Amazon takes down seatbelt alarm blockers

AMAZON said on Thursday (8) it has removed from its Indian marketplace listings of products that disable car seatbelt alarms, a day after the country's transport minister said he had asked the company to act against such devices.

Road safety issues have been in the spotlight in India after business tycoon Cyrus Mistry died in a car crash at the weekend. Local media reported that Mistry wasn't wearing a seat belt, reigniting the road safety debate in the world's fourth-largest car market.

In an interview on Wednesday, Nitin Gadkari told Reuters metal clips available on Amazon were inserted in seatbelt slots to bypass the alarm that typically keeps pinging when seatbelts are not in use while a car is being driven.

In a statement to Reuters on Thursday, Amazon said it takes strict action against sellers in case they are found to be selling any product in violation of Indian laws, ‘including listing of unsafe or non-compliant products.'

‘The products in question are no longer available,' Amazon said.

Amazon's India website on Wednesday (7) had several listings for small metal clips described as products that can ‘eliminate' seatbelt alarms across car variants and models.