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Comment by rrggrr | Hacker News Reader

Who is responsible when a counterfeit device results in injury or damage to personal property?

Is there much difference between Ulbricht's culpability for Silk Road and Amazon (Bezos) liability for Amazon's embrace of counterfeit products? True, the former was criminal liability, and perhaps that might be enough of a difference, but it ought not be.

Decades of product safety regulation and tort deterrence is being washed away.

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I mean, Amazon is even doing the logistics for this stuff. A lot of counterfeits are "fulfilled by Amazon". You pay Amazon, Amazon delivers it, you return to it Amazon - who on earth is the 3rd party supposed to be in this transaction? There is none. How can Amazon escape liability for this crap?

Not even the great pirate Ulbricht himself would warehouse and ship the narcotics.

The seller has implied liability, I think it would be the Amazon seller. Even though Amazon corporate sent the customer a fake not from your sellers inventory but from another sellers inventory you would still have the sue the seller first and then the seller would have to prove it wasn't the same one sent by the seller to Amazon. By the time the seller was cleared they would be in bankruptcy.

Amazon shunts all the liability to the seller if it's 3rd party and to the vendor if it's sold/shipped by Amazon.

Amazon does check to see if a product is obviously spoiled or in unsellable condition, but they don't check for counterfeits.

Presumbly, Jeff Bezos is not putting out hits on his competitors or disgruntled employees.

Under US product liability laws, the manufacturer and any seller between the manufacturer and the end consumer.

In other words, Amazon.

(Amazon can then sue the vendor or manufacturer under contractual indemnity clauses, but that's between Amazon and them; it doesn't affect a consumer's right to sue Amazon.)

Bezos is not working out of a library.

Caveat Emptor.

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