Amazon has detailed the specific standards that companies must uphold in order to sell their products in an eighteen-page document titled “Product Safety and Restricted Materials,” outlining regulatory standards to ensure that products are safe and hazard-free. This document covers a wide range of topics, including federal regulations, product testing methods, product characteristics that pose a risk, recommended safety precautions, and the approach to both safety recalls and product returns. Upon reviewing these standards, it is clear that Amazon has put a great deal of thought into how they can ensure that safe products are reaching the customer. When companies sell products on Amazon, the end goal is generally to ensure customer satisfaction so that the customer will utilize Amazon for future purchases of similar products. High customer satisfaction is something that can only be achieved when the product is both safe and of high quality, meeting the expectations of the consumer. The regulatory standards outlined in this document represent this simple goal and focus on ways that companies can achieve it.

Amazon is a company that is founded on simple principles and yet has grown to be one of the largest companies in the global market. Its mission “to be Earth’s most customer-centric company” is a testament to the commitment to customers, ensuring the quality of everything they do. To ensure that the products sold on Amazon are safe and meet Amazon’s high-quality standards, Amazon has instituted several regulatory standards that companies must adhere to when selling their products on the Amazon marketplace. These standards ensure that the products are safe and that the customer will be satisfied with the product and their Amazon experience.

A company’s regulatory standards play a major role in the overall success of a product. These standards ensure the safety and longevity of a product, protecting the consumer’s investment. When a company has good regulatory standards, they are more likely to have a product that stands the test of time because it has been crafted with the best materials and to the highest quality. For some companies, regulatory standards are something they take very seriously to ensure the safety and overall satisfaction of the people using their products. Amazon is no exception, and the safety and satisfaction of their customers mean a lot to them.

2. Importance of Product Safety

The principal reason for product safety is to ensure that the product does not lead to any injuries to society. Amazon, unlike other organizations, took great concern in implementing product safety as a recognition of the need to prevent injuries from products and to reduce the considerable economic cost that is related to the injuries themselves. Injuries can occur in a wide range of situations and for all age groups. Injuries often result in short or long-term disability, and the severity of injuries is often worse than the injury appears. Some injuries and their effects are fatal, such as the case of children who died after swallowing liquid medication that was provided in a defective container. The economic consequences of injuries are often substantial. It is estimated that the direct and indirect cost of consumer product-related injuries in the UK is around £18 billion per year. The costs are not only at a personal level but also affect society and the government, who in many cases are sponsoring health and social benefits. An expensive product liability claim can be crippling to a manufacturer, and this impact could result in the manufacturer going out of business. Amazon, knowing the economic consequences of product injuries, has implemented a safety and standard program for products that need to be abided by the manufacturer.

An organization could be considered to be a system that interacts with its environment, where the inputs to the organization are the products, processes, and services that go through the transformation process. The outcomes from the organization would be products and services that are being distributed to society. It is the duty of each and every organization to ensure that the products that are being distributed meet the level of standard and are safe to be used by society. According to studies, general public welfare and safety are the prime aspects that need to be protected so that they will not be harmed in any way. Basically, the term “safety” can refer to freedom from the occurrence or risk of injury, damage, or loss. Different people have different perceptions of safety, which are based on taught and cultural effects, and the interpretation of safety has a wide range of meanings.

3. Amazon’s Commitment to Product Safety

The objective for these programs is to facilitate a platform where sellers can develop and provide quality products that comply with the assortment of global product safety regulations. This ultimately serves to protect consumers, increase customer satisfaction, and reduce risk in the Amazon supply chain. Amazon encourages businesses to be proactive and improve their knowledge of product safety regulations. There are abundant resources available on the achievement of this goal. Amazon recently released a guide outlining methods to “Sell safe products and thrive in the Amazon Marketplace”. The Product Safety and Compliance Network plans to develop a document and training module that will enable easy access to global product safety regulatory requirements. Amazon’s agility and success with these programs have achieved recognition from businesses and regulators as being an industry leader in online product safety and compliance.

Meeting regulatory standards for product safety across the globe, Amazon.com is committed to delivering customers a high-quality online retail experience. Since the company’s inception, several programs have been initiated to ensure that products available on the Amazon website are safe, reliable, and legitimate. They include the Seller Code of Conduct, the Product Safety and Compliance Network, and the Regulatory and Compliance Knowledge Base. These programs have been integrated into the Amazon culture and are sustained through training and awareness exercises. With the dynamic and complex nature of global regulations, Amazon continues to develop tools and services to further enable businesses to meet their product safety and compliance objectives.

