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Just How Bad is Amazon's Banned Products Problem?
Also: Unlicensed signal boosters get a boost from Amazon (Ars Technica - excerpt below)
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Source: Gizmodo
Just How Bad is Amazon's Banned Products Problem?
Alyse Stanley
Yesterday 3:44pm Filed to: AMAZON
The average American purportedly has more trust in Amazon than their own government, which makes recent reports on thousands of potentially unsafe products making their way onto the company’s online marketplace particularly terrifying.
More than 4,100 products available on the site—everything from motorcycle helmets to children’s toys—were “declared unsafe by federal agencies, are deceptively labeled or are banned by federal regulators” according to an investigation by the Wall Street Journal last week. On Friday, Wired similarly reported that several of the top-selling listings for signal boosters on Amazon lacked federal certification, which is kind of important for a device that has the potential to seriously mess with nearby cell towers. Gizmodo reached out to Amazon and will update this article with the company’s response.
Just to give you a snapshot of how pervasive Amazon’s issue is, in a roughly four-month period, the Journal found:
• 157 listings for products Amazon previously said it banned from the platform
• More than 100 listings falsely claiming to be “FDA-approved”, when some of the products themselves (like toys) aren’t approved by the agency to begin with
• 80 infant sleeping mats with eerily similar descriptions to one that Amazon purportedly banned after the FDA warned it could cause suffocation
• Over 2,000 toys lacking proper warning labels
• 44 listings for motorcycle helmets that the Wall Street Journal later discovered had failed to pass federal safety tests in 2018
Wired also found several cell phone signal boosters being sold for $100 less than their FCC-certified counterparts on Amazon. Some even featured an “Amazon’s Choice” badge, a company recommendation for “highly rated, well-priced products” according to Amazon’s site. The FCC put regulations in place in 2014 to minimize how certified signal boosters interfere with wireless networks, but illegal ones like those sold on Amazon and other online marketplaces ignore all that red tape. Without these safeguards, these models can cause a lot of dropped calls, cell network interference, and some serious headaches for network providers.
The majority of the Amazon listings detailed in these reports came from the many thousands of third-party vendors on Amazon. Despite being responsible for most of the sales on the site, these types of sellers have been a constant headache for Amazon when it comes to keeping crappy bootleg products off its marketplace.
-snip-
Alyse Stanley
Yesterday 3:44pm Filed to: AMAZON
The average American purportedly has more trust in Amazon than their own government, which makes recent reports on thousands of potentially unsafe products making their way onto the company’s online marketplace particularly terrifying.
More than 4,100 products available on the site—everything from motorcycle helmets to children’s toys—were “declared unsafe by federal agencies, are deceptively labeled or are banned by federal regulators” according to an investigation by the Wall Street Journal last week. On Friday, Wired similarly reported that several of the top-selling listings for signal boosters on Amazon lacked federal certification, which is kind of important for a device that has the potential to seriously mess with nearby cell towers. Gizmodo reached out to Amazon and will update this article with the company’s response.
Just to give you a snapshot of how pervasive Amazon’s issue is, in a roughly four-month period, the Journal found:
• 157 listings for products Amazon previously said it banned from the platform
• More than 100 listings falsely claiming to be “FDA-approved”, when some of the products themselves (like toys) aren’t approved by the agency to begin with
• 80 infant sleeping mats with eerily similar descriptions to one that Amazon purportedly banned after the FDA warned it could cause suffocation
• Over 2,000 toys lacking proper warning labels
• 44 listings for motorcycle helmets that the Wall Street Journal later discovered had failed to pass federal safety tests in 2018
Wired also found several cell phone signal boosters being sold for $100 less than their FCC-certified counterparts on Amazon. Some even featured an “Amazon’s Choice” badge, a company recommendation for “highly rated, well-priced products” according to Amazon’s site. The FCC put regulations in place in 2014 to minimize how certified signal boosters interfere with wireless networks, but illegal ones like those sold on Amazon and other online marketplaces ignore all that red tape. Without these safeguards, these models can cause a lot of dropped calls, cell network interference, and some serious headaches for network providers.
