AMAZON has been slammed for continuing to sell “potentially lethal” car seats that could put children at risk – despite initially removing them from sale in 2014. The claims have been made by a BBC Panorama special due to air tonight at 8.30pm called “Amazon: What They Know About Us”. Back in 2014, Amazon removed […]
AMAZON has been slammed for continuing to sell “potentially lethal” car seats that could put children at risk – despite initially removing them from sale in 2014.
The claims have been made by a BBC Panorama special due to air tonight at 8.30pm called “Amazon: What They Know About Us”.
Back in 2014, Amazon removed a number of potentially flawed car seats from sale following an investigation by Surrey Trading Standards.
The council found a fabric car seat fell apart during product testing and the crash test dummy of a three-year-old child was flung through the windscreen when the straps securing the seat failed.
At the time, Surrey Trading Standards dubbed them “killer car seats” and removed dozens of them from sale.
But now an investigation by the BBC has found similar car seats are still on sale for between £3.99 and £30.99.
The online retail giant says it’s in the process of once more removing the dodgy seats from sale, and contacting affected customers to offer a full refund.
It comes just a year after a separate investigation by consumer group Which? found the same illegal car seats being sold on Amazon, eBay and AliExpress.
Regulations state that only EU-approved child car seats can be used in the UK.
These have a label showing a capital “E” in a circle and “R129” or “ECE R44″.
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.
“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.”
An Amazon spokesperson said: “Safety is extremely important to us and we regret that these products were available from third party sellers using our stores.
“After a thorough investigation, we identified the issue and 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 worldwide.”
Only last month, Amazon recalled a baby travel seat over fears it could strangle tots.
While Tesco is recalling Cow & Gate baby food over concerns the jars may have been tampered with.
And Lidl is recalling ten flavours of baby food pouches as they may contain mould.
