For over a year, 6 European consumers’ associations ordered a total of 250 products to conduct extensive research
Number of non-EU shops’ products that fail safety tests revealed. Source: shutterstock.com
According to Ecommerce News, 2/3 of products bought from the online marketplaces such as AliExpress, Wish, LightInTheBox, eBay and Amazon have failed safety tests.
The European consumers’ associations placed the orders at the popular online marketplaces to see how safe the products really are, the data unveiled. The organizations put 18 different product types through different kinds of sets. As a result, out of 250 products examined, 165 (66%) of them didn’t pass safety tests. Furthermore, 7 out of 7 carbon monoxide alarms and 11 out of 12 travel adaptors led to a safety test failure.
Among other products that UK consumers’ association tested were smoke and CO alarms that couldn’t detect smoke or carbon monoxide and Christmas lights that could give customers an electric shock. Besides, some of USB chargers and travel adaptors could cause a fire along with power bank that melted during testing.
The other associations found teeth-whitening products containing too much hydrogen peroxide, cosmetics sold without their ingredients listed and kids’ clothes with choke hazards.
The study found that online marketplaces aren’t responsible for the safety of the items sold through their platform. What is more, they aren’t responsible for eliminating unsafe products from sales or for informing customers when something goes wrong with products.
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