Shopify paid Kenneth Law $149K as he sold lethal products to vulnerable buyers

Shopify paid $148,595 to Kenneth Law between January 2020 and May 2023 for sales conducted on his websites — transactions that prosecutors say involved the sale of lethal products to vulnerable people worldwide.

Law, a 60-year-old from Ontario, pleaded guilty last week to aiding 14 suicides in the province between 2021 and 2023. He has been linked to 79 additional deaths in the U.K. and several others in Quebec, the U.S., and New Zealand.

The court heard that Law used aliases on suicide forums to direct users to his own websites, where he sold toxic salt and suffocation equipment marketed as items for other purposes. On one site called Imtime Cuisine, he advertised a chemical as a meat-curing salt. On other pages, he was more direct, describing products as "exit masks." In some instances, he asked buyers to destroy evidence.

PayPal transferred Law an additional $148,386 in Canadian currency during the same period.

When the company was notified of policy violations, Shopify said it "immediately reviewed and took action to terminate all stores associated with Kenneth Law." The company did not say when it was notified or by whom, and did not respond to questions about whether it proactively monitors products sold on its platform.

University of Ottawa law professor Jennifer Quaid noted that Canadian laws do not specifically hold online platforms criminally liable for items sold by third parties. "An entity like Shopify can say, 'We didn't know about it, but as soon as we found out, of course we removed it,'" she said.

The case has long angered David Parfett, whose 22-year-old son Tom died in a London-area hotel. "There's still not enough understanding about the harms that can be attributed to internet platforms," he told CBC.

The severity of Law's crimes has highlighted gaps in how e-commerce platforms monitor harmful goods.