Are recalled products still being sold? US regulators warn sellers!

It is learned that according to foreign media reports, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) recently issued a warning to Facebook Marketplace because the online market is flooded with illegal products from third-party sellers, including recalled and banned products.

The CPSC urged Facebook's parent company Meta to use its "substantial resources and technical expertise" to identify and block dangerous products sold on the Facebook Marketplace website, or it will take some enforcement action.

CPSC Chairman Alex Hoehn-Saric said in a letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg that CPSC staff found that some consumer products, including those that pose a serious threat to the health and life of infants and young children, frequently appear on Facebook Marketplace.

Facebook Marketplace is a participant in the online consumer product resale market. In recent years, the proportion of violating products on the online market has increased. According to Hoehn-Saric, in 2020, about half of the CPSC recall alerts were filed to Facebook Marketplace, and as of now, this proportion has jumped to about 75%.

Hoehn-Saric said that while Facebook Marketplace has policies in place to prevent recalled products, counterfeits and other illegal products from being listed, those policies are widely circumvented or ignored.

A Meta spokesperson defended the complaint: "Meta has more than 40,000 people working on safety and security, including a dedicated team that enforces the prohibition on the sale of recalled products. Like other platforms, if bad actors intentionally or deliberately sell products recalled by the CPSC on Marketplace, Meta will remove the products from its online marketplace once it discovers them."

It is learned that Facebook launched the Facebook Marketplace online market in 2016. Due to its loose policies, many illegal and strange items were sold on the platform at first, but Facebook attributed this situation to "technical problems" at the time. Until now, these problems have not been well resolved.

It is reported that in addition to Facebook Marketplace, other retailers including Amazon, eBay and Walmart have also faced criticism for third-party sellers selling illegal items on their platforms.

Editor ✎ Nicole/

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