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On Tuesday, the Eco-Social Forum hosted a panel discussion in Vienna on consumer protection on the Internet concerning purchasing cheap products, especially outside the EU. In addition to the health risks posed by medicines or food supplements with banned ingredients, the need for better market surveillance of online trade was also addressed. Ultimately, there is also a need to “raise awareness of the health risks.”
The Director of the Federal Office of Consumer Health (BAVG) and AGES Managing Director Anton Reinl said that “online purchases are increasing massively. In 2023, two-thirds of Austrians will buy everyday goods online, and this trend is rising sharply, especially for children’s toys.” Still, official controls are mainly carried out in stationary retail.
The associated risks can range from children’s toys with toxic plasticizers to fairy lights that burst into flames when put into operation to food supplements with unapproved ingredients. Ulrich Herzog, Head of the Consumer Policy and Consumer Health Section at the Ministry of Health, cited “the rapidly increasing number of individual products ordered, which can only be checked with great effort and intercepted in the event of infringements, as well as the difficulty in tracing them back to the manufacturer” as the biggest challenge. Products that are identified as dangerous or non-compliant are removed from the range by the supplier, “but reappear on the online marketplace under a different name or with a new design,” says Herzog.
The complaint rate for toys is over 80 percent
The major American and Chinese online platforms also fall under the BAVG inspection regime. In 2024, the complaint rate for toys due to safety defects or labeling deficiencies was over 80 percent. Some food supplements were found to contain banned or unauthorized ingredients such as lithium or harmful mercury. “People buy products online that are not available anywhere in the EU and are not found during stationary checks. We also need to raise awareness of the health risks here.”
AGES toy expert Daniela Schachner also pointed out the major differences between bricks-and-mortar and online retail and urged caution with cheap offers. Serious safety deficiencies include detachable and swallowable small parts in toys for children under 36 months, magnetic toys, and excessive kinetic energy in projectile toys.
Expansion of internet control and cooperation with authorities
National and international networking was seen as the greatest lever for efficiently expanding the control of online trade. Section head Herzog saw important “legal steps in the Digital Services Act” and the new EU Product Safety Regulation, “which will require online marketplaces to cooperate more closely with market surveillance authorities in future.”
In technical terms, AGES is already testing the use of artificial intelligence (AI tools) for risk-based controls as part of the FFG-funded research project “eMarketshield” to efficiently monitor the market in online food retail “to exploit synergies in Austria.” The BAVG aims to “adapt the resources for controls to purchasing behavior and to strengthen the cooperation of all market surveillance authorities, including customs,” added Reinl.
(S E R V I C E – Internet control of the BAVG: https://www.bavg.gv.at/internetkontrolle/internet-einkauf-in-oesterreich, review and review of the ÖSF https://bit.ly/4103cSv)
- source: APA/picture. pixabay.com
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