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Amazon Found Selling Illegal Pesticides 03-01-18 | Legislation

Amazon Found Selling Illegal Pesticides
EPA Levies Fines

Amazon and The Environmental Protection Agency have reached a settlement regarding the sale of illegal pesticides on Amazon.com. The EPA estimates there were thousands of sales of illegal pesticides, which could have harmful effects.

Amazon Services LLC. has agreed to monitor and remove illegal pesticide products for sale on its website to "significantly reduce the number of illegal pesticides available through the online marketplace," according to the EPA.

The EPA alleges Amazon committed approximately 4,000 violations of the "Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act," dating back to 2013.

An agreement was reached between the EPA and Amazon, which will pay an administrative penalty of more than $1.2 million and commit to enforcing mandatory pesticide training for any sellers wishing to sell pesticides on Amazon.com.

The punishment comes after the EPA investigated the websites third-party sellers, who were distributing illegal pesticides via Amazon warehouses.

The EPA inspected a facility in Lexington, Ky., where they also successfully ordered illegal pesticides. A stop sale, use or removal order was issued against Amazon to prohibit the sale of pesticides that resembled sidewalk chalk, to protect children from mistaking it.

Another stop sale order was issued in Jan. 2016 after it was discovered unregistered and misbranded products were available on Amazon.com.

In Oct. 2016 Amazon notified customers who purchased the products of their dangers and urged them to dispose of any products they had. They refunded customers, which came out to over $130,000.

The EPA hopes that by eradicating the sale of these products they can better protect non-English speaking groups, who are at greater risk of being exposed to the harmful pesticides.