BANG OUT OF ORDER
Web giant slated over online fireworks sale
BANG FOR BUCKS: Fireworks for sale on web. Below, another seller with huge rockets EXCLUSIVE GRAEME CRITCHLEY FACEBOOK has been blasted for allowing fireworks to be sold online.
Thousands are up for grabs on the web giant’s new Marketplace mobile app.
UK sellers are meant to hold a valid licence to allow them to trade in pyrotechnics.
But Facebook users flooded the Marketplace with illegal cut-price fireworks ahead of Bonfire Night.
A big box of Devastation Fireworks, normally selling for £199.99, were listed for £100 by one seller based near Birmingham Airport.
It included a huge range of rockets and bangers including popular brands like Hawk Attack, Atomic Angel and Venom Teeth.
Other sellers were offering “Fireworks delivered to you today for free”.
One described an enormous pack of Jet Scream, War Birds and Screaming Eagles as a “very, very loud box”. They wanted just £50 for the lot.
Another seller in Rugby was selling a job lot of fireworks worth £1,200 from his living room for £500.
It included 30 massive Big Titan and Big Mama Rockets, Tomahawks, Sky Blasters and 25 Shot Boxes.
Most ads are posted by users from their personal Facebook pages, so it is not clear if they are licensed sellers.
But many of the images suggest the goods are being sold from houses, sheds and living rooms.
Steve Raper, vice chair of the British Firework Association, said: “If you go into a fireworks retailer there are licensed staff to help you choose the safe firework for your needs and advise you how to use them, the traps and dangers.
“That isn’t going to happen on Facebook – these sellers are putting money before safety.
“Shoppers don’t really know what they want or need, they just want something cheaper.”
Facebook Marketplace’s policy, listed online, reads: “Ads and Sponsored Stories may not promote firearms, ammunition, paintball guns, bb guns, fireworks, explosives, pepper spray, knives, tasers, or weapons of any kind, including those used for self-defense.”
You can be fined up to £5,000 and imprisoned for up to 6 months for selling or using fireworks illegally.
It is illegal to sell to under-18s or for under-18s to possess fireworks in public.