New research has found that leading online marketplaces are illegally selling weapons.
Looking through popular sites including AliExpress, Amazon, eBay and Wish, the consumer experts at Which? found a number of weapons that could land buyers prison time. According to the Offensive Weapons Act 2019, most of the weapons that were found should be available for sale in the UK.
In some cases the weapons found cannot even be owned in a private home. The weapons found included knives, knuckle dusters, swords and batons with AliExpress and Wish found to be the worst offenders, selling weapons that could be found with simple searches of the terms ‘flick knife’.
Sue Davies, Which? Head of Consumer Protection Policy, said: "It is disturbing that our latest investigation has uncovered illegal weapons being sold on online marketplaces at extraordinarily cheap prices and that these tech firms are also pushing additional dangerous items to people.
"This raises big question marks over the checks and monitoring being done by these platforms. It’s clear that online marketplaces need to take more responsibility and prevent illegal weapons appearing on their sites."
All sites say that they have removed the weapons after being contacted, however researchers received two further promotional emails from AliExpress since its initial response – one offering a ‘self defence’ flick knife. Here is what the consumer experts found on leading online marketplaces
Amazon
More than a dozen listings for friction lock batons masquerading as ‘trekking poles’ were found on Amazon. Friction lock batons are a banned offensive weapon. It is illegal to buy and to sell these batons in the UK.
Some of the listings found used special characters, such as ‘bătõň’, in the title or only used the word baton in the artwork – presumably to avoid detection by Amazon. Some of the images on the listings indicated that they could be used for self-defence and fighting.
eBay
A variety of illegal swords, zombie knives, and knuckle dusters were found on eBay, including a 23-inch steel serrated-edged zombie knife (£27) and a 27-inch zombie blade with a red fire design (£32).
One seller was offering a combo deal on a karambit blade and a ‘paralysing spray’ for £13.99. According to eBay’s terms and conditions, none of these weapons should be for sale at all.
Wish
On Wish, Which? found a large number of flick knives and at least a dozen butterfly knives – blades that open out into a point – even though they are illegal.
Researchers also found several belt buckle knives priced from £8, a selection of knuckle dusters and a number of concealed blades – including a £1 knife designed to be hidden inside a wallet.
Other items included friction lock batons, one of which was disguised within an umbrella and another which was marketed for use in self-defence and had in excess of 30 UK reviews.
AliExpress
AliExpress featured a large number of flick knives, hidden blades, and a raft of ‘self-defence rings’ designed to be worn as knuckle dusters – one priced at just 49p.
AliExpress also targeted the researcher with promotional emails for cut price blades after they searched on the site – including a variety of curved karambit knives, with one priced at just £1.79. Karambits are not illegal to own but are illegal to carry in public.
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