Last month we wrote that Amazon had frozen stock of ‘eclipse glasses’, refunded thousands of customers and told them not to use the glasses that they had purchased and limited seller accounts for those merchants selling glasses that Amazon considered could be counterfeit. One seller even took the extreme measure of flying to Amazon HQ in Seattle to demand that his account be reinstated.
Now it would appear that Amazon were right to be worried. A South Carolina couple who watched the eclipse, which covered a vast swathe of the North American continent on the 21st of August, are proposing a class action against Amazon saying that their eyes have been damaged. The class action lawsuit seeks to represent any other Amazon customer who believe that their eyes were injured whilst watching the eclipse with glasses purchased on the marketplace.
The plaintiffs complain of pain and discomfort, headaches, eye watering, dark spots in their line of vision, suffered vision impairment, including blurriness, a central blind spot, increased sensitivity, changes in perception of color, and distorted vision according the law suit. They claim that Amazon’s “woefully inadequate email notification” recall on the 19th was too late and that they did not receive it.
Whilst sellers of legitimate products which they were prevented from selling as Amazon didn’t have their documentation proving authenticity might be peeved, the case demonstrates that Amazon were in hindsight right to be wary and unfortunately have a bit of a PR nightmare on their hands and worse still at least some, maybe thousands, who watch the eclipse may suffer permanent damage to their sight.
