Which? warning on safety of Christmas tree lights after tests
● Consumers’ champion blasts many online sales as ‘dangerous’
Almost half of Christmas tree lightsfromonlinemarketplaces are dangerous, an investigation by consumer champion Which? reveals.
Which? carried out tests according to the electrical safety standard – which products must pass to be sold in the UK – on 13 items bought from third-party sellers across four online marketplaces, and two from high street retailers.
Six out of the 13 sets of lights bought through online marketplace sellers failed the testing. Aliexpress, ebay and Wish each sold two products that failed the tests.
In two instances, control boxes on lights bought from Aliexpress and ebay got so hot during a short circuit test they began to smoke and then melt. The insides were left charred and the printed circuit board became a molten plastic mess.
Several products also presented an electric shock risk.
In an electrical strength test, the insulation in one control box for a set of lights bought from Wish broke down, making the whole unit live,and creating a hazard for anyone coming into contact with it.
Similarly, when Which? checked the distances between the live and neutral parts of the circuit board, it was found that the distances were up to half of the legal requirement for three sets of lights. In the worst cases, this could lead to arcing – where electricity travels through the air – and an electric shock for anybody touching the lights.
The same three products, bought from Aliexpress, Ebay and Wish, were so shoddily manufactured testers could pull the cable out of the control box – again risking a shock.
Five products from Amazon Marketplace passed all electrical safety tests while lights fromhighstreetretailersjohn Lewis and Argos also passed.
Which? is calling for online marketplaces to have greater legal responsibility for safety of products on their sites, as well as clearer requirements for ditching unsafe products.
Natalie Hitchins, Which? head of home products and services, said: “The significantly better performance of products bought from high street retailers exposes just how necessary it is to strengthen consumer protections for online marketplaces. The new government must make safety a priority and put the legal responsibility on marketplaces to prevent unsafe products from being sold on their sites.”