Amazon India stops selling seat belt alarm defeat devices

Hong Kong/New Delhi
CNN Business
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Amazon has stopped selling devices that can disable seat belt alarms in india following a government request.

The Department of Transportation told CNN Business on Thursday that it had issued a notice to Amazon (AMZN), ordering it to remove listings of replacement seat belt clips that can be used to prevent car alarms from going off when someone is not buckled up.

The products are not illegal in India. But people use them « to escape wearing seat belts », Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari said in an interview with Reuters. The news agency was the first to report the move.

« The products in question are no longer available, » Amazon told CNN Business in a statement Thursday.

The e-commerce giant said its marketplace in India only sells products from external third-party sellers, not directly from Amazon.

“We take strict action against sellers if they are found to be selling a product in violation of applicable laws, including the list of unsafe or non-compliant products, because customer safety is a top priority,” he said. he declared.

The government’s request came just days after the death of prominent Indian businessman Cyrus Mistry. The former chairman of Tata Sons was killed in a road accident near Mumbai on Sunday. He was 54 years old.

Police said another passenger traveling with Mistry also died on Sunday, when their car hit a barrier between two lanes.

The accident has sparked a new national debate on safety as the number of road accident deaths rises.

Last month, a National Crime Records Bureau report showed that around 155,600 people died in crashes on Indian roads in 2021. This was up from the 154,700 deaths tracked in 2019. The number of fatalities fell in 2020 to 133,200 as pandemic shutdowns took hold. .