Amazon found liable for 3rd-party product
 
Consumer discretionary stocks hit 52 week high
Consumer Discretionary Stocks, traded in the exchange traded funds (ETF) world, could get another big boost next week after hitting a new 52-week high.
CRFF research director, Todd Rosales, head of the ETF , said they were expecting prime day to be a record-breaking event for Amazon this year

Amazon is still the chief innovator
Jay Jacobs,  head of research at global X funds, said: “you have to ask what are the small companies doing differently to separate themselves on the markets? When you look at the Amazons of the world, they're the innovative ones, not the small companies right now.”

Amazon has product liability found liable for harm caused by Product Sold by 3rd Party Seller
Amazon product liability: A federal court ruling that Amazon.com Inc. can be held liable for a dog collar sold on its website that partly blinded a woman could complicate the online merchant’s business if it is applied broadly.

Dog-Owner Blinded
The lawsuit was brought by a woman, Heather Oberdorf, who had bought a dog collar with a retractable leash sold by the Furry Gang through Amazon. When she took her dog for a walk, the pet lunged, breaking a ring on the collar, she claimed. That caused the leash to recoil and hit her face and eyeglasses, permanently blinding her in the left eye, she alleged.
The 3rd party seller - “The Furry Gang” - could not be contacted or otherwise found by Amazon or the consumer. Amazon product liability thus fell to Amazon itself.
The case is Oberdorf v. Amazon.com Inc., Third Circuit Court of Appeals., No. 18-1041, 7/3/19.

Court of Appeals Decision
The Third Circuit Court of Appeals, in Philadelphia, on July 3 overturned a judge’s decision that Amazon was shielded under the Communications Decency Act, which protects online businesses from lawsuits over the postings of their users.
Specifically, The Communications Decency Act protects Amazon from Oberdorf’s failure-to-warn claims, the appeals court said in an opinion by Judge Jane R. Roth. But the Act’s immunity provision for online-platform providers doesn’t protect the company from her claims that Amazon is liable for “selling, inspecting, marketing, distributing, failing to test, or designing” the collar, the court said.
This meant that the Amazon product liability ultimately fell on Amazon itself. It’s the first federal appeals court to hold that Amazon is a product “seller” that can be held liable under state law for sales on its marketplace.
That is so, the court said in a divided ruling on Wednesday, “even though the products are sourced and shipped by third-party vendors.” It found that “Amazon’s involvement in transactions extends beyond a mere editorial function; it plays a large role in the actual sales process.”

Future Implications
If the ruling is applied more broadly, it could significantly affect Amazon's product liability, which in turn could affect its entire business model.
More than half the items sold on the popular site come from independent merchants. Amazon takes a commission on sales and charges additional fees for storing products in its warehouses, packaging them and delivering them. But it technically doesn’t own the inventory, a fact it has used to protect itself from product liability cases.
Pennsylvania uses guidelines employed by other states, so the Third Circuit’s reasoning could be applied more widely. That could impose on Amazon greater responsibility over the goods posted on its site, possibly adding new costs and complexities to a business model designed around efficiency.

Amazon and the USA Governments
However, the precedent is not yet clear-cut. Also, although Amazon has not yet commented on the ruling,