Consumer Goods: Internet

(asked on 18th October 2021) - View Source

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if his Department will undertake an assessment of the potential merits of imposing a contractual duty of care on online marketplaces to ensure that the products they allow to be listed for sale are fit for purpose and meet regulatory requirements.


Answered by
Paul Scully Portrait
Paul Scully
This question was answered on 26th October 2021

Existing product safety legislation places obligations on manufacturers, importers and distributors to ensure that consumer products are safe before they can be placed on the UK market. This includes retailers selling toys via online marketplaces.

The Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS), which is within the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, is taking forward a programme of work to help ensure the safety of products sold online. Where products are identified online that do not meet the UK’s product safety requirements, OPSS works with colleagues in local Trading Standards to take action and expects online platforms to act quickly to remove them from sale. Since April 2021, OPSS interventions have led to the withdrawal of more than 10,000 unsafe products, including toys, previously listed and available in the UK via online marketplaces.

In addition, OPSS continues to run regular campaigns to improve consumer awareness of safety issues, including a Christmas Toys product safety information campaign which will run from 15th November 2021 until 17th December 2021.

OPSS is also currently conducting a review of the UK’s product safety framework to ensure it remains robust and is future-proofed so that it continues to protect consumers while enabling businesses to safely innovate and grow. This includes reviewing the impact of the changes brought by eCommerce to the product safety framework to ensure that there is appropriate accountability and clear responsibilities throughout the supply chain. The Government has analysed submissions to the product safety review Call for Evidence and is now finalising its response, which will be published in due course. We will consider a full range of options to address the challenges identified by stakeholders and any proposals for legislative change would be subject to public consultation.

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