Allegedly faulty instruments and {hardware} from a China-based vendor on Amazon have been linked to 2 deaths and a minimum of one critical damage — the newest in an alarming spike in product legal responsibility lawsuits in opposition to the Seattle-based e-tailing large, The Publish has realized.
On March 25, 2024, Jacob “Jake” Todd — 30-year-old father of three in Menifee, Calif. — was working below his Toyota Tacoma when a automotive jack he’d purchased on Amazon from Vevor, a Shanghai-based third-party vendor, buckled and broke.
The grisly mishap triggered deadly “blunt force trauma,” in accordance with a January lawsuit filed on behalf of his sons in California state courtroom in Riverside County.
In February, an Alabama truck driver, James Ryan Stokes, was utilizing a Vevor “chain load binder” to tie down gadgets on his flatbed truck when the chain broke, sending him violently backwards and fatally breaking his neck, in accordance with William Poole, a lawyer employed by Stokes’ household.
The 49-year-old trucker left a spouse and 6 kids who’re getting ready a lawsuit in opposition to Amazon, Vevor and Austal USA, a ship producer in Cell, Ala. the place the accident occurred, in accordance with Poole.
“It was the first time he was using the Vevor product,” Poole added.
Vevor – which has beforehand drawn whistleblower complaints to US businesses about allegedly faux evaluations on Amazon, as reported by The Publish – additionally has amassed 1,430 Higher Enterprise Bureau complaints over allegedly defective merchandise and poor customer support.
In the meantime, the variety of general product legal responsibility circumstances in opposition to Amazon has spiked between 2020 and 2024, when the lawsuits greater than doubled to 84 in federal courtroom alone, in accordance with Lex Machina, a LexisNexis firm that gives authorized knowledge analytics.
“Although the number of federal cases are small compared to Amazon’s [size] the trend shows an identifiable, steady increase of product liability cases that could be reflected in state court as well where the majority of these cases are filed,” Ron Porter, Lex Machina’s authorized knowledge knowledgeable for product legal responsibility informed The Publish.
A lot of the 84 circumstances have both been settled or dismissed on procedural grounds, though the breakdown isn’t clear, Porter added.
Amazon’s legal responsibility over faulty third-party merchandise has turn into a thorny query, with legal guidelines and authorized outcomes various from state to state. The corporate has usually argued that it isn’t straight accountable for merchandise bought on its web site which might be manufactured by outdoors corporations.
In 2020, a California state appeals courtroom dominated that Amazon was chargeable for accidents triggered to Angela Bolger, who suffered extreme burns from an exploding laptop computer battery from a third-party Chinese language vendor known as Lenoge Know-how. Lenoge, which was named as a defendant, didn’t seem in courtroom.
“Whatever term we use to describe Amazon’s role, be it ‘retailer,’ ‘distributor,’ or merely ‘facilitator,’ it was pivotal in bringing the product here to the consumer,” the appeals courtroom dominated on the time.
Whereas different states have sided with Amazon in comparable circumstances, the Bolger case is a positive precedent for plaintiffs – particularly the place they search restitution from a third-party vendor primarily based in China or one other nation abroad, in accordance with Keith Hylton, a regulation professor at Boston College.
“If I had to make a prediction, I would guess the Bolger case will be accepted in most jurisdictions,” Hylton stated in an interview.
“I don’t think courts will accept an outcome where Amazon sells dangerously defective products made by foreigners in places where Americans have no legal recourse and escapes liability,” Hylton added. “Holding Amazon liable will force it to do some monitoring, or at least to charge a price that will cover the costs Amazon will bear in compensating injured consumers.”
Amazon didn’t reply to a number of requests for remark for this story.
As just lately as Might 28, Amazon was nonetheless itemizing the Vevor merchandise that had been concerned within the two deaths. That’s regardless of buyer evaluations which have flagged issues of safety — together with one purporting to be from a buddy of Todd.
“A very good friend of mine died using one of these vevor stands,” the reviewer wrote. “Got crushed when one of the legs failed and what he was welding fell on him, total weight was like 3000lbs supported by 2 of these. RIP jake.”
Vevor, for its half, denies all of the allegations within the automotive jack grievance and declined to touch upon the Alabama case because it has not but been filed, in accordance with an announcement from its legal professional, Alan Tan.
“As regards [to] the larger question of quality,” Tan added, “we must say that the existence of the above lawsuit against us does not imply in any manner that products sold by us are quality inferior.”
Tan pointed to a return and refund fee within the US of three% as proof of the standard of Vevor’s merchandise.
Tan addressed the California wrongful loss of life case in a March 25 letter to a do-it-yourself influencer on YouTube – Jeff King of Den of Instruments. King just lately posted Tan’s letter on YouTube through which Tan responded to a earlier Den of Instruments publish about Vevor’s merchandise inflicting deaths and accidents.
Vevor employed an area California litigator who’s “working together with the lawyer hired by Amazon to proactively prepare filing answer against the complaint,” in accordance with Tan’s letter.
The letter caught the eye of the Todd household’s lawyer, Vanessa Pena.
”It raises questions that they contacted Amazon’s attorneys to work straight with them,” Pena informed The Publish.
She added that Vevor reached out to Amazon earlier than it responded to the wrongful loss of life lawsuit on April 10. “It infers me to me that they have a relationship with Amazon’s attorneys.”
The letter from Tan additionally claims that Vevor is being unfairly attacked with litigation within the US, the place it’s going through a minimum of a half-dozen patent and trademark circumstances alleging that it’s promoting knockoffs.
“You correctly pointed out that companies doing business in the US get sued because Americans like to sue no matter who you are or how well you behave,” Tan wrote to King.
Colby Lord of Huntsville, Texas fell greater than 40 toes when the “Vevor half body safety harness” he had bought on Amazon fell aside whereas he was trimming a tree. He fractured each ankles, his again and left hand, in accordance with his lawyer, Sam Palermo, a associate within the Sorrels private damage regulation agency.
Lord’s fall resulted “in serious and lasting injuries,” in accordance with a grievance filed in opposition to Vevor and a number of other affiliated corporations in federal courtroom in Houston, Texas in October.
Amazon is just not a defendant in that case. In 2021, Texas’ highest courtroom dominated that Amazon can’t be held chargeable for accidents brought on by a third-party vendor’s product that the e-commerce large shipped from its warehouse.
