Amazon withdraws several child car seats from sale in the UK after BBC Panorama probe

Online retail giant Amazon has withdrawn several lines of child car seat from its website after an investigation into unsafe products.

An investigation by BBC Panorama found products for sale which were similar to ones removed in 2014 following inquiries made by Trading Standards in Surrey.

Surrey Trading Standards had first contacted Amazon in 2013 after an investigation it carried out into some child seats available for purchase in the UK.

It found one of the seats caused bodily harm to a crash test dummy when subjected to testing.

The allegations were part of an hour-long Panorama investigation into Amazon’s dominance of the online marketplace, due to air on BBC One tonight.

Rachel Greer, a manager for product safety for Amazon in North America and Canada at the time, told Panorama she had called for a review of all car seats for sale on Amazon’s UK platform.

Seats which were non-compliant were removed, she said.

But she added when she requested the seats to be removed from sale in other countries, bosses at Amazon refused.

‘I was told that there was no proof that they were non-compliant in those countries and that would not be happening,’ she said.

In response to the allegations Doug Gurr, country manager for Amazon UK, told the programme the seats were removed as they were ‘not authorised for sale’.

Mr Gurr said: ‘It’s not that the products were unsafe, if they were unsafe we would have removed them everywhere.

‘It was simply that they were not authorised for sale in the UK. Given that those products were authorised for sale in the US of course we allowed those products to continue to be sold in the US.’ 

When Amazon was later contacted about products similar to those identified as unsafe by Surrey Trading Standards, the online retailer said it had withdrawn the seats from sale worldwide.

Customers in the UK who have purchased one of the car seats received an email stating: ‘The product you received from a third-party seller may not be compliant with applicable child restraint standards.

‘If you still have this product, please stop using it immediately, cut the straps to ensure it cannot be used, and dispose of the item.’ 

In a statement Amazon said: ‘Safety is extremely important to us and we regret that these products were available from third party sellers using our stores.

‘After a thorough investigation, we identified the issue and are removing these products, and we’re also contacting each customer who purchased one of these products to explain the situation and issue a refund.

‘We will continue to leverage and improve our tools and technology to ensure only safe and compliant car seats are available worldwide.’

Amazon: What They Know About Us airs tonight on BBC One 20:30-21:30.