Injured by a Product Bought Online? What Stiner v. Amazon Means in Ohio

Published October 15, 2020 · Ohio Supreme Court

This year, more Ohio families than ever are buying everything from space heaters to supplements with a few taps on a phone. When one of those products turns out to be dangerous, the first question is simple: who is responsible? On October 1, the Supreme Court of Ohio gave an answer that will make some of these cases harder, and that makes early investigation more important than ever.

The case is Stiner v. Amazon.com, Inc., Slip Opinion No. 2020-Ohio-4632. It involves a family's worst loss, and it is worth understanding before you assume the company whose name is on the website will answer for what you bought.

A death from a product sold through Amazon's marketplace

According to the Court's opinion, in early 2014 a young woman searched Amazon's website for a "pre-workout" supplement and bought a bag of pure caffeine powder. The seller was a third-party company that listed the product on the Amazon Marketplace under its own storefront name. That seller kept the powder in its own inventory, packaged it, and shipped it directly to the buyer. Amazon never possessed or touched it.

A few months later, she shared some of the powder with her friend, 18-year-old Logan Stiner. He died that same day of acute caffeine toxicity. His father, as administrator of his estate, sued Amazon, the third-party seller, the Chinese manufacturer, and others. The manufacturer could never be served, and other defendants were dismissed, leaving Amazon as the only defendant. The trial court granted summary judgment to Amazon, and the Ninth District Court of Appeals affirmed.

What the Court decided

Ohio's Products Liability Act imposes liability mainly on manufacturers, but it also reaches "suppliers." Under R.C. 2307.71(A)(15)(a)(i), a supplier is a business that "sells, distributes, leases, prepares, blends, packages, labels, or otherwise participates in the placing of a product in the stream of commerce."

The Stiner family argued that Amazon "otherwise participates" in sales on its marketplace: it runs the website, controls communications with buyers, processes payments, and limits sellers' pricing. The Court disagreed. Writing for the majority, Justice French reasoned that the catchall phrase must be read alongside the specific acts listed before it, all of which involve some control over the product itself. The Court held that a company "must exert some control over the product as a prerequisite to supplier liability." Because the third-party seller sourced, stored, packaged, and shipped the powder itself, Amazon was not a supplier on these facts.

Justice Donnelly agreed with the result only because he felt bound by the statute's wording. He wrote that the 1988 law reflects a pre-internet retail world, and that "laws like this Act might as well have been written in the stone age." He also noted that Amazon is often the only party a customer can realistically reach. The majority said arguments about who is best positioned to bear the cost of injuries are for the General Assembly.

Why this matters: the "reachable defendant" problem

Product cases often turn on who can actually be brought into an Ohio courtroom. Ohio law has a safeguard for this. Under R.C. 2307.78(B), a supplier can be held liable as if it were the manufacturer when, among other things, the manufacturer is not subject to judicial process in Ohio, or the injured person cannot collect a judgment from the manufacturer because it is insolvent.

That safeguard only works if there is a supplier to hold. When the manufacturer is overseas and the seller is a small company that can disappear, Stiner means the online marketplace may not be there to fill the gap, at least where it never handled the product. The Court was careful to decide only the facts in front of it. The seller in Stiner did not use Amazon's "Fulfillment by Amazon" program, in which Amazon stores and ships the product, and the Court did not decide how the rule applies in that situation.

Who can still be held responsible

A dangerous product can still lead to a strong case. Depending on the facts, responsible parties may include:

• The manufacturer, for a design defect, a manufacturing defect, or inadequate warnings.
• The actual seller, if it sold, packaged, labeled, or otherwise controlled the product, and especially if the manufacturer cannot be reached.
• A distributor or importer that handled the product on its way to market.
• A business that marketed the product under its own name. R.C. 2307.78(B)(7) treats a supplier that sells a product under its own label or trade name as if it were the manufacturer.
• A supplier that will not identify the manufacturer. Under R.C. 2307.78(B)(8), a supplier that fails to respond timely and reasonably to a written request for the manufacturer's name and address can be held liable as if it were the manufacturer.

Each of those routes depends on facts that must be gathered quickly.

What to do if you are hurt by a product you bought online

Keep the product. Do not throw it away, return it, or send it to the seller or the marketplace for a "replacement." The product is the most important evidence in the case. Our guide chapter on gathering evidence while it still exists explains why physical evidence disappears so quickly.

Keep the packaging, labels, and instructions. Warnings, or the lack of them, are often central.

Save the order records. Screenshot the product listing, the "sold by" and "shipped by" information, the order confirmation, the shipping label, and any messages with the seller. Listings change and sellers vanish. Preserving Documents and Records covers how to organize them.

Get medical care and keep those records. If a product injury caused a death, the family's wrongful-death claim depends on the same evidence.

Call a lawyer early. Identifying the real seller, the importer, and the manufacturer, and sending preservation and disclosure requests, takes time.

What this means for you

• After Stiner, an online marketplace that never possessed or controlled a third-party seller's product is not a "supplier" under Ohio's Products Liability Act.
• Manufacturers, sellers, distributors, and importers can still be responsible, and Ohio law lets a supplier stand in for an unreachable manufacturer.
• The Court did not decide cases where the marketplace itself stores and ships the product.
• The product, packaging, and order records are critical; preserve them immediately.