The e-commerce is continuously growing and new ways to organise online trade has evolved. The enforcement authorities must keep up the pace with this development and continue to include control and monitoring of e-commerce as part of their enforcement activities.
This project was a joint enforcement project for the market surveillance authorities within the Nordic Enforcement Group. The aim was to check the compliance level of chemical legislation in e-commerce in the Nordic countries as well as collecting best practices to enhance our work regarding enforcement of e-commerce of consumer goods. We focused on three types of business models: online platforms, traders (web shops) and dropshipping traders. The products were purchased from companies located nationally, in other EU member states and in countries outside the EU/EEA. A total of 210 products and 87 online actors were controlled.
The overall results showed a high non-compliance rate; 147 (71%) of the 210 controlled products inspected were found to be non-compliant. This indicates that online trade needs to improve the proactive work with chemical safety.
When comparing the different types of e-commerce stores (marketplaces, dropshipping and web shops), the non-compliance rate was highest for the dropshipping stores, with a non-compliance rate as high as 81%, followed by 64% non-compliance for marketplaces and 59% for web shops. The knowledge of chemical legislations needs to improve in all types of actors, but especially for dropshipping traders.
Most non-compliant product types for articles were electronics (81% non-compliance) followed by jewellery (50% non-compliance). Products within the scope of the RoHS directive (electrical products) had most non-compliances. Other non-compliances were possible to detect on the website like biocides and plant protection products, whereas 100% non-compliances were found.
When a non-compliant product was found, the responsible actor for the product was contacted. Most actors removed the non-compliant offers but in some cases no action was done by the actor, especially from dropshipping traders.
Many non-compliances were found regarding the label requirements in the RoHS-, Toys directives and the CLP legislation. Chemical products did not have hazard information on the labels and for toys and electrical products there was a high non-compliance regarding CE-marking, contact details (including EU representatives) and documentation.
The results indicate that for all actors dealing with e-commerce, there is a lack of knowledge regarding the chemicals legislations or an unwillingness to comply with the provisions in these legislations.