No More Hoverboards On Amazon

The most recent setback to hoverboard retail may be its biggest one yet.

It wasn’t that more of the futuristic devices exploded; rather, it’s the fact that Amazon — as CNET reports — has announced it will stop selling them.

The outlet shares that the eCommerce giant removed all hoverboards from its site earlier this week — days after the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) declared the self-balancing scooters unsafe (across all makes and models) — stating that they “pose an unreasonable risk of fire” in light of the fact that none presently on the market meet voluntary safety standards.

With Target and Toys”R”Us having already stopped selling hoverboards, it’s very likely that Amazon’s decision to do the same, as CNET posits, will all but put the brakes on the sales of the devices, which peaked during the recent holiday season but have been slowing down ever since.

Although Amazon — which the outlet notes began removing some hoverboards from its site in December — did not comment on its move to cease selling them entirely, CNET opines that the opportunity for consumers who previously purchased them from Amazon will be able to return them for a refund, something that the CPSC set forth last month.

CNET adds that, last week, the CPSC put forth that hoverboards should be certified safe by the independent testing firm Underwriters Laboratories (UL), as well as meet United Nations requirements for lithium-ion battery products.

Although UL began accepting hoverboards for testing earlier this month, notes the outlet, it has yet to certify any of them as safe for consumer use.