Amazon Avoids Liability for Suicides With Chemicals Sold on Site

Amazon.com Inc. can’t be held liable for the deaths of two teens who bought a third-party’s sodium nitrite on its website and used the industrial chemical to end their lives, a federal judge in Washington said.

The parents’ claims under Washington product liability law fail, the US District Court for the Western District of Washington said. Amazon didn’t manufacture the sodium nitrite, and it can’t be held liable as a seller under it in this case, the court said Tuesday.

Amazon has contested seller liability in lawsuits involving various types of products, with mixed results.

Ohio’s top court ruled in 2020 that Amazon couldn’t be held liable for a teenager’s death from caffeine powder sold on its online marketplace because it didn’t exert enough control over the product to be a “supplier” under state law. But two California appeals courts have ruled that Amazon could be held liable to customers injured by defective products—a hoverboard and a laptop battery.

Here, the teens intentionally ingested sodium nitrite manufactured and sold by Loudwolf Inc. on Amazon’s website, Judge James L. Robart said.

Their parents alleged that sodium nitrite has “become a highly recommended suicide method on the pro-suicide website Sanctioned Suicide.”

According to the parents, Amazon has received dozens of notices that sodium nitrite products were being used for suicide, dating back to at least 2018. Yet, the company continued to sell sodium nitrite on its website until December 2022, their complaint alleged.

The parents said that their childrens’ deaths were caused by the chemical and alleged Amazon negligently marketed it.

Their claims fall under the Washington Product Liability Act, the exclusive remedy for such claims under state law, the court said Tuesday.

The law imposes liability against sellers in limited circumstances. But here, the parents failed to establish seller liability because they didn’t show that the sodium nitrite was defective, that Amazon had a duty to provide additional danger warnings, or that Amazon’s alleged failure to provide further warnings was the proximate cause of the teenagers’ deaths, the court said.

The teens intentionally sought the product out for its fatal properties, the court said. Their deaths were “undisputedly tragic but the court can only conclude that they necessarily knew the dangers of bodily injury and death associated with ingesting Sodium Nitrite,” Robart said.

The parents also alleged Amazon intentionally concealed information by removing negative product reviews that warned about the suicide risk of sodium nitrite.

That claim is barred by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which shields internet platforms from liability for publishing third-party content, the court said.

C.A. Goldberg PLLC and Corrie J. Yackulic of Seattle represented the families. Perkins Coie represented Amazon.

The case is McCarthy v. Amazon.com, Inc., W.D. Wash., No. 2:23-cv-00263, 6/27/23.