Who’s Actually Liable When an Online Marketplace Sells You a Dangerous Product?

If you’ve ever clicked “add to cart” on Amazon, Walmart.com, or another major online marketplace, you’ve probably assumed someone, somewhere, is making sure the product is safe before it shows up on your doorstep. For years, that assumption has been built into how Americans shop online. It’s also been wrong more often than most people realize.

The legal question at the center of this problem is deceptively simple: when a third-party seller lists a hazardous product on a major platform, and that product hurts someone, who is responsible? For a long time, the platforms themselves have argued they aren’t. Increasingly, courts and regulators are starting to disagree.

The “We’re Just a Logistics Provider” Defense

Major marketplaces have long argued they are neutral intermediaries, essentially digital landlords renting shelf space to third-party sellers, rather than retailers themselves. Under that theory, if a seller lists a defective baby monitor or a faulty space heater, the marketplace bears no more responsibility than a mall does for what happens inside a tenant’s store. Some courts have accepted this argument. But it is increasingly being challenged, both in litigation and at the regulatory level.

A Landmark Ruling Changes the Conversation

In July 2024, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) issued a determination that Amazon qualifies as a “distributor” under federal consumer product safety law, a designation Amazon disputes and has said it plans to appeal. The case involved roughly 400,000 units of hazardous products, including CO2 detectors, pajama sets, and hair dryers, sold between 2018 and 2021.

New York University law professor Catherine Sharkey, who has written extensively on extending product liability to online retail platforms, put it plainly: “The entire system of product safety in America is built on the threat of tort liability.” If marketplaces aren’t subject to the same legal exposure as brick-and-mortar retailers, that built-in incentive to keep dangerous products off the shelves doesn’t apply in the same way online.

Lawmakers Are Trying to Catch Up, Slowly

Legislative efforts to close this gap have moved at a crawl. New York and Illinois have each introduced bills in recent years that would hold online marketplaces to the same safety standards as physical retailers. Neither has passed.

Federal regulators have made some incremental progress. As of January 2025, importers are required to file safety certificates electronically for products entering the United States, a shift intended to create a more traceable paper trail for goods crossing the border.

Other countries have moved faster. The European Union began enforcing new supply chain transparency rules in 2025, with fines of up to $50,000 for violations. Consumer Reports has gone further still, calling for updated U.S. liability laws that reflect how Americans actually shop today, rather than frameworks written for a pre-Internet retail world.

Why This Matters If You’ve Been Hurt by a Product You Bought Online

Until the law fully catches up, the question of who pays when a defective product causes an injury, the manufacturer, the third-party seller, the marketplace itself, or some combination, has to be answered case by case. That determination depends on where the product was made, how it was sold, what the platform knew, and which legal theories apply in your state.

This is exactly the kind of question that shouldn’t be left to guesswork. If you or someone in your family was injured by a product purchased through an online marketplace, whether it was a piece of furniture, a power tool, an appliance, or anything else, the fact that the seller was a third party does not automatically mean you’re out of options. The legal landscape is shifting, and the entities involved in getting that product to your door may bear more responsibility than they’d like you to believe.

If you or someone you love has been injured by a product you purchased online, contact us for a free consultation with an experienced personal injury lawyer at Bache Lynch Goldsmith & Mendoza.