U.S. Supreme Court Declines to Hear Planet Green Cartridges’ Lawsuit Against Amazon

U.S. Supreme Court

Last week, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) declined to hear Planet Green Cartridges’ lawsuit against Amazon. The lawsuit alleged that Amazon is liable for third-party sellers falsely representing ink cartridges it sold on its website as recyclable, and demanded $500 million in damages. That leaves a Ninth Circuit ruling that dismissed the lawsuit in place, and Planet Green not able to purse the lawsuit any further.

Planet Green is one of the last U.S. remanufacturers of printer toner cartridges. It had argued that by allowing third-party to sell toner cartridges as falsely labeled as recycled, Amazon had caused millions of dollars of damages to companies like itself that did indeed recycle the cartridges it sold. 

However, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit  had ruled that Amazon is shielded by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act from Planet Green’s false advertising claims, arguing that Amazon merely publishes the third parties’ alleged misleading statements. That decision now stands, since SCOTUS has declined to hear the case.