European Commission and four online marketplaces sign a product safety pledge to remove #DangerousProducts

Four major online marketplaces, Alibaba (for AliExpress), Amazon, eBay and Rakuten - France have signed a commitment for faster removal of dangerous products sold on their online marketplaces.

Thanks to a dialogue facilitated by the European Commission, four major online companies have committed to responding to notifications on dangerous products from member state authorities within 2 working days and take action on notices from customers within five working days.

Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality Commissioner Vĕra Jourová said: "More and more people in the EU are shopping online.E-commerce has opened up new possibilities for consumers, offering them more choice at lower prices. Consumers should be just as safe when they buy online, as when they buy in a shop. I welcome the Product Safety Pledge which will further improve consumer safety. I call also on other online marketplaces to join this initiative, so that the internet becomes a safer place for EU consumers."

Online sales represented 20% of the total sales in 2016 in the EU (Eurostat). More and more of the dangerous products notified in the Rapid Alert System are sold online. This shows the need for all online marketplaces to continue and further step up their efforts when it comes to removing dangerous products. The pledge and the full press release are available online.

In parallel, product safety authorities of the United States, China, and the European Union met in Washington for the sixth trilateral EU-China-US summit to continue joint efforts on product safety. This summit focused on safety challenges presented by e-commerce, including emerging issues such as connected products.

A joint statement will be available here.

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