The majority of the Amazon listings detailed in these reports came from the many thousands of third-party vendors on Amazon. Despite being responsible for most of the sales on the site, these types of sellers have been a constant headache for Amazon when it comes to keeping crappy bootleg products off its marketplace.
-snip-
Read more: https://gizmodo.com/just-how-bad-is-amazons-banned-products-problem-1837778839
______________________________________________________________________
Source: Ars Technica
AMAZON'S (ODD) CHOICE —
Unlicensed signal boosters get a boost from Amazon
The FCC regulates cell phone signal booster, but it's easy to find unauthorized devices.
LOUISE MATSAKIS, WIRED.COM - 8/31/2019, 4:30 PM
Cell phone signal boosters are powerful devices. Installed in a home or office, they can potentially amplify one signal bar into five. In rural areas with poor cell coverage, or in buildings where signals have trouble penetrating, they can be lifesavers, providing reliable access to communication networks and emergency services.
But boosters also have a dark side: If misconfigured or poorly manufactured, they can knock out service for everyone who happens to be nearby. That’s why the Federal Communications Commission began regulating the devices five years ago. Today, all consumer signal boosters sold and marketed in the United States must meet the agency’s strict technical standards. Doing so can get expensive, and many FCC-authorized boosters cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars. Ecommerce sites like Amazon offer cheaper options. The only problem is, they’re not always compliant.
The FCC requires booster manufacturers to get their products certified as safe, and it publishes each valid certification on its website. WIRED found a number of sellers offering boosters on Amazon that are not listed as certified by the FCC. Their models often cost less than $200, compared to $300 or more for FCC-certified versions. A number of them have been top sellers in the signal booster category, and some are promoted with a badge reading “Amazon’s Choice.”
“We’ve reached out to Amazon multiple times to inform them that these products are not legal for being sold in the US,” says Laine Matthews, the vice president for business at SureCall, an American signal booster manufacturer. “And it hasn’t yielded results.” Amazon removed some listings after WIRED reached out for comment this week.
Uncertified signal boosters are sold on other websites, but Amazon is by far the largest ecommerce platform where US consumers can purchase them. ...
-snip-
Unlicensed signal boosters get a boost from Amazon
The FCC regulates cell phone signal booster, but it's easy to find unauthorized devices.
LOUISE MATSAKIS, WIRED.COM - 8/31/2019, 4:30 PM
Cell phone signal boosters are powerful devices. Installed in a home or office, they can potentially amplify one signal bar into five. In rural areas with poor cell coverage, or in buildings where signals have trouble penetrating, they can be lifesavers, providing reliable access to communication networks and emergency services.
But boosters also have a dark side: If misconfigured or poorly manufactured, they can knock out service for everyone who happens to be nearby. That’s why the Federal Communications Commission began regulating the devices five years ago. Today, all consumer signal boosters sold and marketed in the United States must meet the agency’s strict technical standards. Doing so can get expensive, and many FCC-authorized boosters cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars. Ecommerce sites like Amazon offer cheaper options. The only problem is, they’re not always compliant.
The FCC requires booster manufacturers to get their products certified as safe, and it publishes each valid certification on its website. WIRED found a number of sellers offering boosters on Amazon that are not listed as certified by the FCC. Their models often cost less than $200, compared to $300 or more for FCC-certified versions. A number of them have been top sellers in the signal booster category, and some are promoted with a badge reading “Amazon’s Choice.”
“We’ve reached out to Amazon multiple times to inform them that these products are not legal for being sold in the US,” says Laine Matthews, the vice president for business at SureCall, an American signal booster manufacturer. “And it hasn’t yielded results.” Amazon removed some listings after WIRED reached out for comment this week.
Uncertified signal boosters are sold on other websites, but Amazon is by far the largest ecommerce platform where US consumers can purchase them. ...
-snip-
Read more: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/08/unlicensed-signal-boosters-get-a-boost-from-amazon/
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