ABSTRACT
… This Article is the third in a series of articles that develop a functional, control-based approach to platform liability. It proceeds in five steps. First, we develop the general tort principles that govern liability for transactions in defective consumer products. Second, we show how Amazon, as a platform situated squarely between a third-party seller and the customer, has control over both sides of that transaction. This places Amazon in a position where they should be held accountable as a non-manufacturing seller, where the third-party seller is not amenable to suit. Third, we give an example of how courts have resisted this conclusion, taking shelter in formal concepts of title rather than traditional understandings of culpability and loss allocation. Fourth, we develop a functional approach to platform liability that uses traditional tort principles to evaluate the platform’s role in a transaction and apply those principles to Amazon. Lastly, we consider how these principles should apply to platforms generally.
Edward J Janger and Aaron D Twerski, Functional Tort Principles for Internet Platforms: Duty,Relationship, and Control, Yale Journal of Law and Technology, volume 26, issue 1, 2003.
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