EBay, Etsy, TikTok and Amazon all listed illegal or dangerous products on their websites, according to findings as part of an experiment by Which?.
In 2023, the consumer champion revealed eBay, Amazon, AliExpress and Wish.com all listed unsafe carbon monoxide alarms, potentially putting buyers’ lives at risk.
As part of the investigation, it bought and tested an unbranded 500W plug-in heater and found it was unsafe due to carrying a high risk of causing a fire.
All of the marketplaces, as well as Wish.com, removed the item, but fast-forward a year, and the online platforms all hosted a new listing of that product.
EBay accepted the relisting and even recommended a price based on similar items online. However, it did not recognise that the heater ought to have been removed.
Dangerous product on sale for weeks
The listing did not need to include any product safety information, but Which? added a safety warning provided by the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) in December 2022, which confirmed it could cause an electric shock.
However, it was two weeks after the listing was reported anonymously that the item was removed, seven weeks after it went on sale.
It was a similar story for Etsy, the newbie online marketplace that requires goods to be handmade to be sold. The website also required an anonymous report to eventually remove the listing after being on sale for 10 weeks.
As well as issues with keeping the product on sale, it formed part of “dozens” of other electronic products that were not handmade, including toothbrushes and alarm clocks.
Social media giant TikTok was the only firm not to remove the product from its TikTok Shop marketplace after safety issues were flagged. This is even after the OPSS’ description of the product was added to the listing’s details.
It took Which? approaching the company formally for the dangerous heater to be taken down from its website. In total, the item was on sale for almost three months, giving customers ample time to purchase it.
Amazon appeared to have tighter controls on its listings, asking sellers to include a product ID barcode. But, as the item was unbranded, there was no barcode, meaning the item should not have been able to be listed at all.
However, a Declaration of Conformity was requested by the online firm, which shows the item complies with safety standards. Amazon reviewed the hazard warning and CE mark submitted once they arrived after two weeks and then removed the item.
When the consumer relisted the item, it took a week for it to be taken down by the online marketplace once it recognised it was the same dangerous good.
Following its findings, Which provided three tips to prevent you from buying a potentially harmful product online.
- Steer clear of brands you haven’t heard of and unbranded products.
- Check out the seller by reading reviews of their other products and feedback on sites like Trustpilot to see if other customers had any issues.
- Be wary of counterfeit items as well as fake CE/UK CA marks included on the listing.
‘Customers at risk of severe harm’
Rocio Concha, Which?’s director of policy and advocacy, said: “Our investigation shows how some of the largest and most popular online marketplaces are failing to prevent dangerous and illegal products being sold to consumers and are leaving them at risk of severe harm.
“Despite their assurances, it is clear that current measures taken by online marketplaces to detect and prevent unsafe products from appearing on their websites are not working and some of the platforms appear to be treating safety as an afterthought.”
Concha added: “The Government’s Product Regulation and Metrology Bill is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to place clear legal responsibilities on online marketplaces to prevent unsafe products being sold. New laws must be robustly enforced by a regulator that has the ability to issue heavy fines.”
Marketplaces’ replies
The firms responded to the consumer champion’s study and provided the following responses.
EBay said: “Consumer safety is one of our top priorities and [eBay has] implemented algorithms to prevent the sale of unsafe products, including image recognition, regular monitoring and the use of AI, to swiftly remove unsafe products it finds. It’s committed to refining its approach to ensure it detects prohibited listings.”
Etsy said: “Keeping our users safe is paramount, and Etsy prohibits the sale of dangerous items on our marketplace, including items that have been recalled by Governments or manufacturers, and its Trust & Safety team works constantly to remove items that violate its policies.”
TikTok said it removed the mentioned products for violating its policies on electricals and electronics. It also said that no purchases were made, and that it uses a combination of technology and manual moderation to enforce its policies and is constantly looking for ways to improve its enforcement strategies.
Amazon said: “Safety is a top priority and it requires all products to comply with applicable laws and regulations. It said of our investigation that ‘although this was a fake product listed with the intention to evade our controls, it was detected and removed by our checks and no customers purchased the product’.”
