How to sell safe products online

Product safety laws for online sellers

Online businesses at every stage of the supply chain must follow Australian product safety laws.

It is your responsibility as a business to understand Australian product safety laws and make sure you sell safe, compliant products.

These laws mean your business must:

• comply with Australian mandatory safety standards
• not supply banned products
• report the death or the serious injury or illness of a person resulting from a consumer product you supplied
• recall a product if it’s a safety hazard, it doesn’t comply with a mandatory standard, or it’s banned.

If you make or manufacture the products you sell online, you should also be aware of how Australia’s product liability laws apply to products with safety defects. This is in addition to your legal responsibilities as a supplier.

Selling through an online shop

If you’re selling through an online shop, make sure you’re following Australian product safety laws. You also need to take some extra steps when selling online to make sure your products are safe.

How to sell safe products in your online shop

Follow this guidance for selling safe products.

• If products don’t follow Australian product safety regulations, block them from being sold in Australia.
• Source your products from manufacturers and suppliers who follow Australian product safety regulations.
• Check to see what products are banned from sale in Australia.
• Share product safety information with consumers and make it available in appropriate languages. Include information like warnings, labels, age-grading on children’s products, product descriptions, good quality product images, and ingredients lists, especially for cosmetics and toiletries.
• List your contact details clearly in case of safety problems.
• Subscribe to updates to find out about any new information or changes in consumer product safety laws.

What to do if you find a product you have sold was unsafe

Follow this guidance if you become aware that you sold a product that was unsafe.

• Stop selling the product straight away.
• Communicate product safety concerns with any affected customers.
• Notify the ACCC within 2 days if you take recall action, or if a safety incident has occurred. Be sure to comply with recall notification and mandatory reporting requirements to avoid penalties.

Hosting sellers on your online marketplace

As host, you should make sure the businesses on your online marketplace are complying with product safety laws and selling safe products. This helps protect consumers from harm. It also helps build consumer trust in your brand and business.

How to sell safe products in online marketplaces

Make sure the products hosted for sale on your site are safe.

• Know which products are banned or unsafe, and audit listings for non-compliance with safety standards and bans
• Identify and quickly remove unsafe products from your platform
• Check Australian recalls and international recall sites such as the OECD GlobalRecalls portal
• Make it easy for consumers to report product safety concerns to you (the online marketplace), and the seller, by having clear contact details
• Promote product safety compliance and require new sellers to learn about their product safety obligations before they list on your platform
• Encourage your sellers to have clear product descriptions, good quality product images and ingredient lists. For some products, such as cosmetics and toiletries, suppliers need to make the ingredients list available to consumers before they pay
• Work with the ACCC and other authorities to help protect consumers from unsafe products. Consider joining the ACCC’s product safety pledge.

See also

Subscribe to product safety email alerts

Understand product safety laws

Recall an unsafe product