The Policy Briefing: Amazon, Temu, and eBay Quizzed Over Consumer Harms & COPAD Human Rights and Environment Bill.
Photo by Ryoji Iwata on Unsplash
This week, the Business and Trade Committee held the latest in its series of evidence hearings on UK consumer protections, focusing on online marketplaces. The Committee sought to:
Understand the harms to consumers caused by online marketplaces and e-commerce
Explore the prevalence of counterfeit and dangerous goods in the UK
Assess online marketplaces’ actions against fake goods, fake reviews, and illegal pricing on their platforms.
The Business and Trade Committee reviewed the widespread sale of unsafe and counterfeit products on UK online marketplaces, highlighting significant consumer harm and regulatory challenges. Despite efforts by platforms like Amazon, eBay, and Temu, dangerous items such as fire-risk chargers, carcinogenic balloons, and toys containing asbestos-contaminated sand are still easily accessible. This despite claims of robust safety systems.
£71.2 billion lost to consumer harms
Dangerous, fake, and substandard products are flooding platforms such as Amazon, eBay, Temu, TikTok Shop, and AliExpress, and legislation has not kept pace. However, the cost of consumer harm in the UK is exploding: more than doubling from around £25 billion in 2014-2015 to £54 billion in 2023, with a 31% increase just a year later to £71.2 billion lost to UK consumers and the economy in 2024. Of that, detriment from purchases on third-party marketplaces alone is estimated at nearly £5 billion.