Need to know
- Over the past two years, CHOICE has conducted several tests of products purchased from discount online marketplaces and found many safety failures
- Unsafe goods are pouring in from overseas platforms, despite breaching mandatory Australian safety standards in many cases
- In our second designated complaint to the ACCC, we’re calling for a general safety provision that stops unsafe products from being sold in the first place
an 8-year-old named Daniella Jacobs-Herd suffered burns to 13% of her body when a hoodie purchased from Temu caught fire. The item – which was in breach of mandatory Australian safety standards …
In December 2025, CHOICE purchased 22 toys for children aged 3 … Six had serious safety failures that could result in children choking on small and unsecured parts.
In November 2025, we purchased 24 toys … 17 failed to meet the standards and posed serious safety risks …
This problem is not limited to Australia, unfortunately, as the article also says. It’s a global issue. Local retailers in Australia and other democracies will have to shut down immediately if they offered such items.
Lol no they wouldn’t.
Kmart were selling flammable dinosaur pjs last year, and there are constant choking hazard recalls across multiple retailers.
The lack of regulation is something buyers need to be fucking aware of, but lets not try this “democratic countries” bullshit.
Retailers are selling the same shit they just make it harder to refund.
Lots of words to say “fuck the poor”. Vague article trying to milk a stone for arguments against cheap things that poor people buy
Let us see: Independent Australian reseller buys 20 items from AliBaba, 3 are defective, they sell the remaining 17 at a 500% markup.
Large Australian company buys 200 units from the Manufacturer, sells the whole lot to Australian punters and 300% mark up and fucks the 30 customers around when 30 fail, until ACCC gets involved.
20 Regular Australians buys one item from AliExpress. For 17 of them, it works perfectly and for the remaining 3, they complain to AliExpress* and they get a replacement.
Choice magazine gets “tipped off” by Large Retailer and pretends to be protecting “the consumer” and “small business”.
Not really.
large Australian company buys original items from a trusted manufacturer, they cost more but are safe
independent reseller buys cheap copies of the same items, sells for 75% the cost of original items, but the copies are crap and unsafe
the people who are tipping off Choice and the retailers and the government about unsafe copies are the manufacturers of the original items
I buy from China a lot , you have to buy from trusted manufacturers and sellers