4. Regulatory Standards for Product Safety

Amazon cannot exist without customers. A main element of Amazon customers is clicking the search button. If the search button does not work, the customer will go to another site and purchase the item there. If a great deal of these people experience the same problem, it could be devastating to Amazon. This means that in order to protect Amazon’s current customers, as well as potential customers, Amazon must ensure that their products do not endanger the safety or health of their customers. This will be today’s primary focus. Given that the majority of the items listed on Amazon have been acquired through third-party transactions, it is important for Amazon to prove the quality of goods without taking ownership of the goods, internalizing them, and selling them to customers. This feat can be achieved through the use of skilled procurement specialists who we mentioned earlier. These specialists have the ability to appraise the quality of a good and find the best suppliers for that good. It is important to note that ensuring the quality of goods is not a measurable objective and because of this, it will be difficult to evaluate the performance of procurement specialists. To overcome this problem, Amazon has also developed quality management metrics in every business sector in which they operate. These metrics serve as an indicator of product quality and will allow the comparison of product quality before and after the implementation of procurement specialists. Using these metrics, Amazon will be able to determine whether their specialists have improved product quality and where they have been most effective.

4.1. International Standards

There are several organizations that develop and publish international standards, the most popular and well-known being the ISO (International Organization for Standardization). The ISO is a network of the national standards institutes of 160 countries and develops and publishes international standards to ensure the global exchange of goods and services. The purpose of the ISO is to support international trade and help manufacture products and operate on a global scale. ISO standards are developed by highly specialized groups to meet specific goals or by larger groups to cover broad issues related to trade and manufacturing. In contrast, European standards often overlap with the public policy objectives of the European Communities and the European free trade associations. Other international standards organizations include IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission), ITU (International Telecommunication Union), and the IECEE (IEC System of Conformity Assessment Schemes for Electrotechnical Equipment and Components).

International standards play a significant role in the regulation of safety of products. These standards are imperative in aiding the free flow of goods and services, which is required to ensure fair competition at all levels. Ensuring that various countries are able to trade with one another and that consumers have access to a larger variety of safer products, international standards help to harmonize the different national and regional regulations. This helps to overcome technical barriers to trade and further the global welfare. International standards also help to safeguard consumers and the end-users of products, ensuring that certified products are safer to use, consume, or wear. Finally, the international standards provide a platform on which conformity assessment can take place, determining whether the product meets the requirements of the standard or the customer’s own specific requirements.

4.2. National Standards

It is difficult to ascertain what the actual ‘National Standard’ is, as there are many different standards for different nations, and often these standards will change depending upon the product in question. For some products, there may be no standard at all. British Standards have been somewhat replaced as the national standard and have been adopted and modified into EN standards, all of which are produced by the European Committee for Standardization. These EN standards are generally recognized as the national standard for most European countries. However, for some areas of some countries, the standard may still be the old British Standard. EN standards sometimes come as direct translations of the original British Standards, and other times they are new standards designed to further safety. For example, there are EN standards for domestic plugs, which are now used in the UK instead of the old British Standard. Other plug standards will apply to different areas of the world, for example, the UL standard in America, and it is often the case that the product will have to be modified to comply with different standards. The existence, comparison, and the ongoing process of replacing EN standards is a complex issue, and it was reviewed by the DTI as having mixed results in relation to benefits in trade and removing technical barriers. Although the uptake and use of EN standards has been slower and less complete than hoped, they are significant in that they provide a single standard for products to be measured against when implementing European Directive requirements. This is preferable to the old situation where compliance with multiple disparate national standards was required to gain access to multiple separate European markets. Compliance with EN standards therefore aids the process of pan-European sales – an advantage for companies that trade in a product subject to an EN standard. Measures of harmonization between different types of national and international standards, and efforts to make national standards compatible with EU laws and directives, are areas where Amazon could potentially influence legislation to make things more efficient for companies in the future. This is presumably an ongoing objective for any company that operates in international markets.

