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Politics Home | Enough is enough
A recent investigation by BBC Watchdog found that sellers on Amazon Marketplace have been listing products that could put young lives at risk.
One product featured was part of a colourful stationary kit designed to look like a flower – but far from being the “cute gift for kids” advertised, these products contained hidden blades which could cause lethal injuries in the hands of children.
Investigators were able to buy the same product again from sellers on Amazon Marketplace only a fortnight after it was originally reported and taken down. It is difficult to square Amazon’s vast resources and technical capabilities with this abject failure to keep potentially deadly products off its platform. BBC Watchdog’s investigation into Amazon Marketplace is only the tip of the iceberg: our research has found similar issues many times from other online marketplaces such as eBay, AliExpress, and Temu.
It is also hard to understand how the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) has allowed Amazon to keep the product on sale, claiming it did not qualify as a children’s product, despite “great for school” references in the product listing. This is yet another example of the inadequate safety controls over online marketplaces – both in terms of the responsibility taken by the marketplaces and the wider regulation of online marketplaces in the UK. Last year’s Product Regulation and Metrology Act provides the framework for tougher regulation of the sector – and the government now needs to introduce measures to facilitate this as soon as possible.
Which? investigations have exposed the same pattern time and again: we report a dangerous product to an online marketplace, they take it down, and it gets re-listed within a matter of weeks. This reactive approach to product safety has become an all too common pattern for online marketplaces over the years. It’s time for these platforms to stop dragging their feet and get serious about tackling dangerous products.
Online marketplaces should be taking a more proactive approach to ensuring that products listed on their sites are safe. Dangerous items should not be allowed to reach consumers in the first place. By the time a product has been flagged and taken down it may be too late.
At the moment, online marketplaces do not have clear legal responsibilities that incentivise them to proactively check and monitor their sellers and the products that they sell. It can also be unclear to consumers who they are buying from and whether they can be trusted.
Dodgy sellers can all too easily make up a new brand name whenever their products are reported. This creates exasperating situations where items that are almost certainly dangerous can flourish unchecked due to a different label or perhaps a change of colour. Stronger regulation can help close this gap and ensure that the OPSS can hold online marketplaces to account for such products.
Which? researchers were easily able to find 33 near-identical saws sold under different brand names across several marketplaces. These saws matched almost exactly a product flagged by the OPSS as posing a risk of fire and electrocution. It beggars belief that the biggest online platforms, with all their tech and engineering knowhow, cannot seem to deploy similar tactics but on a bigger and more effective scale. The logical conclusion is that they could, but nothing is compelling them to put safety first.
Online retail is big business and the potential for consumer harm from online marketplaces that do not have adequate checks is correspondingly huge. Based on our survey work conducted in November 2025, Which? estimates that at least 8.8 million consumers have experienced harm from faulty, unsafe, or fraudulent products bought from online marketplaces. What’s more, today’s budget-conscious shoppers are naturally tempted to look for bargains on online marketplaces, which makes them vulnerable to sellers peddling cheap but dangerous knock-offs. Online marketplaces must not sit idly by while sellers on their platforms put lives at risk.
It’s time for the government to step in and force online marketplaces to get their act together. The government must urgently prioritise the secondary regulations it has promised following the Product Regulation and Metrology Act to impose a clear legal duty on online marketplaces for ensuring the safety of products sold through their third party sellers.
Consultations on product safety have been delayed for months while consumers are being exposed to life-threatening risks. Meanwhile, responsible businesses are also harmed by irresponsible rivals. This in turn undermines the government’s key missions to drive economic growth and tackle crime.
The government has no excuse for further delay: it’s time to hold the feet of Amazon and other online marketplaces to the fire and put a stop to the ‘wild west’ state of online marketplaces.
