The Washington Supreme Court has now ruled unanimously that e-commerce major Amazon.com must face lawsuits brought by families who lost their relatives to suicide after consuming sodium nitrite purchased from third-party vendors on its platform. As reported by Reuters, all the nine justices have rejected the decision of lower courts which shielded Amazon from negligence claims, which argued that suicide was a ‘superseding cause’ of death. Writing for the court, Justice G. Helen Whitener said that Amazon owed customers a duty of reasonable care and must avoid exposing them to “harm from the foreseeable conduct of a third party.” The judge further added that a jury should decide whether suicide was a foreseeable result of Amazon’s alleged failure to exercise that duty.
Allegations of families on Amazon
Twenty-eight families have filed lawsuits claiming that Amazon knew for years that the highly concentrated sodium nitrite was being misused for suicides yet continued to enable unrestricted sales. They argue that Amazon effectively enabled “suicide kits” by selling the chemical alongside other items that could assist in self-harm.The ruling of the court cover the appeals of four families who lost relatives aged 17 to 27 between 2020 and 2021 after ingesting sodium nitrite with purity levels of 98% or higher.
Amazon’s response
As per the Reuters report, Amazon disagreed with the decision but it claimed to remain committed to consumer safety. The company expressed condolences to affected families and noted that sodium nitrite is a legal chemical used as a food preservative, in laboratories, and for treating cyanide poisoning.In its statement, Amazon stressed on the fact that the highly concentrated sodium nitrite “is not intended for direct consumption” and acknowledged the risk of misuse. The company has since prohibited sales of sodium nitrite above 10% purity.
