Amazon sorry for selling ‘potentially lethal’ car seats
● Fresh Trading Standards probe after television documentary
Three “potentially lethal” child car seats – including one retailing at just £3.99 – have been found being sold on Amazon after an investigation.
Amazon apologised and removed the items from sale after it was revealed that seats purchased by investigators did not have safety labels and appeared similar in design to some which were deemed unsafe in 2013.
That investigation led to a trading standards investigation that confirmed one example would tear apart if involved in a 30mph crash.
The recent probe by BBC’S Panorama was part of a wider-ranging programme about Amazon screened last night. Trading Standards officers have begun a fresh investigation after being informed of the latest findings by Panorama.
The issue has been ongoing. Which? magazine last year found examples on Amazon of fabric-based seats that lacked the required safety labelling.
Other outlets, including ebay, were also found to be selling the items at the time.
Sue Davies, head of consumer protection at Which?, said: “It’s extremely concerning that Amazon doesn’t appear to have taken the basic steps needed to keep these potentially lethal car seats off the market, a year after we first exposed the serious safety issue.
“This is an issue that we’ve exposed time and time again across a whole range of products, and it’s clear that consumer protections on online marketplaces are nowhere near strong enough.”
She added: “As the government looks to increase regulation of online platforms, it must make marketplaces legally responsible for preventing unsafe products from being sold on their sites.”
The company said it would email anyone who had bought the seats, including a £3.99 Infant Safe Seat apparently capable of preventing injury to a baby if a car urgently braked.
Doug Gurr, head of Amazon UK, said: “Automated algorithms [survey] over five billion product pages every day and we monitor tens of millions of customer reviews.” The company added: “We regret that these products were available from third-party sellers using our stores. We are removing these products and we’re also contacting each customer who purchased one of these products to explain the situation and issue a refund.
“We will continue to leverage and improve our tools and technology to ensure only safe and compliant car seats are available.”