4.3. Industry-Specific Standards

Industry-specific standards refer to any standard that is designated for a certain industry. These standards are defined and published by trade associations or SSOs. The role that industry-specific standards have in product safety is quite significant. Every industry operates differently and has its own unique set of safety and performance issues for products. A product intended for one industry may be hazardous if used in another industry. Therefore, industry-specific standards play a key role in deciding what specific safety rules will apply to a certain product. Because industry-specific standards are usually voluntary, they play an important role in protecting consumers and defining safe guidelines for products. In these cases, if specific safety rules are defined for a product in a legally admissible industry-specific standard, the CPSC has the option of declaring that the product is in violation of the Consumer Product Safety Act. The mechanisms at which industry-specific standards are used can vary widely. In some cases, a whole range of products will be addressed by the industry-wide safety rules. In other cases, rules may be designated for a certain type of product or certain usage of a product. One example of an industry-specific standard would be ANSI in the United States. This is an organization that administers and coordinates US voluntary standardization and is a private sector standard development process. They conduct their work in forums often with public-private sector collaboration. Certain rules designated in industry-specific standards can become regulation if they are later adopted by the highest common factor of government regulation.

5. Compliance with Regulatory Standards

The firm realizes that the most effective way to ensure product safety and quality is by preventing unsafe or poor-quality products from being listed in the first place. The initial action that Amazon takes to accomplish this is by requiring that certain products, deemed to be of higher risk, self-test their safety and provide evidence of successful testing. Products, if not already listed, can be stifled from making it to Amazon’s marketplace through a testing and hold process. Lastly, suppliers can be required to obtain pre-approval for certain products determined to be of high risk.

The guide “Ensuring Quality: Amazon’s Regulatory Standards for Product Safety” examines how Amazon seeks to ensure that the products offered on its website are safe and of good quality. Amazon uses a three-pronged approach to accomplish this objective. First, the company seeks to preventatively control the listing of unsafe products. Primarily, it does this by requiring that certain products be pre-approved before they can be listed. Second, the company investigates customer complaints regarding safety and quality. Lastly, as a reactive measure, Amazon responds to safety and quality issues by taking corrective action: issuing warnings, recalls, and bans.

5.1. Supplier Audits

Supplier audits are the first step in ensuring Amazon’s suppliers’ adherence to Amazon’s regulatory standards. These evaluations are essential to determine if a supplier has the ability to meet Amazon’s product safety, quality, and innovation expectations. Amazon uses a risk-based approach, considering the inherent risk in the product being supplied based on function and the supplier’s geography. High-risk products are more thoroughly evaluated. High-risk suppliers are also more thoroughly examined, no matter what products they are supplying. High-risk products or suppliers are never clearly defined, and a rather subjective analysis is required. Audits are conducted by a combination of Amazon employees and third-party auditing firms. Third-party firms provide a valuable objective perspective. All audits should be unannounced. This is to ensure the audit is an accurate representation of the supplier’s everyday operation. An announced audit gives a supplier the opportunity to minimize identified deficiencies prior to the actual audit, creating a false sense of security in the supplier’s current state. Any identified deficiencies must be remedied in a timely manner; failure to do so may result in a loss of business or disqualification as an Amazon supplier. All audits and findings are documented and retained, which leads into the next standard.

5.2. Product Testing and Certification

Product safety testing can take many forms and be performed using a variety of methods and by a variety of organizations. It can be anything from simple and informal comparison of a product to requirements, to complex and highly structured testing programs. Some products are covered by specific standards and may be required to be type tested (i.e. the product design is tested rather than the individual product) by a third party. Amazon requires the most risk-based testing required to demonstrate the product meets the safety standard. Methods and organizations used may include:

Amazon requires suppliers to ensure that their products conform to Amazon’s safety requirements. Each product must be tested to specification using current acceptable methods and procedures. The supplier must be able to provide documentation of the tests and test results upon request. All products shall carry the supplier’s declaration of conformity and certification that the products meet the applicable safety standards. Documentation shall be made available to Amazon upon request. Supplier’s product certification must be from an accredited certification body. Products and samples may be requested for testing to demonstrate conformity. Failed test(s) and non-conforming product(s) may lead to disqualification of the product from the Amazon website. All costs for testing and/or demonstrating product conformity are incurred by the supplier.

