Nearly every set of Christmas lights bought for safety tests on online marketplaces should not have been on sale in the UK, a shocking new report has found.
Consumer champion Which? has called for online marketplaces to be made legally responsible for dangerous and illegal products sold through their sites after 10 out of 12 sets of lights from sellers on AliExpress, Amazon, eBay and Wish failed its tests. One set bought from a seller on Wish was so badly made that it posed an electric shock risk to anyone using it and was a fire hazard. Another set bought through AliExpress was so badly made it posed an electric shock risk.
And eight further sets of lights, including two each from Amazon and eBay, failed basic compliance checks, making it illegal to sell them in the UK. In total, 10 out of 12 sets bought failed to meet the requirements of the Electrical Equipment (Safety) Regulations in the tests and legally shouldn’t be sold in the UK.
Read more: Festive lights lovers should count the cost of garden displays this year
Failures included a set of lights blowing during electrical strength test and build quality on another set being so poor that the product fell to pieces in the tester's hands. Ten sets of lights failed to come with instructions or were missing key markings covering things like how to dispose of the lights and what their electrical ratings are. Lights were also found with the wrong kind of plug. Each set of lights that failed the tests were retested with another sample and the same results were found.
AliExpress, Amazon, eBay and Wish have removed the 10 products found to be illegal for sale from their platforms, but if you have bought any of these Christmas lights you should stop using them and contact the seller and the platform to request a refund, as they tests have show that they're dangerous and shouldn't have been sold to you.
The testing Which? carried out on the lights included:
- Packaging, markings and documentations
- Build quality and electrical safety
- Do they meet the Electrical Equipment (Safety) Regulations?
- Electric shock risk
- Fire risk
Which? singled out four particular sets of lights it had bought as the most dangerous from the tests:
Fairy LED string lights bought through Wish - £13
Listed product name on Wish: 100 200 300 500 LEDS Fairy LED String Light Festival Home Decor Outdoor Waterproof AC220V 10M 20M 30M 50M Christmas Tree Light String Garland For Xmas Wedding Christmas Party Holiday.
Seller: Classic Handmade Store.
Which said: "There were problems with the cable, the control box and the plug. The build quality was so poor the control box could easily be pulled apart by hand, exposing accessible live parts. And wires could be pulled out by hand with little force. Our tests show that this set of lights poses an electric shock and fire risk. They're dangerous and can't be sold legally in the UK."
LED fairy lights bought through AliExpress - £13.23
Listed product name on AliExpress: Led Fairy Lights 10M Green Cable Cluster Christmas String Garland Decorative for Outdoor Tree Wedding Bedroom Home Decoration.
Seller: Me Light Store.
Which? said: "These lights were so poorly manufactured that they could give anyone using them an electric shock. We found low-quality soldering and a transformer that didn’t meet the minimum requirements for creepage and clearance, the distances between the live and neutral sections of the circuit board. It's this that means the lights present an electric shock hazard for users. These lights are both illegal to sell in the UK and dangerous."
LED string lights bought through AliExpress - £10.49
Listed product name on AliExpress: 100M LED String Lights Fairy Green Wire Outdoor Christmas Lights Tree Garland For New Year Street Home Party Wedding Decoration.
Seller: Kongdii official store.
Which? said: "This set of lights from AliExpress was provided with a two-pin plug - rather than a three-pin UK plug - and a basic travel adaptor which didn’t come with a fuse. It doesn't meet the requirements of the Plugs and Sockets (Safety) Regulations as the dimensions of the adaptor were all wrong, it was unfused, the pins were too close to the outside edge of the plug and the earth pin was too short. And like all of the 10 sets of lights that failed our tests, the documentation provided with the lights was severely lacking. The lights came with no instructions and we found problems with the markings on the packaging and the lights themselves."
Christmas LED lights bought through Wish - £8.98
Listed product name on Wish: The Christmas Lights 200 Ultra Bright LED String Chaser, Blue.
Seller: Avant-Garde Brands.
Which? said: "This set of lights from Wish came with a non-standard plug – it wouldn’t fit the standard gauge used to assess plugs and doesn't meet the requirements of the Plugs and Sockets (Safety) Regulations. There were no instructions provided with the lights and they were also missing key information covering their electrical rating."
What the online marketplaces said
AliExpress
Total number of lights which failed test: 3
Total number of lights which passed test: 0
AliExpress said: 'The items identified as part of the investigation by Which? have been removed. We have reviewed similar product listings to ensure sellers have provided the correct information and paperwork. As a third-party marketplace, AliExpress does not take custody of the goods being sold by third party sellers. We have policies in place that all our sellers must comply with in order to create a safe shopping environment.'
Amazon
Total number of lights which failed test: 2
Total number of lights which passed test: 1
Amazon said: ‘Safety is a top priority at Amazon and we require all products offered in our store to comply with applicable laws and regulations. We have proactive measures in place to prevent non-compliant items from being listed and we continuously monitor our store so customers can shop with confidence. We have now removed the two items from our store.'
Ebay
Total number of lights which failed test: 2
Total number of lights which passed test: 1
EBay said: ‘We take the safety of our users very seriously, and we have removed the listings that Which? flagged to us. Our close working relationships with stakeholders and regulators are an important part of our global product safety strategy for keeping our platform safe. Our Regulatory Portal enables authorities from around the world to report listings of unsafe products for swift removal.
Wish
Total number of lights which failed test: 3
Total number of lights which passed test: 0
Wish said: "Product safety is a top priority for Wish, and we have clear policies in place that prohibit the listing or sale of items on our platform that violate local or other applicable laws, regulations, and/or safety standards. As soon as we were made aware of these unsafe items being listed on our platform, we took immediate steps to take them down and conduct monitoring over certain other identical merchant listings. We thank Which? for bringing these to our attention.’
Sue Davies, Which? head of consumer protection policy, said: 'Cheap Christmas lights could be tempting for many of us trying to save money amid the cost of living crisis – but our latest research shows consumers could be putting themselves in danger due to online marketplaces failing to take safety seriously. 'The government must make online marketplaces legally responsible for dangerous and illegal products sold through their sites so that people are better protected.'
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