California Appellate Tracker

Bolger v. Amazon.com, LLC (2020)

August 13, 2020

Amazon can be held liable on a strict products liability theory for physical injuries caused by products sold through Amazon’s website. Here, plaintiff was injured when a battery he had bought from Amazon (which had been stored in and was shipped from an Amazon warehouse) exploded. Amazon was pivotal in bringing the battery to the customer, standing in between the manufacturer and the customer, and exercising market power over the manufacturer both in terms of requiring safety and in imposing an indemnity agreement on the manufacturer. Amazon is not immunized from liability by 47 USC 230, part of the Communications Decency Act, because its strict products liability is not based on third party content displayed on the Amazon website but rather on Amazon’s own acts in distributing products to its customers.

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Bolger v. Amazon.com, LLC (2020)

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