Amazon ‘Seller’ Question Taken Up by Pennsylvania Top Court

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether an e-commerce business like Amazon.com Inc. can be held strictly liable under state law for a defective product purchased on its web marketplace.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit asked the state high court to consider the issue, which arose from Pennsylvania resident Heather Oberdorf’s purchase of an allegedly defective dog collar from a Chinese company. The collar allegedly left her permanently blind in one eye after it broke.

The state high court accepted the seller liability question Tuesday but didn’t agree to address the related question of ...