UK product recalls have jumped by 12%, up from 205 in 2009 to a record 229 in 2010, according to City law firm Reynolds Porter Chamberlain. Product recalls are made after a health and safety risk or a major design or production flaw has been discovered in a product. An early product recall can help limit the legal penalties a company might face and reduce the impact of negative publicity.
UK recalls of goods made in China represented as much as 62% of all consumer recalls and RPC say that comparatively low production standards of some Chinese goods entering the UK market continue to be a major trigger of health and safety alerts. Toys made up 43% of all recalled products from China.
If you’re importing products to resell you should be aware that the importer is the person responsible for ensuring that the products meet UK safety guidelines. Whilst China is a cost effect territory to source products from, Chinese standards are generally significantly different to those in the UK and you need to work with your suppliers to ensure that the products meet UK requirements.
5 Responses
I like the way the article doesn’t mention what percentage of goods that are imported from China are responsible for product recalls compared to percentage of recalls of goods from other countries. Still I guess that wouldn’t make for such dramatic stories!
We are forever getting contacted by buyers who have bought chinese baths on eBay who need them fixed, nice little side line. 😀
Number of recalls and volume of product affected are quite different things!
Were they big recall of millions of items, or little ones of a few dozen?
Without that info, you can’t see if it’s worse or better than other years.