are updated, safety experts say consumers can minimize their risk by following a few basic guidelines:
- Exercise greater care with higher stakes items. Certain categories of goods merit extra caution. Those that should get the highest level of scrutiny include baby products, devices that use lithium-ion batteries, and anything that goes inside your body or comes in direct contact with your skin.
- Understand who you’re buying from. You can identify the seller on Amazon product pages by looking directly below the “Add to Cart” and “Buy Now” buttons, where it lists the shipper (“Ships from”) and the seller (“Sold by”). And you’ll find that info a little further down on the right-hand side of Walmart.com product pages, below the shipping options.
- Buy from reputable sellers. Consider buying only products where the marketplace itself (such as Amazon or Walmart) is listed as the seller—because the platforms are unambiguously responsible for those products under current laws. If you’re interested in a product listed by a third party, stick with well-known and reputable brands. If you haven’t heard of it, do a Google search. One good sign is if you can find the exact same product on other major retail sites. Being unable to find a company website is a bad sign.
- Check the reviews, but be skeptical. Negative customer reviews should put you on guard, especially if they include specific real-life details and/or multiple reviews identify similar problems. But keep in mind that fake and paid-for reviews, though illegal, are widespread. And know that designations like “Amazon’s Choice” do not guarantee a product’s safety.
- Report suspicious products. If you see something that seems suspicious, or you spot a recalled, illegal or hazardous product, alert the website and consider reporting it to the CPSC at SaferProducts.gov.
Media Contact: Emily Akpan, emily.akpan@consumer.org