Amazon Faces Lawsuit For Selling Donkey Meat Products
Not great news for Amazon this week as they are facing a lawsuit that the Center for Contemporary Equine Studies has filed against them for selling products containing donkey meat. Allegedly, the ecommerce giant is selling a gelatin made from the skin of donkeys called “ejiao” in various products like health supplements, which is against California animal welfare law.
Don’t Miss
- Do you need a business bank account for your online business? Have a look at our review of the five best bank accounts for sellers, some of which are free with no minimum balance or deposits.
- Boost your social media engagement with Publer. Learn how you can save time writing engaging content faster with AI. [sponsored]
- eBay to compete with sellers now!
- New stamp prices and fee increases are coming from USPS on July 9.
- SMALL BUSINESS WEEK SPECIAL: Three tips for SMB ecommerce success in 2023.
Advocacy groups, like the Brooke USA Foundation, are fighting against Amazon to stop the sale of ejiao, as it contributes to the slaughter and skinning of millions of donkeys each year. Some consumers have also been shocked to discover that products on Amazon claiming to be “100 percent pure, natural herbs” contain ejiao instead.
Amazon Lags Behind Competitors
While Walmart and eBay have already pledged to remove products containing ejiao and prohibit future sales, Amazon has yet to take any action. The lawsuit is aiming to use an obscure law, the 1998 Prohibition of Horse Slaughter and Sale of Horsemeat for Human Consumption Act, to stop the sale of ejiao by claiming that donkeys are equine animals.
Wired conducted an analysis of 1,000 products containing ejiao or that included terms like “donkey hide,” and found that at least 15 edible items contained the gelatin, and at least four were available to ship directly from Amazon warehouses.
The Pegasus Foundation estimates that 8 to 10 million donkeys are killed and skinned each year to meet the demand for ejiao. A 2019 report by The Donkey Sanctuary found that “cruel and often illegal treatment of donkeys by local traders is rife.”
The lawsuit is calling on Amazon to immediately ban ejiao, and if the court rules against the retailer, the company could potentially face fines of $1 million per each day a transaction involving the gelatin occurs in California. The Brooke USA Foundation states that curbing product availability could impact the economic gain of those involved in the manufacture of ejiao, both legal and illegal suppliers.
At the time of writing Amazon has yet to comment on the matter.
Subscribe to Our Newsletter
We do not sell your information.
You can unsubscribe at any time.
Head over to our Facebook Group for Small Business Marketplace Sellers and interact with us and other small business owners. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn to stay up to date with relevant news and business insights for your online business.
Dave Furness
Dave is a Co-Founder of eSeller365. For over 10 years he has been involved with eCommerce with a particular interest in the marketplaces and the huge opportunities available for sellers when utilizing a multi-channel strategy. After a year of being the UK’s youngest eCommerce consultant, he built an education platform called UnderstandingE that showed the world how to utilize Magento as the “Third Generation of Multi-Channel software”.
Dave has also created a YouTube channel dedicated to entrepreneurship and eCommerce as well as a podcast dedicated to mental health awareness. When Dave isn’t working his main interests include learning and playing Chess, researching the Crypto and NFT space, and trying to find the nearest beach.