Amazon Likens Itself to Auctioneer in ‘Seller’ Liability Appeal

Attorneys for Amazon.com Inc. and the parent of an injured girl sparred at the Fifth Circuit on Thursday over the relevance of a Texas auction case to Amazon’s potential liability for a product sold on its web marketplace.

The judges though pondered whether to ask the state high court to weigh in. Most of the argument focused on Amazon’s own role—as a seller or mere facilitator, a controller or mere holder of the product, and whether it’s engaged in the business of selling.

But one judge raised the possibility that Amazon acted as an agent of the product maker in ...