In an article published on June 28, 2018, by regulatory news provider Chemical Watch, reporter Tammy Lovell informed that the online retailers Amazon, Alibaba, eBay, and Rakuten France have signed the European Commission’s (EC) ‘product safety pledge.’ The retailers have thereby “committed to removing dangerous products from sale more quickly and to take measures to improve suppliers’ compliance with EU product safety legislation,” Lovell explained. She further highlighted that “[r]isks related to chemicals comprised 22% of all notifications last year, according to a Commission report on the EU’s Rapid Alert System for dangerous products (Rapex),” making “hazardous chemicals the second biggest risk to health and safety on the EU and EEA market.”
In the Mind the Store campaign’s annual ranking of retailers’ efforts to eliminate hazardous chemicals from consumer products, Amazon received unsatisfactory grades (FPF reported). In 2017, the retailer announced to launch a chemicals policy in 2018, Lovell noted. In a second article published on the same day, she further reported that the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) International Chemical Secretariat (ChemSec), CHEM Trust, the Danish Consumer Council THINK Chemicals, and Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families (SCHF) have welcomed the online retailers’ commitment but demanded more specific action “to protect consumers from hazardous chemicals in products bought online.”
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Tammy Lovell (June 28, 2018). “Online retailers commit to speed up removal of dangerous products.” Chemical Watch
Tammy Lovell (June 28, 2018). “E-commerce product safety pledge ‘not enough’, say NGOs.” Chemical Watch
Chemical Watch (March 13, 2018). “Chemicals remain EU’s second highest product risk.”
