COLUMBUS, Ohio (Legal Newsline) – Amazon won’t be held liable for the death of a teenager who passed away after eating caffeine powder purchased from a company that posted it on the site.
Last week, the Ohio Supreme Court declined to extend products liability that far in the case of Logan Stiner, who died in 2014 at the age of 18. He’d ingested caffeine powder he received from a friend who bought it off Amazon from a store called TheBulkSource.
Amazon was never in possession of the powder.
“Because Amazon does not have a relationship with the manufacturers of third-party products, Amazon lacks control over product safety,” Justice Judith French wrote.
“Amazon did not choose to offer the caffeine powder for sale and has no role in manufacturing, labeling or packaging the product.
“While Amazon can address safety issues by suspending or removing sellers, Amazon’s control over its website does not establish that Amazon is in a position to eliminate the unsafe character of products in the first instance.”
French wrote that the Products Liability Act of 1988 did not include language that would have meant Amazon was liable in this instance. The phrase “otherwise participates in the placing of a product in the stream of commerce” means Amazon would have had to had some control over the caffeine powder.
Finding Amazon liable, French added, would not promote product safety.