Commenting on eBay’s new regulatory portal to remove dangerous goods, Lesley Rudd, Chief Executive of Electrical Safety First said: “We welcome any move that speeds up the process of removing dangerous goods online yet more proactive work is needed from marketplaces in general. Our investigations have continuously found dangerous, unbranded electrical goods with obvious visual defects for sale to UK consumers. These products often lack some of the most basic safety features. A reactive approach to removing dangerous goods once they are for sale must not come at the expense of more proactive work to prevent these products from going live in the first place.
Online marketplaces must be legally recognised as a retailer in order to sufficiently tackle the issue of dangerous goods sold via their sites and we urge the Government to include these sites in their forthcoming Online Safety Bill.”