Amazon Primed for battle over status under Section 402A.
Seeking clarification of whether Amazon is a proper defendant under Section 402A for a strict product liability claim brought by a person injured by a product that Amazon never had possession of or title to, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit certified the following question of law to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania for disposition:
Under Pennsylvania law, is an e-commerce business, like Amazon, strictly liable for a defective product that was purchased on its platform from a third-party vendor, which product was neither possessed nor owned by the e-commerce business?
The underlying dispute arose from a dog collar purchased on the Amazon marketplace. The plaintiff claimed that, while out for a walk, the collar broke unexpectedly and the dog’s retractable leash recoiled and struck the plaintiff in the eye, blinding her. Amazon was awarded summary judgment on the basis that it did not transfer a right of ownership to the dog collar but, rather, merely provided a platform (dubbed an online “marketplace”) for the sale of the dog collar by a third party.
A panel of the Third Circuit vacated the summary judgment, asserting that Section 402A of the Restatement provided an avenue to establish liability against Amazon under these facts. The court, sitting en banc, vacated the panel opinion but found itself unable to predict if and how the Pennsylvania Supreme Court would apply Section 402A to an e-commerce business that brought the buyer and seller together, but did not “sell” the product in the traditional sense of transferring ownership.
While the Pennsylvania Supreme Court does not have to accept the case, many are predicting it will, given the importance of such a threshold issue and the overall effect it will have on product liability law.
Case Law Alerts, 3rd Quarter, July 2020 is prepared by Marshall Dennehey Warner Coleman & Goggin to provide information on recent developments of interest to our readers. This publication is not intended to provide legal advice for a specific situation or to create an attorney-client relationship. Copyright © 2020 Marshall Dennehey Warner Coleman & Goggin, all rights reserved. This article may not be reprinted without the express written permission of our firm.