A first in Europe. After an investigation by the Directorate-General for Competition, Consumption and the Repression of Fraud (DGCCRF), which accuses the online sales site Wish for the marketing of non-compliant, even dangerous products, the platform of priced objects broken will be dereferenced, announced the Ministry of the Economy on Wednesday.
Electrical appliances, jewelry or even toys… Out of 140 products sold on Wish and analyzed by the DGCCRF, a large number were pinned by the consumer policeman. Two days before Black Friday and a few weeks before Christmas, 20 minutes takes stock of these non-compliant and sometimes even dangerous products.
Suffocations, fir tree on fire and lead necklaces
After several investigations carried out since 2018 on the safety of products sold on several online platforms, the National Investigation Service (SNE) of the General Directorate for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF) has opened, in September 2020, a second survey of 140 products sold on the American site Wish, specializing in the sale of items at discounted prices. And the result is clear: “The investigation revealed the sale of a large number of non-compliant and dangerous products”, explains the DGCCRF in its press release.
Some product families even reach particularly high levels of dangerousness, such as toys, which are 95% non-compliant, of which 45% are dangerous. This is the case with several soft toys, part of which can easily come off and be ingested by an infant or child, or a baby pacifier containing bisphenol A, a substance suspected of being an endocrine disruptor and since banned. 2017 in children’s products.
Regarding electrical appliances, the consumer policeman spotted 95% of non-compliant objects, 90% of which were dangerous. This is the case with several light garlands or chargers, sold on Wish, which presents a risk of electric shock that could cause a fire to start from the tree, or even your home. The same goes for a smoke detector, sold on the American platform, which has an alert defect. “The product does not detect smoke. In addition, its sound power is too low. Because of this, it cannot fulfill its function, thus allowing the fire to develop? If a fire breaks out, the product may not generate an alarm signal, causing a risk of suffocation and burns for the occupants of the building, ”explains the site“ Safety Gate ”, which allows the rapid exchange of information on unsafe non-food products between European countries.
Regarding costume jewelry, 62% of which are considered dangerous, the DGCCRF has singled out necklaces, adornments and bracelets containing harmful substances, such as cadmium or lead, in high doses, which can lead to cancer risks. or allergies.
Different regulations depending on the product
According to the definition given on the site of the consumer policeman, a product is considered non-compliant if it does not meet one or more criteria. It can be a product which “does not meet the usual use”, which “does not correspond to the description given by the seller”, which “does not present the qualities detailed in an advertisement or in its labeling. “, Which” does not correspond to the desired special use “, of which” the agreed installation was not carried out correctly by the seller “, of which” the installation manual is incomplete or incomprehensible “, or which” presents a manufacturing defect, an imperfection, a bad assembly ”. Regarding safety, it depends on the product in question. The same safety standards are not the same for food, toys, electronics or furniture.
For example, toys must not present chemical, physical, mechanical, electrical, flammability, radioactivity and hygiene risks, explains Bercy on its site. So-called fantasy jewelry is subject to specific regulations, taking into account the toxicity of lead, nickel and cadmium, with maximum regulatory thresholds to be observed. When a product is considered hazardous or non-compliant, it may be subject to withdrawal or recall. The withdrawal can take place as long as the product is available in stores but has not yet been sold: professionals then remove them from shelves or warehouses. The recall, meanwhile, is for products that are already on the market. Individuals must then return defective products to stores or destroy them.
European neighbors warned
This is obviously not the case with Wish products. The online sales site “did not carry out product withdrawals and recalls satisfactorily (…) If the offers concerning products notified as dangerous are indeed withdrawn within twenty-four hours, in a majority of cases these products remain offered. under another name, ”Bercy explained to justify his decision. After several warnings, the repression of fraud, which did not receive a “satisfactory response” from Wish, demanded the delisting of the site, as allowed by the DDADUE law. Adopted in 2020, this law “strengthens the powers of the DGCCRF in the event of infringements and breaches of the rules protecting the economic interests of consumers and those relating to the conformity and safety of products on the Internet”.
“Digital players, and in particular marketplaces, now know that they can no longer sell any product with complete impunity! », Declared Alain Griset, Minister of VSEs and SMEs. As a result, in the coming days, the Wish site and application should therefore disappear from major search engines like Google and application stores (Apple Store, among others). Access to the site will however still be possible by entering the address directly.
A few weeks before Christmas, could these products continue to be sold in other countries? Yes, but our European neighbors could also decide to ban certain Wish products. When the DGCCRF withdraws or recalls a product on the French market, it immediately informs the European Commission, via the Rapex alert system, an information exchange network between each member country of the European Union. allowing to quickly report a dangerous product.