Products related to drugs and firearms that are prohibited to sell by Amazon continue to be sold, and there are cases where Amazon itself sells and ships


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amy

A wide variety of products are sold on Amazon, the world's largest mail order platform, but some products are restricted and prohibited from being sold on Amazon as `` restricted products '', and the platform is being sounded .. However, the media researcher The Markup pointed out, 'Amazon's product regulations are not working well, and some products that should be'banned' are being sold and shipped by Amazon themselves.' doing.

Amazon's Enforcement Failures Leave Open a Back Door to Banned Goods—Some Sold and Shipped by Amazon Itself – The Markup
https://themarkup.org/banned-bounty/2020/06/18/amazons-enforcement-failures-leave-open-a-back-door

Abuse of opioids , a highly addictive analgesic, has become a major problem in the United States, causing many to become addicted and die of overdose . In 2016, a man named Eric Falkowski, who was making and selling ``fake opioids'' and making a large profit, was arrested, but Falkowski says ``Purchase a machine for making fake tablets at ``Amazon I did.'

Of those who purchased and took fake opioids manufactured by Falkowski, three were deceased due to overdose, and Falkowski has been sentenced to 22 years in prison. ``I bought two tablet presses at Amazon and a press die that molds and stamps the pills,'' Falkowski in prison responded to a telephone interview with The Markup. I heard that. Although Amazon prohibits the sale of products that can be used to manufacture such illegal drugs, Falkowski seems to have been able to purchase these machines normally at Amazon without any troublesome procedure.

And when The Markup investigated the products sold on Amazon, it turned out that nearly 100 dangerous products related to drugs, crimes, and firearms are sold. Amazon reports that not only has it not been able to successfully monitor the products sold by third parties, but it has also revealed that it is selling and shipping products that Amazon should have been banned by itself.



The Markup on Amazon's platform is

Bong, which uses water as a filter instead of marijuana, a compound that can be injected to high, a tablet press similar to the one used by Falkowski, and a car door. We discovered that a wide range of 'products that should have been banned' are on sale, such as unlocking picking tools, AR-15 parts and accessories for automatic rifles. Amazon prohibits the sale of dangerous products, but the regulation seems to be not working well.

It seems that many banned products were sold by third parties, but more than 30 of them were 'shipped from Amazon's warehouse' and at least 4 were labeled as ' Amazon's Choice '. Also, 5 products are written under the purchase button as ``ships from and sold by Amazon.com (Amazon ships and sells)'', and one of the distributors actually told The Markup, I admitted that I sold the product to Amazon.

Many of the products discovered by The Markup have been on Amazon for several months, with some reviews, he said. Also, it seems that these products were displayed as search candidates by autocomplete when a certain number of words were entered in the input form, and it was possible for the user to easily reach these prohibited products.

``Amazon is taking precautions to prevent suspicious or banned products from appearing in the list,'' Amazon spokeswoman Patrick Graham told The Markup, 2019. It claims to have blocked the sale of more than 6 billion products a year. However, 'Why did the Markup discovered the supposedly forbidden product continue to be sold?' 'Why did Amazon not notice it?' 'Some products in the Amazon warehouse Graham didn't answer questions such as 'Why are they stored and shipped?' 'Why does Amazon sell prohibited products?'


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Tony Webster

Graham acknowledges that Amazon allowed the tablet presses used by Falkowski to be sold, but 'We do not manufacture, distribute, or sell these products, so we are not responsible for the products. Commented. It claims that Amazon is not liable under Section 230 of the American Telecom Act, even if a product sold by a third party causes harm.

On the other hand, in 2019, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled that 'Amazon must also be responsible for the products handled by third-party sellers.'

The ruling that Amazon must also be legally responsible for products sold by third party vendors-GIGAZINE



Amazon employees and former employees who interviewed The Markup acknowledge that Amazon is having a hard time overseeing third parties. Amazon seems to classify product risks by factors such as 'Is it possible to kill or hurt someone? Or is there a high legal risk?', but Amazon itself also sells by nature They understand that they sell products that should not be done.

When The Markup actually opened an Amazon seller account and tried to list the drag suction bong and AR-15 parts, etc., just avoiding certain keywords or misleading the classification of items It seems that they have been able to sell their products. Graham declined to answer why he was able to list the originally banned product, but said, 'Third-party vendors have the best knowledge of the products they sell, so they are responsible for correctly classifying the products. There is.”

Rachel Johnson Greer, who was working on Amazon's product safety program from 2010 to 2017, sells many problematic products such as Viagra and devices that interfere with police radar that were not approved by Amazon at the beginning of joining the company. I recalled that To remedy this situation, Greer initiated a regulation by writing a program to detect problematic products.

However, the program developed by Mr. Greer and others is to detect products and terms for which problems were previously confirmed, and it was not possible to deal with unknown problems. Also, some third parties have come up with clever ways to circumvent regulations, and it's as if they were all playing games. For example, the AR-15's maintenance tool discovered by The Markup is sold as office supplies such as 'paper weights' and seems not to be considered a firearm.

Consumer protection groups have alleged that Amazon's efforts are inadequate and require regulatory intervention. Public Citizen , a non-profit consumer protection organization, said, ``It's clear that Amazon does not have enough resources to regulate the sale of banned products and it is a low priority and not invested within Amazon. Pointed out.' 'While having a lawless zone may be more profitable, it's very dangerous for consumers,' said Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen.



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