5.3. Documentation and Record-Keeping

Amazon.com is responsible for maintaining documentation and records to demonstrate compliance with regulatory standards. This requirement applies to all importers and distributors, and Amazon.com is considered both. As the regulations explain, “you must make available, upon request, documentation and records that demonstrate your finished product, components, or raw materials meet the requirements of the laws administered by the Commission. You must maintain these records as long as the product is in distribution and for a period of three years after that. Records generally must be made available within 48 hours of a request for inspection.” This requirement is meant to ensure the availability of adequate records as needed, and is applicable to the various record-keeping requirements elsewhere in the regulations. Failure to provide records as requested can be considered a violation in and of itself. The most efficient way for Amazon.com to meet this requirement is by maintaining well-documented quality assurance and control systems and procedures for every product. Based on the level of risk of the product, these documents should include the policies and procedures, product specifications and descriptions, standards and testing procedures, quality control measures, as well as the results of any testing and inspections. This documentation should be maintained from the beginning of the product’s lifecycle and throughout its distribution. A specific example of a record would be a certificate of compliance for a product safety standard, which the regulations require to be in the possession of the product certificate holder. Failure to document the compliance with a safety rule can result in recalling the product and can be considered a prohibited act. Failure to document the compliance with specific safety requirements has been a major issue for some recent product recalls by Amazon.com due to the absence of records or certificates of conformity.

6. Monitoring and Enforcement

Throughout this work, the dominant theme is Amazon’s lack of legal liability, where it does not really bear responsibility for third-party transactions using its platform. This lack of formalized responsibility is jarring given the sheer amount of regulations and standards that Amazon imposes on merchants for product quality and safety. If Amazon truly bore legal responsibility for third-party transactions, it would be a risky gamble of massive lawsuit potential to push the safety regulation burden onto smaller businesses. Making Amazon more responsible for third-party transactions could push them either to police their third-party merchant base more proactively or to outright bar certain merchant/market segments from using its platform. This could potentially even increase quality of life and product safety standards on Amazon’s main product platform, whether by making merchants more cautious about what they sell or by driving them to market to higher-end consumer segments on other e-commerce platforms. (This could be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on your perspective about what Amazon should be.)

6.1. Inspections and Investigations

The second type of monitoring and enforcement is the investigations. These could range from in-depth scientific studies of products and hazards associated through to overseeing the recall of a product. Investigative reports are published to inform the public if there is a dangerous product on the market and the ways in which consumers can remove it from their homes. These reports are also used to strengthen CPSC cases in court and administrative hearings.

The first of these is an inspection to see if a product meets the standard in safety. The outcome of an inspection can result in different things. If the product is found to not meet the set standard, it will be dangerous in its current state, so it will be recalled and destroyed. This being a formal request from the authority for voluntary recall or an injunction for mandatory recall. The procedures that follow a recall are set by CPSC. Here it states a company must give notification of the recall to the producer of the product involved right through the supply chain to the retailer. This is so they can stop selling the dangerous product in question. They will then need to give notice to consumers to return the product and to refund them for the price they paid. The company involved with the recall must either repair, replace, or refund the product. Finally, it is monitored by CPSC to ensure the market is clear of the product. If the product being investigated is import goods, there are different procedures to ensure its removal from the market. The CPSC can seek to detain goods if they believe that it is associated with a substantial product hazard and was a violation of the act. The customs and border protection agency will inspect all shipments to search for violative goods and stop them from being distributed.

6.2. Reporting and Response Mechanisms

Following reports and identifying specific defects is crucial in maintaining high safety standards. In cooperation with the CPSC, Amazon has a record of agreeing to corrective action in the event of a recall. In conducting a recall, it is typical for a company to repair or replace the product. If not practical, the firm will usually provide a refund. This is the first time that Amazon has conducted a recall. Amazon and the CPSC are interested in reaching consumers who may have the Snow Thrower to prevent any injuries. The link on the right-hand side of this release will take a consumer to the recall details which include the affected product, the hazard, what consumers can do, and a photo of the product. This recall is being announced to further increase awareness of product recalls and safety and to prevent any more injuries. This recall is separate from the CPSA Spring Seal/Ball Drain Valves and Tee Fittings which were recalled in April 2006. Global Supply Chain eliminates the safety issues of any products. Amazon Global and their related suppliers are working to ensure that all products from sellers are meeting Amazon or CPSC safety standards. In creating these safe products, suppliers should avoid materials that are in the CPSC enforced laws and regulations. Any products that are unsafe will be stopped at import. This process is the beginning of a proactive method to stop unsafe products before they reach consumers.

