Illegal car seats on sale in online markets

Child car seats whose use is illegal in the UK are still available for purchase in online markets, warned a monitoring body.

The seats, made of fabric, offer "virtually no protection" in case of car accident and sell from £ 8 on sites such as eBay, Amazon and AliExpress, Which? found.

The consumer group stated that the seats clearly lacked the support needed to protect babies and young children, although they are described in the lists as suitable for newborns and children under five years of age. .

EMBARGOED TO 0001 SATURDAY 16 FEBRUARY Photo of undated document published by Lequel? A child car seat, whose use is illegal in the UK, is offered for sale for only £ 8 in online markets such as eBay, Amazon and AliExpress. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Date of issue: Saturday, February 16, 2019. The Which? One group of consumers stated that the seats clearly lacked the support needed to protect infants and young children although they are described in the lists as suitable for newborns and children up to the age of 15. Age of five. See PA story CONSUMER Seats. The photo credit should read: Which? / PA WireNOTE TO EDITORS: This photo may be used only for editorial presentation purposes for the purpose of contemporary illustration of events, things or persons appearing in the image or in the facts mentioned in the legend. Reuse of the image may require additional permission from the copyright holder.

Which? recently claimed that the UK's consumer protection system was on the verge of collapse, suggesting that reforms must include measures that improve the monitoring and control of online markets.

Alex Neill, CEO of Which? Home Products said, "Parents will be horrified at the thought of unintentionally endangering their child's life with one of these" killer "car seats.

"Online markets can not continue to turn a blind eye to the dangerous and illegal products sold on their sites.

"The UK's product safety regime is in urgent need of reform.

"Big business and government need to do more to protect consumers from unsafe products."

EBay confirmed the seats found by whom? were illegal and said they asked the sellers involved to contact the buyers to arrange a return and pay the return fees.

An eBay spokeswoman said: "The safety of our customers is paramount and we do not tolerate the list of non-compliant items by sellers.

"Our teams of specialists work with regulators and commercial standards to ensure our block filters stay up-to-date, using sophisticated software that monitors billions of ads every day to remove any banned items."

Amazon said: "All sellers must follow our sales guidelines and those who do not do so will be subject to action, including the eventual deletion of their account.

"The products in question are no longer available."

AliExpress said: "AliExpress believes that the safety of all its customers, especially children, is of paramount importance.

"After whom did we say? about these third party lists, we took quick action to remove them.

"We will continue to take action against vendors who violate our terms of use."