Many popular products were exposed for safety risks, and 149 listings were deleted

Recently, consumer watchdog Which? warned British consumers that a number of carbon monoxide alarms posing safety risks were being sold on platforms such as Amazon and eBay .

According to Which?, they found 149 risky carbon monoxide alarm listings on four online platforms, and the listings for these products have now been removed.

Of the four platforms, only eBay released specific sales figures. According to the company, at least 1,311 risky alarms were sold on the platform.

On eBay , when filtering by "cheapest price", five alarms appear in the most prominent positions.

One of the battery-powered alarms first appeared on eBay seven years ago and accounts for five of the 10 cheapest carbon monoxide alarms on the platform .

In 28 tests this year, this model of carbon monoxide alarm failed to respond 10 times, and even when it did respond the sound was very quiet.

According to Which?, there are 88 sellers selling this type of alarm on four platforms including Amazon and eBay , and eBay sellers alone sold nearly 600 units .

Another unbranded carbon monoxide and smoke alarm failed to trigger 22 out of 28 tests and was offered for sale on eBay by 22 sellers, who sold a total of 718 units.

Another unbranded alarm, sold by six sellers on Amazon and eBay , failed to activate 15 out of 28 times.

Which? believes that online platforms need to do more to prevent products with safety hazards from appearing on the platform, rather than passively removing these products after consumer rights protection organizations discover these products ; Which? has been expressing concerns about dangerous carbon monoxide alarms in recent years. Although these alarms may have fatal consequences, online platforms still allow these alarms to appear on the market; the government must speed up and formulate new regulations that put consumer safety first, and impose severe penalties on online platforms that violate the regulations.

In response, an Amazon spokesperson said that product safety is Amazon's top priority. The platform requires all products to comply with laws and regulations, and (the company) has developed industry-leading tools to prevent safety hazards and non-compliant products from appearing in the market. The platform has deleted these products and is awaiting further investigation.

An eBay spokesperson said that the platform takes user safety very seriously and immediately deleted the listings of these products after receiving the report ; the platform only allows sellers to sell approved carbon monoxide detectors, and action has now been taken against sellers who violated the policy; the platform will continuously review and update existing measures to prevent the emergence of products with safety hazards, and will also conduct further inspections of itself to detect similar unsafe products.

A spokesperson for the UK Department for Business and Trade said that they take public safety very seriously and are also consulting on the modernisation of the product safety framework so that online markets will assume due responsibilities and ensure that goods sold online meet the same safety standards as those sold offline. If a platform fails to comply with product safety regulations, the Office of Product Safety and Standards will take action against it in an appropriate manner, such as removing the product from the market.

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eBay

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