"A step forward for consumers” as the UK formally brings in new product safety law

Jill Paterson, a partner at law firm, Leigh Day welcomed the update to product safety law and says the law should soon better protect consumers “in a world where more and more is being purchased online”.  

The Department for Business and Trade says the PRAM act will put an expectation on online marketplaces to: 

• prevent unsafe products from being made available to consumers; 
• ensure that sellers operating on their platform comply with product safety obligations; 
• provide relevant information to consumers; 
• and cooperate closely with regulators. 

The act also aims to impose stricter product safety regulations on items bought online and ministers hope that these regulations will catch unsafe lithium-ion batteries, used in e-bikes and e-scooters.

The government warned that the rising popularity of e-bikes and e-scooters has brought with it an increase in safety incidents – the Office for Product Safety and Standards in 2024 received reports on 211 fires involving e-bikes or e-scooters - equivalent to a fire every 1.7 days. It said that most of these reports (175) were from London Fire Brigade. 

A code of conduct has also been published alongside the new act, which is meant to assist policy makers and those developing legislation by providing an overview of the product safety landscape and setting out “collaborative processes” by which new laws should be made. It also underlines “the place of UK consumers at the heart of UK product safety policy”.

While welcoming the bill receiving royal assent, The Chartered Trading Standards Institute said that there are areas in which the legislation “falls short”, including how these stronger regulations will be enforced and how that enforcement will be properly funded.  

Leigh Day partner, Jill Paterson said: 

“This new act marks a step forward to better protection of consumers in a world where more and more products are being purchased online. It should help to bring online marketplaces in line with the legal obligations which are currently in place for traditional high street stores. 

“How this all pans out, however, will be highly dependent on what the government does next in terms of secondary legislation. 

“Ministers must now seize this opportunity to deal with the growing problem of products such as unregulated e-bikes and e-scooters, which can cause fires, dangerous children’s products, and counterfeit goods which put lives at risk”.