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Christmas lights bought online 'put users at risk of electric shocks or fires'

Tangled Christmas lights
10 of 12 sets of lights bought and tested by Which? failed to meet the requirements of the Electrical Equipment Safety regulations and could not legally be sold in the UK. Photo: Getty (Kinga Krzeminska via Getty Images)

Christmas lights bought online "put users at risk of electric shocks or fires", a new study has found.

The study by consumer group Which? found that some Christmas lights bought from online marketplaces are being sold illegally and in some cases putting users at risk of electric shocks or fires.

Which? tested Christmas tree lights at the cheaper end of the price range, for products costing £15 or under, and found that 10 of the 12 sets of lights bought failed to meet the requirements of the Electrical Equipment Safety regulations and could not legally be sold in the UK.

The products were bought from online marketplaces AliExpress, Amazon (AMZN), eBay (EBAY) and Wish.

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Which? is calling for online retailers to be given greater legal responsibility to prevent dangerous and illegal products from being sold to customers.

According to Which?, one set of lights bought from a seller on Wish was so badly made, "it posed both an electric shock risk to anyone using it and was also a fire hazard".

The product in question was a set of fairy LED string lights, costing £13, which had problems with the cable, the control box and the plug.

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"The build quality was so poor that the white control box could easily be pulled apart by a child, exposing accessible live parts," Which? said.

"Wires could be pulled out by hand with little force."

10 of the 12 sets of Christmas lights Which? tested, including two from Amazon and two from eBay, failed compliance checks which means that they should not be sold in the UK.

Which? said that the lights failed to come with instructions or were missing key markings covering things like how to dispose of the lights and what their electrical ratings are.

Only two sets of lights, one bought from Amazon and one from eBay, passed all of Which?’s safety tests.

Sue Davies, Which? head of consumer protection policy, said: “Cheap Christmas lights could be tempting for many of us trying to save money amid the cost of living crisis, but our latest research shows consumers could be putting themselves in danger due to online marketplaces failing to take safety seriously.

“The government must make online marketplaces legally responsible for dangerous and illegal products sold through their sites so that people are better protected.”

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AliExpress said: "The items identified as part of the investigation by Which? have been removed. We have reviewed similar product listings to ensure sellers have provided the correct information and paperwork.

"As a third-party marketplace, AliExpress does not take custody of the goods being sold by third-party sellers. We have policies in place that all our sellers must comply with in order to create a safe shopping environment."

An Amazon spokesperson said: "Safety is a top priority at Amazon and we require all products offered in our store to comply with applicable laws and regulations. We have proactive measures in place to prevent non-compliant items from being listed and we continuously monitor our store so customers can shop with confidence. We have now removed the two items from our store."

An eBay spokesperson said: "We take the safety of our users very seriously, and we have removed the listings that Which? flagged to us.

"Our close working relationships with stakeholders and regulators are an important part of our global product safety strategy for keeping our platform safe. Our Regulatory Portal enables authorities from around the world to report listings of unsafe products for swift removal.

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"We also have automatic block filters in place, aimed at preventing unsafe listings. These filters blocked 7.4 million listings in 2021 and are updated on a regular basis. On the rare occasion that an unsafe product does make it onto site, we swiftly remove it and provide product safety education to the sellers to prevent relisting."

Wish said: "Product safety is a top priority for Wish, and we have clear policies in place that prohibit the listing or sale of items on our platform that violate local or other applicable laws, regulations, and/or safety standards. As soon as we were made aware of these unsafe items being listed on our platform, we took immediate steps to take them down and conduct monitoring over certain other identical merchant listings. We thank Which? for bringing these to our attention."

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