Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps the Office for Product Safety and Standards is taking to tackle (a) sellers of unsafe products on online marketplaces and (b) online marketplaces in respect of the sale of unsafe products.

The Government is committed to ensuring that only safe consumer products can be sold in the UK. Product safety legislation places obligations on manufacturers, importers and distributors and this includes online retailers selling goods via marketplaces.

The Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) works with colleagues in local Trading Standards to take effective action where products are identified online that do not meet the UK’s product safety requirements and expects online platforms to act quickly to remove them from sale. This has recently included action taken to ensure that a number of non-compliant products, including toys, electrical equipment and high-risk products such as pool heaters and balcony barbecues being sold by third-party sellers have been removed from sale, delisted, recalled or destroyed.

Where criminal offences are identified, both Trading Standards and OPSS can conduct criminal investigations into the actions of economic operators.

OPSS is taking forward a programme of work to ensure that major online marketplaces are playing their part to protect UK consumers from unsafe goods.

This includes developing a new voluntary commitment for online marketplaces to agree further actions they will take to reduce the risks from unsafe products being sold online.

OPSS is also encouraging online marketplaces to establish Primary Authority arrangements with local Trading Standards authorities. These agreements enable one authority to work with each business providing expert and tailored advice as to how they should meet their legal obligations.

OPSS is reviewing the UK’s product safety framework to ensure that we have a framework that continues to deliver safety for consumers while supporting businesses to safely innovate and grow and will consider non-traditional business models, including online sales.