1714.46.
(a) Consistent with the policy considerations underlying the doctrine of strict products liability of enhancing product safety, maximizing protection to the injured plaintiff, and apportioning costs among defendants, an electronic retail marketplace shall be strictly liable for all damages caused by defective products placed into the stream of commerce to the same extent that a retailer of that defective product would be liable and shall be deemed to be a retailer for purposes of California strict liability law. The liability of an
electronic retail marketplace shall be equal to, but not greater than, the liability of a retailer as provided in Vandermark v. Ford Motor Co. (1964) 61 Cal.2d 256, and all defenses to strict liability that are available to a retailer under California law shall be preserved for an electronic retail marketplace.(b) An electronic retail marketplace shall not be liable as described in subdivision (a) if any of the following conditions are met:
(1) The product that caused the damage was one of the following:
(A) Preowned or used and prominently described or prominently advertised on
the electronic retail marketplace as preowned or used at the time it was purchased by the consumer.
(B) Handmade.
(2) The electronic retail marketplace did not receive a direct or indirect financial benefit from the sale of the defective product that caused the injury. A fee that is exclusively for an advertisement is not a “financial benefit from the sale of the defective product.”
(3) The sale or transaction of the product occurred by auction and is exempt from strict liability, as described in Tauber-Arons Auctioneers Co. v. Superior Court (1980) 101 Cal.App.3d 268.
(c) Notwithstanding subdivision (b), an electronic retail marketplace shall be strictly liable for the sale of preowned, used, handmade, or auctioned defective products if the application of strict liability to the electronic retail marketplace is consistent with the policy considerations underlying strict liability.
(d) As used in this section, the following definitions apply:
(1) “Electronic retail marketplace” means an electronic place or internet website that is engaged in the business of placing or facilitating the placement of products into the stream of commerce in this state, regardless of whether the vendor, product, or the marketplace has a physical presence in the
state or whether, as described in Canifax v. Hercules Powder Co. (1965) 237 Cal.App.2d 44, 52, the electronic retail marketplace ever takes physical possession of the product. “Electronic retail marketplace” includes any subsidiaries or related party companies, including, but not limited to, any company that would constitute an “affiliated group” under Section 1504 of the Internal Revenue Code.
(2) “Handmade” means a product that conforms to all applicable state and federal consumer health and safety laws and is made by the vendor in the primary residence of the vendor, so long as the vendor’s sales of handmade products generate less than fifty thousand dollars ($50,000) per year in revenues.
(3) “Product” means a tangible good that is subject to strict product liability law.
(4) “Vendor” means the manufacturer, distributor, seller, or supplier of the product. “Vendor” does not include the electronic retail marketplace.
(e) This section does not limit the provisions of existing law that make manufacturers, distributors, sellers, retailers, and suppliers of products strictly liable for the safety of those products and prohibit the sale of products that violate state or federal health or safety laws.