![]() ![]() All US car seats are required to be certified according to NHTSA standards, but this seat did not have any US certification labels. The product CNN bought was listed by a seller called Strolex and shipped from China. And that’s actually really not the case,” said Raviv. “A lot of people on the Amazon platform think that because it’s on Amazon, it is a genuine product. However, items purchased this way may never be checked by Amazon employees or pass through an Amazon warehouse. Many legitimate brands, including Doona, sell products through authorized third parties. According to Amazon’s 2018 annual report, 58% of Amazon’s sales came from its millions of third-party sellers, many of whom ship directly to consumers. The imitation Doonas are sold through Amazon’s website or app, but not by Amazon directly. According to Raviv and the other business owners CNN spoke with, this piecemeal process means listings are often online for several days, leading to a significant window when consumers can buy the potentially dangerous product. Doona flags the listings they are concerned about to Amazon, which then removes them. ![]() As an Amazon spokesperson said to CNN in a statement, “our customers expect that when they make a purchase through Amazon’s store-either directly from Amazon or from one of its millions of third-party sellers-they will receive authentic products.”Īmiad Raviv, the commercial manager of Doona, said the company has found more than 40 Amazon listings this year that contained fake versions of its products or versions that infringed on its intellectual property. ![]() Many of the brands that spoke to CNN told us they can’t afford not to sell their products on Amazon. According to an estimate from data firm eMarketer, Amazon controls 37.7% of US ecommerce sales and that share is expected to grow. If you find a product at a physical store that infringes on your trademark, or you buy something defective there, you can sue the store even though they didn’t make the product.Ĭounterfeits are a problem for many ecommerce platforms, not just Amazon, but Amazon is the world’s largest ecommerce platform and its dominance is growing. This is fundamentally different from how the law treats brick-and-mortar retailers like Target The liability lies with the third-party seller. Under current US case law, Amazon is not liable when third-party products sold on its site directly infringe on intellectual property or have safety defects. The businesses said Amazon put the onus on them to report suspicious listings and that this often amounted to a game of “whack-a-mole,” in which new listings appeared almost as soon as flagged ones were taken down.Ī car seat purchased on Amazon fractured in a 30 mph crash test, failing to meet federal standards CNN Seven different business owners told CNN their products were being actively targeted by counterfeiters using Amazon’s marketplace for third-party vendors. Alisa Baer, a pediatrician and nationally certified child passenger safety instructor, reviewed the test results and said in a real crash such a car seat failure could put a child in “grave danger,” and lead to injuries to a child’s chest, neck or head, including a traumatic brain injury.ĬNN bought the copycat Doona and had it crash-tested at the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute as part of a months-long investigation into the sale of counterfeit and patent-infringing children’s products on Amazon. In an identical crash test scenario, an authentic Doona met federal requirements, with the car seat remaining in one piece and in place around the dummy.ĭr. Video of the test shows the toddler dummy twisting as the car seat fractures and slides forward, with plastic pieces that have broken off it flying through the air. The car seat broke into pieces in a 30 mph crash test commissioned by CNN, failing to meet the basic standards set by US regulators. It was also potentially dangerous for children. Listed for $299, this copycat was $200 cheaper than a real Doona. (AMZN) described it as a “4 in 1 Baby car seat and Stroller” and featured images of a popular brand called Doona, including a photo of the US President’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, with hers. ![]()
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