Consumer advocacy group Choice has filed a super complaint calling on the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to launch an urgent investigation into online marketplaces selling products that breach permanent safety bans. The complaint targets retailers including Temu that are allowing dangerous goods to reach Australian consumers, particularly products aimed at children and babies.
Among the banned products found for sale on online platforms are toy-like novelty cigarette lighters that could easily be mistaken for playthings by children, detachable tongue studs that pose a choking risk, and sky lanterns that are banned across Australia due to the serious fire safety risk they present. Choice says these products have already caused documented harm in Australia.
In one particularly alarming case highlighted by the consumer group, an eight-year-old girl in Queensland was wearing a hoodie purchased from Temu when it caught fire. The child suffered serious burns covering thirteen percent of her body. Despite the severity of the incident, it took four months after it occurred for the hoodie to be removed from the online retailer's platform.
Choice conducted its own testing of products available on online marketplaces, with particularly concerning results in the baby products category. In one round of testing focused on cots, the group purchased fourteen from online retailers and found that six had serious safety issues that could endanger infants.
This is the second super complaint of its kind that Choice has filed regarding unsafe products sold through online marketplaces. The ACCC now has ninety days to respond publicly to the complaint, a timeframe that consumer advocates say needs to result in concrete regulatory action rather than further consultation.
Choice is calling on the federal government and the ACCC to enact overarching legislation to prevent unsafe goods from entering Australia through online retail channels. The current regulatory framework, which relies heavily on voluntary compliance by platforms and reactive enforcement after harm has occurred, is inadequate for the scale and speed of modern online retail.
The complaint raises fundamental questions about the responsibility of online marketplace platforms for the safety of products sold through their systems. As cross-border e-commerce continues to grow, the challenge of ensuring that products manufactured overseas and shipped directly to consumers meet Australian safety standards has become one of the most pressing consumer protection issues facing regulators.