Amazon fails to test dietary supplements for contaminants, continues to sell THOUSANDS of illegal and dangerous products
09/04/2019 / By Ethan Huff
A thorough investigation by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) has revealed that Jeff Bezos’ Amazon retail empire is currently selling thousands of products on its website that are contaminated, mislabeled, not allowed for sale in the United States, or outright banned from the consumer marketplace.
Everything from toys to supplements to safety gear was determined to be not quite what it was labeled as, which is a direct result of Amazon relinquishing control over its store to countless vendors from around the world, none of which appear to be monitored or vetted for the things they are selling to consumers.
Rather than Amazon keeping close tabs on the items it sells, the company has “ceded control” of its store, according to the WSJ, and now operates more like a “flea market.” And perhaps the worst part about this is the fact that Amazon is violating its own user policies with this setup, demonstrating that the corporate giant has, in many ways, gone completely off the rails.
While competitor Walmart tests most or all of the products it sells, or allows to be sold, on its website, Amazon does not appear to be testing much of anything. As a result, many Amazon products are unsafe or illegal, and very little is being done, at least so far, to address this massive problem.
Amazon responds to WSJ investigation by claiming the company is “proactive,” then pulls 57 percent of exposed listings
This truth bomb by the WSJ reflects exactly what Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, also discovered during recent product testing at his Consumer Wellness Center (CWC) Labs. In case you missed it, a line of probiotics supplements sold by Amazon was found to contain both lead and aluminum at levels higher than the legal limit for dietary supplements.
In other words, there is obviously a problem at Amazon that needs to be addressed. But rather than fess up to the fact that the company has severely dropped the ball on ensuring that product safety for its customers, the retail giant is instead doubling down with claims that it has long employed an “industry-leading safety and compliance program.”
In an official statement on the company’s blog, Amazon claimed that it properly vets sellers whenever they create an account, and scans the product listings of each one to ensure that nothing is in violation of either Amazon’s or the government’s policies and regulations.
Amazon even went so far as to claim that it is “proactive” when it comes to catching problems early, which is ironic when considering the fact that the company responded to the WSJ investigation by pulling down upwards of 57 percent of the product listings mentioned in the report.
What this means is that it took an outside media source, in this case the WSJ, to get the ball rolling on what Amazon claims to have been doing all along. The fact that Amazon missed these thousands of questionable, and in some cases illegal, items on its own proves that the company is hardly “proactive” on anything, and is, in fact, negligent when it comes to maintaining a safe and legal platform for consumers to buy and sell goods.
“I’ve been [sending] my feedback to Amazon for many years now and they never listened,” wrote one Yahoo! Finance commenter in response to the news.
“I told them you are a great trusted company and you don’t want to become another eBay. Later I found out why they don’t listen or care. Because they put profitability above customer satisfaction. Each and every Chinese seller on Amazon is a revenue increase because Amazon charges them big fat fees to list their items.”
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Tagged Under: Amazon, bezos, buyer beware, consumer products, contaminants, dangerous, dangerous products, dietary supplements, flea market, illegal, Jeff Bezos, supplements, testing, toxic ingredients, toys, truth bomb
