Temu’s decision to sign onto the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) strengthened Product Safety Pledge is a much-needed and positive step, and it wouldn’t have happened without people speaking up.
Calls from CHOICE for the online marketplace to step up its commitment to product safety led to more than 15,000 supporters adding their names to our petition, urging Temu to lift its standards. That collective effort has made a difference.
However, we shouldn’t confuse voluntary commitments with the lasting reform needed to stop unsafe products entering Australian homes in the first place.
CHOICE has repeatedly found dangerous products available for sale on Temu. In 2024, CHOICE tested 15 products sold by the online marketplace, including toys and novelty items, and found every single product failed mandatory button battery safety standards.
Temu removed the products, but we were concerned we had only scratched the surface when it came to dangerous products sold through online marketplaces.
CHOICE research has found that 6% of Australians who bought products from companies online in the past two years reported suffering an injury or property damage as a result. For every case that becomes a headline, we know that there are many more that don’t.
Dangerous products aren’t even hard to find, with a quick online search leading consumers directly to potentially banned, prohibited and unsafe goods. Such easy access to dangerous products is so concerning that it motivated our recent designated complaint to the ACCC, where we called on the regulator to investigate systematic issues across major online marketplaces.
Many consumers assume the law already protects them from unsafe products. In fact, CHOICE research found that 91% of Australians believe products are legally required to be safe in order to be sold, and almost nine in ten believe selling unsafe products is illegal. This is not the case.
Current safety regime falling short
It’s not unreasonable to expect that level of protection. But the law has failed to keep up and give Australians that protection. We agree, it shouldn’t take an organisation like CHOICE testing these products for action to be taken. Consumers should be able to trust that what they’re buying and bringing into their homes is safe.
Our current product safety regime relies heavily on mandatory standards for specific products and reactive measures such as recalls. Yet out of thousands of product categories, mandatory standards exist for only a small fraction of them. Too often, action is only taken after someone has been hurt.
That’s why Temu joining the Product Safety Pledge matters and it helps the situation – up to a point.
The strengthened pledge includes broader commitments from participating marketplaces, including Amazon, AliExpress, eBay and Gumtree, to proactively identify unsafe products, report annually to the ACCC on their performance and strengthen systems designed to stop unsafe products appearing in the first place. These commitments go beyond existing legal requirements and should help reduce risk for consumers, but they don’t go far enough.
Why? The pledge is only voluntary, so while Temu and others can choose to join, they can also choose to leave. They can choose how seriously to implement their commitments and there are no penalties if a product they sell hurts someone.
Consumers deserve laws that make safety the rule, not a voluntary extra
This isn’t the solution that we should settle for. Consumers deserve more, and we need the government to deliver. It’s clear that we need stronger laws, like an overarching general safety provision that would actually make it illegal to sell unsafe products to begin with.
Anything short of that, and we’re piling bandaids on top of one another without ever actually treating the growing wound underneath.
If we have to wait for someone to be injured before a dangerous product is removed or a safety standard is introduced, then we’re failing.
Consumers deserve laws that make safety the rule, not a voluntary extra.
Join our call to the ACCC to take stronger action against unsafe products sold online by endorsing our designated complaint here.
Bea Sherwood is a Senior campaigns and policy advisor. She works on campaigns that put the consumer voice at the heart of reform and advocacy. Bea is passionate about exposing and improving unfair business practices to shape a market that benefits consumers first and foremost.
Prior to CHOICE, Bea worked for a range of non-government organisations focused on climate change, gambling reform and mental health advocacy.
Bea has a Certificate of Public Policy Analysis from The London School of Economics and Political Science, and a Bachelor of International Studies from the University of New South Wales.
Bea Sherwood is a Senior campaigns and policy advisor. She works on campaigns that put the consumer voice at the heart of reform and advocacy. Bea is passionate about exposing and improving unfair business practices to shape a market that benefits consumers first and foremost.
Prior to CHOICE, Bea worked for a range of non-government organisations focused on climate change, gambling reform and mental health advocacy.
Bea has a Certificate of Public Policy Analysis from The London School of Economics and Political Science, and a Bachelor of International Studies from the University of New South Wales.
For more than 60 years, CHOICE has been fighting the good fight for Australian consumers.
In the past year alone we've uncovered systemic issues with sunscreens, investigated shonky supermarket pricing, fought for stronger scam protections and helped make complex energy pricing fairer and clearer.
CHOICE is here to provide unbiased advice and independent testing in our world-class labs. We buy the products we test, just like you do, and our expert reviews are influence free. We’re here to help you choose smarter. Hopefully you’ll also save some money along the way.
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