NEW YORK — Three U.S. senators are pushing Amazon to remove unsafe products from its online store, spurred by a Wall Street Journal investigation that found that more than 4,000 products on the site were mislabeled, declared unsafe or banned by regulators.
In a letter addressed to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, the senators repeated information reported in last week's Journal story and asked Bezos to respond to a list of questions, including how the company will insure that it doesn't sell products that have been recalled. The letter was signed by Democratic Senators Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Robert Menendez of New Jersey and Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts.
Amazon confirmed on Thursday that it received the letter, and pointed to a blog post it published last week saying that it had invested $400 million to make sure its products are "safe, complaint, and authentic."
In its investigation, the Journal found for sale on Amazon.com items including motorcycle helmets that failed federal safety tests, a toy xylophone that contained lead levels that exceeded federal limits, and eyelash-growth serum whose sellers falsely claimed was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The senators gave Amazon a month to respond to their questions. Amazon said it plans to respond to the letter by the Sept. 29 deadline.
