The risk that button batteries pose to small children has been well documented in recent years, and CHOICE has been at the forefront of raising the alarm about these potentially deadly products.
The mandatory safety standard that came into effect in 2022 – which requires manufacturers to design battery compartments that can’t be accessed by children and to include safety warnings on the packaging – came in the wake of hundreds of serious injuries and at least three deaths caused by children ingesting a button battery.
But adherence to the standard has been spotty at best, and products with button batteries that contravene it seem to be everywhere.
In November 2025, CHOICE purchased 24 toys from the online marketplaces Shein, AliExpress, eBay and Amazon and tested them against the button and coin battery mandatory standards. Seventeen failed to meet the standards and posed serious safety risks.
In May 2024, we purchased and tested 15 coin and button battery-operated products from Temu. Every toy failed at least one requirement of the mandatory button battery safety standard.
Questions have lingered for years about who’s responsible for product safety in these instances – the makers of the products or the online marketplaces that sell them?
Now – in what could prove to be a groundbreaking case – the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is taking legal action against Amazon for selling Unicorn Toddler Backpacks that come with a detachable light-up unicorn plush toy containing button batteries. The ACCC alleges that button battery safety warnings were missing from the backpacks, the packaging or both.
The ACCC is taking legal action against Amazon for selling Unicorn Toddler Backpacks that come with a detachable light-up unicorn plush toy containing button batteries.
“This is the first time that the ACCC has brought this type of case against an online marketplace and it will be an important test of the law in relation to the level of control that online marketplaces have over the products sold on their platforms and whether they can be held responsible for those breaches,” says CHOICE director of campaigns Andy Kelly.
The case covers Amazon sales of the backpacks to Australians between 22 June and 1 November 2022, during which time 41 were purchased and another 267 were held in Amazon’s Australian fulfillment centres.
These mandatory warnings are there to help keep children safe and businesses must get them right
ACCC Deputy Chair Catriona Lowe
Under the Australian Consumer Law, it’s illegal for businesses to possess goods that violate the mandatory battery standards.
“Button batteries pose a serious hazard for young children,” says ACCC deputy chair Catriona Lowe.
“If swallowed or inserted, they can cause severe internal burns and injury, and in some cases death. These mandatory warnings are there to help keep children safe and businesses must get them right.”
Amazon AU is one of three signatories to the Australian Product Safety Pledge, a voluntary initiative which aims to strengthen product safety measures across online business to protect consumers.
Suppliers must report any death, serious injury or serious illness associated with a consumer good that they have supplied to the ACCC within two days. Button battery compliance is one of the ACCC’s 2026–27 enforcement priorities.
Significant gaps in the law that put consumers at risk still remain, so we continue to urge the government to strengthen Australia’s lax product safety laws
CHOICE director of campaigns Andy Kelly
“Too often, online marketplaces get away with selling unsafe and non-compliant products to consumers by acting as an intermediary, so we’re glad that the ACCC is putting this grey part of the law to the test,” says Kelly.
“Significant gaps in the law that put consumers at risk still remain, so we continue to urge the government to strengthen Australia’s lax product safety laws so that they actually prevent all businesses from selling unsafe products in the first place – including online marketplaces.”
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Andy Kollmorgen is the Investigations Editor at CHOICE. He reports on a wide range of issues in the consumer marketplace, with a focus on financial harm to vulnerable people at the hands of corporations and businesses. Prior to CHOICE, Andy worked at the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and at the Australian Financial Review along with a number of other news organisations. Andy is a former member of the NSW Fair Trading Advisory Council. He has a Bachelor of Arts in English from New York University. LinkedIn
Andy Kollmorgen is the Investigations Editor at CHOICE. He reports on a wide range of issues in the consumer marketplace, with a focus on financial harm to vulnerable people at the hands of corporations and businesses. Prior to CHOICE, Andy worked at the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and at the Australian Financial Review along with a number of other news organisations. Andy is a former member of the NSW Fair Trading Advisory Council. He has a Bachelor of Arts in English from New York University. LinkedIn
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