What’s really in your Amazon Products? The truth behind your favorite Amazon products.
It’s not an exaggeration to say that almost everyone has used Amazon at one point or another, whether it was to compare prices across a range of products or to take advantage of a uniquely efficient fulfillment service. Convenience is a main driver in the success of the company which is known for providing a stress-free shopping experience. Amazon users are not only connected to virtually any product available online, but are given options when it comes to product variation and a range of price points.
Amazon’s ability to connect users with any product at a competitive price depends heavily on third-party sellers listing things for sale on the platform. Their participation is key to fulfilling the needs of an all-inclusive and diverse demographic of users.
It comes as no surprise that the influx of people using Amazon meant the company needed to onboard more sellers in order to keep up with demand. The anonymity that Amazon provides sellers means that consumers don't know exactly who they are purchasing from or any details about product origin. The term “fulfilled by Amazon” was found to be extremely misleading for consumers, who were interpreting it as a sort of ‘approval’ from Amazon ensuring product authenticity. The system leaves shoppers in the dark when it comes to what they are buying. This problem becomes amplified by the company’s reputation for denying liability when things go wrong.
A Wall Street Journal article revealed that there are third-party sellers who dig through trash looking for trash looking for products that can be cleaned up and sold as new through the guise of the internet.
With ambiguous names and limited ability to contact the seller, there is no real identity of the person or entity you are buying from; there’s also no one to be held accountable. In most cases, the original source of a product is neither sought after nor determined, and the passive recipient is none the wiser. However, there are still tons of people who have found banned, expired, discontinued, counterfeit, and potentially dangerous products for sale in just about every shopping category. Despite potentially dangerous products, lack of certainty about origin or even legitimacy, and no requirement for information regarding chain of supply, the convince of Amazon continues to draw millions of people back to the platform every day.
One of the examples from the WSJ article was a Trader Joe’s jar of Lemon Curd rescued from a dumpster outside the popular grocery chain and sold online through a third-party seller. To the Amazon customer, they found a fan-favorite product at a great price and it would be delivered straight to their door, no problems and no further questions. Customers prefer to live blissfully ignorant; to believe a kind, warm old woman had an extra jar of lemon curd in her pantry, found a small box and packaged it up, then sent it off to Amazon so that someone else might enjoy it. No lemon curd wasted. Lemon curd for everyone.
The problems lie in a lack of accountability, vague descriptors, seller screening, requiring supply chain information, and sellers who purposely confuse and misinform consumers for the sake of generating a profit. The failure to implement proper regulatory procedures for sellers and block banned or recalled products is amplified when ‘on-trend’ products like CBD flood the online marketplace. Amazon does not technically allow any regulated substance including CBD and THC products to be sold on the platform, even explicitly stating so in their Seller Central guidelines.
Despite this, third-party sellers find linguistic loopholes to target potential CBD consumers, editing their listing to avoid detection. To get CBD products listed on Amazon, sellers use terms like ‘hemp extract’ and ‘herbal extract’ which are vague, nondescript terms that have no real definition and are held to no standard. CBD products use the subcategory “Omega fatty acids” as a place to openly buy and sell tens of thousands of units of CBD products through Amazon. The best way for a seller to avoid product removal and account termination is to either lay low or sell so many units that Amazon benefits from having your listing published. This isn’t just wrong, but it's dangerous as these tolerated practices leave thousands of people in the dark about what they are consuming.
When purchasing CBD on Amazon, several things that can happen. You might receive a tincture of ‘hemp extract’ or ‘hemp oil’ containing no CBD whatsoever and providing no benefits, as there is no active ingredient. You might find that the product you receive does not match that of the label or description, and you aren’t ever able to be sure what you are consuming. Similarly the amount of CBD in a product or per dose wont ever be clear, as the inclusion of this information (typically confirmed by a lab test) could warrant being pulled from the site. In some of the worst cases, individuals purchased what was advertised as CBD isolate product (CBD products that contain no THC or other cannabinoids), only for the product to contain a high amount of THC, result in a failed drug test, and lead to employment termination. This was the unfortunate outcome for two truck drivers in Ohio and another one in Illinois in 2019.
The lack of clarity of terms like ‘hemp oil’ is abused on the Amazon marketplace. People are jumping through hoops to get CBD products, and quality cannabinoid products are generally acknowledged to be a safe therapeutic agent with a wide variety of applications. The WSJ investigated brands that were selling CBD through amazon and found that companies would design new labels and packaging for their products, just to get a listing on Amazon and cash in on the massively profitable marketplace.
Weller, a CBD company based out of Boulder, Colorado had new packaging made and edited product descriptions to omit any mention of CBD in the product in order to profit from Amazons millions of users. As companies realize that their competitors are breaking the Marketplace rules by selling CBD products, there is a fear that they are missing out on revenue and reaching potential customers. For Amazon buckling down and actually removing these products would result in millions of dollars of lost revenue. For sellers, violation of seller guidelines carries few repercussions, and a seller can be removed only to pop back up under different name. Amazon finds protection under safe harbor laws, because they claim to be committing an amount of resources into thwarting illegitimate listings.
The WSJ found that Amazon was actively selling thousands banned items on its website ranging from expired, unusable products, to those that are dangerous and outright illegal. In regard to CBD and hemp products, one product that advertised 1,000mg of CBD oil in its 1fl oz tincture was tested and found to contain only 8.7mg in the entire bottle. Gummy supplements that claimed to have 30mg of CBD per gummy, were found to have just 0.3mg. It’s important to note that the test conducted only determined CBD levels, and did not test for heavy metals, THC levels, pesticides, or other contaminants.
A large percent of these items even donned the ‘Amazon Choice’ identifier, and were being shipped directly from the Amazon Warehouse. Customers assume that this association means the product has been evaluated and determined to be safe, and that Amazon approves the product’s legitimacy before listing or shipping the item. As lawsuits accumulate around faulty products resulting in harm and even death, Amazon continues to claim they are not a retailer, simply a host that connects sellers to an end consumer via their platform, managing only the transaction. They are not, as a company, directly selling to the end consumer themselves. Upon issues with a product, blame is immediately redirected to an anonymous third-party seller.
What we are left with is a densely saturated market with low quality products, supported by eager and at times naïve customers, who shop on amazon because they are ready to buy. While reputable brands avoid Amazon, it leaves room for seller accounts to sell low quality products, knowing the market demand. The ban on CBD products being sold online safely has allowed for dangerous products to fill the gap in demand. The end result is reminiscent of the vaping ban where we saw legal, third party tested vape products banned despite knowledge that it was the illegal, unregulated vape cartridges being sold that were making people sick. The inability to access safe vape products legally only drove demand towards the harmful, illicit products that were causing illness in the first place. I believe this is what is happening for CBD consumers. The fact that safe brands can’t provide quality products via Amazon means there is no competition for sellers who continue to supply bad products to consumers. Perhaps Amazon should rethink their stance and start regulating and allowing for safe, tested, and reputable CBD products to sell on their platform.
