SEATTLE — Amazon.com, Inc. has been ordered for the third time in three years to stop selling illegal pesticides on its online marketplace, including some products claiming to kill viruses, federal officials said.
The Environmental Protection Agency announced Tuesday that its Seattle office issued a “stop-sale” order on Jan. 7 requiring Amazon to take down listings for dozen of products the agency said posed a health risk to people and pets exposed to the products, The Seattle Times reported.
The commerce giant said in a statement that it put “processes in place” to “proactively block” unregistered pesticides and products making inaccurate claims about COVID-19 before they are listed for sale.
“We have no idea what those products are made of,” Chad Schulze, an EPA enforcement officer in Seattle, said Tuesday. “And when you have people purchasing a product that says it will kill or control viruses in their personal space but it does not, that’s a huge risk as well.”