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About the pledge

The Australian Product Safety Pledge is a voluntary initiative which aims to protect consumers from safety risks when shopping online. It does this by strengthening product safety measures across online businesses.

The ACCC developed the pledge in collaboration with the first signatories. This was in response to the continued growth in online shopping and the challenges related to managing product safety in the online marketplace. Online product safety pledges are also established in Europe, Canada, South Korea and Japan.

Signatories include, but are not limited to, online businesses that facilitate marketplace services, engaging in business-to-consumer or consumer-to-consumer transactions via the internet.

It’s important that these businesses make sure consumers have a safe and trusted online shopping experience.

Signatories to the pledge commit to:

  • 12 product safety related actions
  • reporting annually on their performance, measured against 3 key performance indicators.

The ACCC publishes an annual report outlining signatories' overall performance on the pledge.

Pledge commitments

The pledge commitments aim to strengthen product safety across online businesses through a combination of preventative and corrective actions. A guidance document helps signatories meet the pledge commitments.

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1.

Regularly consult the ACCC Product Safety website and other relevant sources for information on recalled or unsafe products. Take appropriate action on identified products.

This could include removing product listings, blocking the sale of a product into Australia, and telling consumers and sellers.

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2.

Have a dedicated contact for Australian regulatory authorities to notify and request take-downs of recalled or unsafe products.

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3. Remove identified unsafe product listings within 2 business days of receiving a take-down request from Australian regulatory authorities. Tell authorities about the action taken and any relevant outcomes.
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4. Cooperate with Australian regulatory authorities in identifying, as far as possible, the supply chain of unsafe products. Respond to data or information requests within 10 business days if this information isn’t publicly available.
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5. Have an internal system for processing data or information requests and take-downs of unsafe products.
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6. Have a clear pathway for consumers to notify the pledge signatory of unsafe product listings. Such notifications are treated according to the signatory's processes. Give responses to consumers, where appropriate, within 5 business days.
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7. Help sellers comply with Australian product safety laws. Share information with sellers on compliance training and guidance. See How to sell safe products online.
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8.

Cooperate with Australian regulatory authorities and sellers to tell consumers about relevant recalls or corrective actions on unsafe products.

This could include requesting sellers to contact concerned buyers.

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9. Set up processes to prevent or restrict the sale of banned, non-compliant and recalled products.
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10. Have reasonable measures to act against repeat offenders selling unsafe products, including in cooperation with Australian regulatory authorities.
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11. Take measures to prevent the reappearance of unsafe product listings already removed.
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12. Explore the use of new technologies and innovation to improve the detection and removal of unsafe products.

Join the pledge

Online businesses facilitating the supply of products to Australian consumers, and hybrid online marketplace and retailers can express interest to join the pledge by contacting the ACCC.

The current signatories to the pledge are:

  • AliExpress
  • Amazon Australia
  • Catch.com.au
  • eBay Australia
  • MyDeal.com.au

Annual reports

We publish an annual report outlining overall performance against the key performance indicators (KPIs) for the period.

The pledge KPIs allow signatories to show how they’re reducing product safety risks for consumers shopping online. The KPIs include a combination of quantitative and qualitative measures. The annual report has aggregated and de-identified information.

Online shopping and product safety

When shopping online, be aware of product safety and your rights as a consumer.

Unsafe online products pose a serious risk to consumers, including physical injury, financial harm, and even death. We have developed some online shopping tips to help consumers understand product safety and their consumer rights.