Amazon says it’s giving customers refunds for solar viewing glasses and filters that aren’t covered by the American Astronomical Society’s list of reputable vendors.
“Safety is among our highest priorities,” Amazon explained in a statement provided to GeekWire. “Out of an abundance of caution, we have proactively reached out to customers and provided refunds for eclipse glasses that may not comply with industry standards. We want customers to buy with confidence anytime they make a purchase on Amazon.com, and eclipse glasses sold on Amazon.com are required to comply with the relevant ISO standard.”
Amazon’s action sent some of the affected sellers scrambling to defend their products, with the Aug. 21 solar eclipse just a little more than a week away.
The brouhaha began a little less than two weeks ago, when the AAS reported that some vendors were selling eclipse glasses that didn’t block enough of the sun’s potentially eye-damaging radiation, and were going so far as to print bogus certification labels on the glasses.