7. Collaboration with Regulatory Authorities

During its involvement in this standard, Amazon has coordinated with the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), who has similar safety requirements for lighters. This dialogue with the CPSC led to collaboration in CPSC-sponsored third-party testing of children’s product lighters in accordance with US safety requirements. This testing was performed in an effort to locate and remove from the market lighters intended for use by children that did not meet these requirements. The assistance of the CPSC and the coordination of the testing allowed Amazon to avoid enforcement actions on these products and was instrumental in its ongoing efforts to prevent these products from ever being listed on EU websites.

Amazon’s recent involvement with the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) is an example of how the company is collaborating with regulatory authorities. Amazon is a member of the standardization committee for child safety requirements for lighters and matches in CEN and has been providing comments in attempts to steer the standard to a requirement that lighters have a child resistance (CR) mechanism. The company is doing so with the objective of banning lighters that are not equipped with a CR mechanism and believes this is the most effective way to prevent child-related lighter incidents from occurring in the future in Europe. This standard is still in development, and if it were adopted with this requirement, it would effectively prevent future sales of lighters without a CR mechanism on Amazon’s EU websites.

In every organized society, there are regulatory systems that set the standards of acceptable behavior. Product safety is no different in that respect. Amazon maintains cooperative relationships with regulatory authorities around the world and is receptive to information from their constituents when this occurs. This helps us to satisfy more regulatory requirements and to provide our customers with access to an increased selection of products that have been tested to higher standards. This is also beneficial to third-party sellers who are looking to introduce new products to the market and would like to understand the requirements for these products to be sold.

8. Continuous Improvement and Innovation

A conformity assessment involves the systematic examination of the product and its associated documentation to ensure that the product is assessed in respect to the relevant requirements of the European Directive and meets the essential requirements. A successful Conformity Assessment will allow a manufacturer to affix the CE mark to their product, and thus be legally allowed to place it on the market and put into service within the EEA. Conformity assessment steps may vary dependent on the particular directive and associated risks introduced by the product. The goal is to maximize assurance of conformity and in the event of high risks products, this may be achieved through participation of Notified Bodies. These are organizations designated by the member state to conduct conformity assessments for certain products. Notified Bodies provide an independent and third party opinion to ensure that products comply with the requirements of applicable directives. Assessment by a Notified Body culminates with the issue of an EC type-examination certificate and declaration of conformity, subsequently allowing product entry into the EEA (with exception to certain directives).

Presently, the Conformity Assessment according to the European New Approach Directives and the CE mark are regulatory requirements to allow products entry into the European Union (i.e. the European Economic Area). The CE mark on a product indicates to governmental officials that the product may be legally placed on the market in any European nation. Significantly, the CE mark is a self-declaration made by the manufacturer and once applied to the product, necessitates the manufacturer to assume total responsibility for product conformity. Thus, the CE mark is a critical juncture in the life-cycle process wherein product safety and product liability issues must necessarily be addressed.

9. Conclusion

Now that we have seen how a product can become regulated on Amazon, let’s take a look at what happens when a failure occurs. Depending on the severity of the failure, the general safety department may be responsible for conducting an investigation. In the event of a serious injury, there may even be legal actions taken against the supplier. This is simply an extension of the regulation process discussed above. If a supplier wants to avoid serious penalties, they must always meet product safety standards. Failure to do so may result in termination of business with Amazon.

Throughout this process, the legal department maintains communication with manufacturers and suppliers to ensure that these agreements are properly enforced. If it is found that a certain supplier is not holding up their end of the bargain, legal can take action. Measures could include removing the product in question. In severe cases, the supplier must be completely removed from Amazon. This process essentially manages and filters the quality and safety of products available on the Amazon market. Lastly, the legal department is constantly trying to add more regulations that focus on specific product types.

The ultimate goal of any company is to ensure the safe production of its items and gain the consent of its customers. Amazon is a worldwide company with many risks and liabilities. Amazon’s legal department was the start of it all and implemented the contract between the suppliers and Amazon. Following that, came the A to Z guarantee. This guarantee states that if an Amazon customer is harmed by a negligent product, they can file a claim. This claim will then be charged back to the supplier of the product. This guarantee from Amazon ensures that suppliers maintain a high level of safety when producing their products. Without it, suppliers have little incentive to change or improve their product safety levels. However, there are some obvious concerns with this