The dummy twists. Then the car seat splits apart, and plastic pieces fly across the test lab as the shell slides forward. It all takes a fraction of a second at 30 mph.
The seat on the sled was bought on Amazon by CNN. The listing called it a “4 in 1 Baby car seat and Stroller,” and it showed pictures of a well-known brand, Doona, including a photo of Ivanka Trump with her child. The price was $299, around $200 under a genuine Doona. CNN commissioned a crash test by the Transportation Research Institute at the University of Michigan, and the seat missed the basic standards US regulators set. An authentic Doona put through an identical test remained whole and held its position around the dummy.
Pediatrician Alisa Baer, who is certified to teach child passenger safety, reviewed the results. In a real crash, she said, a seat that failed like this one could put a child in “grave danger,” with injuries to the chest, neck or head, including traumatic brain injury.
A months-long investigation
The test was one piece of a longer CNN investigation, published on December 20, 2019, into fake children’s products, and ones that copy patented designs, sold on Amazon. Seven business owners told reporters that counterfeiters were going after their products through the marketplace for outside vendors. Their complaint was consistent. Amazon, they said, puts reporting suspect listings on their shoulders, and the result is “whack-a-mole”: new listings appear almost as soon as old ones come down.
Doona’s commercial manager, Amiad Raviv, said the firm had spotted over 40 Amazon listings that year featuring counterfeits of its products, or products that infringed its intellectual property. Doona flags them and Amazon takes them off, but listings can sit online for days. “A lot of people on the Amazon platform think that because it’s on Amazon, it is a genuine product,” Raviv said. “And that’s actually really not the case.”
Sold by Amazon’s site, not by Amazon
The copycat seats are sold through the website or the app, though not by Amazon directly. Amazon’s 2018 annual report put the share of sales from third-party sellers at 58%. Goods bought this way may never see an Amazon employee, or enter one of its warehouses.
The law also sits with the sellers. Under current case law in the US, Amazon is not liable when outside products infringe intellectual property or carry safety defects. A shop on Main Street faces a different rule: sell a defective product there and you can sue the shop. Amazon, by eMarketer’s estimate, holds 37.7% of all US ecommerce sales, and many brands told CNN they cannot afford to stay off it.
Amazon’s response
CNN sent the test results to Amazon. A week later, Amazon emailed customers who had bought the seat, pointing to a safety problem and saying it “may not be a genuine product.” It told them to stop using it at once, and it offered their money back in full.
Amazon told CNN that safety was a top priority, though sellers are responsible for meeting its “high bar” for product quality. A spokesperson wrote that every product offered in the store must follow applicable laws and regulations. The company also said the issues the business owners raised were “isolated incidents that do not reflect the fantastic products and customer experience provided by millions of small businesses selling in our store.”
Sources
- Fake and dangerous kids products are turning up for sale on Amazon (CNN investigation, carried by Fox13)
- Fake and dangerous kids products are turning up for sale on Amazon (CNN Business)
