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Liability for Import and Sale of a Potentially Dangerous Product

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  • 12-19-2012, 03:13 PM
    TheFacter
    Liability for Import and Sale of a Potentially Dangerous Product
    My question involves an injury that occurred in the state of: Texas

    I want to start an import business and sell the items online. I want to sell an item similar to the Buckyballs. I am going to be importing these items from China and reselling them on eBay and Amazon. My fear/question is if someone swallows the balls on accident or something and gets sick or the magnets harm them, am I liable? Or is the manufacturer liable? How do I avoid this happening and getting sued?

    P.S. I don't have an LLC or anything like that.
  • 12-19-2012, 03:46 PM
    llworking
    Re: Liability As Online Seller
    Quote:

    Quoting TheFacter
    View Post
    My question involves an injury that occurred in the state of: Texas

    I want to start an import business and sell the items online. I want to sell an item similar to the Buckyballs. I am going to be importing these items from China and reselling them on eBay and Amazon. My fear/question is if someone swallows the balls on accident or something and gets sick or the magnets harm them, am I liable? Or is the manufacturer liable? How do I avoid this happening and getting sued?

    P.S. I don't have an LLC or anything like that.

    Your protect yourself with being careful what you buy, careful about labeling, and get good business liability and product liability insurance. This should be done whether you are a sole proprietor, an LLC or a Corp.
  • 12-19-2012, 03:53 PM
    flyingron
    Re: Liability As Online Seller
    You should known the CPSC is one step away from banning these entirely. The original manufacturer Maxfield and Oberton has stopped making them. Selling them will be illegal and eBay will end your auctions without compensation if you list prohibited items. Further there are law firms all over the country gearing up to sue everybody involved in their manufacture and sale. I dare say the way things are in today's litigious community, even if your balls never end up in the hands of a kid who sustains injury, you very well can be the target of one of these suits.

    An LLC or corporation will not likely help you.
  • 12-19-2012, 07:38 PM
    TheFacter
    Re: Liability As Online Seller
    What if I were to put a warning on the packaging that tells the consumer to "NOT INGEST" the item or something along those lines and warns them of the potential harm. Does that still mean that I'm liable, even though I provided adequate warning?
  • 12-19-2012, 07:45 PM
    flyingron
    Re: Liability As Online Seller
    M&O already marked them "13+" and it didn't help them.
    If the CPSC succeeds in getting these banned as hazardous materials, as they have in the past for things like JARTS, it is 100% illegal to import or sell them no matter how much weasel wording you put on the packages.
    EBAY has a very aggressive policy on illegal to sell stuff (or even just RECALLED stuff like certain of the Corning glass coffee pots). You can expect your auctions to be deleted. Repeat listing when you've been shutdown will cause you to be kicked off ebay as well.

    Go ahead, import all this stuff now, but the way things are going, by early next year, you're going to have a lot of inventory you are going to be stuck with that you can not legally sell.

    Half of the hits I get searching for info on Buckyballs are links to the ambulance chasing lawfirms ready to file the personal injury lawsuit on your behalf. This is not a tremendously great market to be in right now.
  • 12-19-2012, 07:53 PM
    TheFacter
    Re: Liability As Online Seller
    Yes, but from what I can find, they're not going after people selling these products, just the companies creating them.
  • 12-19-2012, 08:01 PM
    flyingron
    Re: Liability As Online Seller
    Who is "they?"

    I guarantee the lawyers will go after anybody who is involved who has money and is easily reached. It's going to be next to impossible to sue the manufacturer in China, so they can go after you as agent, importer, and retailer. The liability is quite real.

    As pointed out, there is only a matter of time before this goes form a "liability" issue to being "illegal." M&O and their well paid lawyers are giving up at this point. How much money do you have to take on the CPSC? This isn't a "legal" issue (yet) but it would be foolish to invest in a lot of inventory it's going to be illegal to sell.

    As pointed out Amazon and EBAY are not obliged to permit you to sell stuff. Ebay will declare your items to be contraband even if the CPSC doesn't make the sale illegal. Ordering them recalled is enough to make them prohibited items on ebay. Believe me, I have a special access for reporting such things on ebay. You won't last long there.
  • 12-19-2012, 08:09 PM
    llworking
    Re: Liability As Online Seller
    Quote:

    Quoting TheFacter
    View Post
    Yes, but from what I can find, they're not going after people selling these products, just the companies creating them.

    Now that is just silly...of course they want to be eliminating it at the retail level...that's the most important step.

    Now that I realize that you want to import something dangerous and being banned, my answer is different. You cannot make and sustain a business on a product that you cannot guarantee that you can sell when it gets delivered.
  • 12-19-2012, 08:12 PM
    jk
    Re: Liability As Online Seller
    so, they are somehow going to outlaw spherical magnets approximately 1/4" in diameter. I guess these guys need to change their catalogs:

    http://unitednuclear.com/index.php?m...ex&cPath=70_71


    http://www.kjmagnetics.com/products.asp?cat=12

    http://www.gaussboys.com/store/index...s/spheres.html

    and many many more sites that sell neodymium iron boron magnets in a small spherical shape.



    apparently there is ban on selling them about to begin in less than a day:

    http://www.getbuckyballs.com/products/#!/buckyballs

    thefacter:

    you would do well to listen. As Ron states, the lawyers for the injured kids are going to sue everybody they can. Since suing the folks in China is a pain in the butt, they will take the next best thing and that would be people in your position: importers, retailers, basically anybody the lawyers can easily get hold of and easily attach their assets when you lose.
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