Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) consultation on The UK’s new product safety framework - Which? response

Which? welcomes this opportunity to respond to the OPSS’ consultation on the UK’s new product safety framework. 

Summary

The proposed upgrade to our safety framework represents a critical opportunity to deliver much-needed reforms to the UK's product safety regime and ensure it is fit for the challenges of an increasingly complex and digital global market. Which? broadly welcomes the government’s ambition to modernise the framework, particularly to encompass the coverage of a wider range of products and businesses than the existing regulations, to broaden safety considerations and to update accountability requirements that reflect how business models have evolved, including the growth of online marketplaces.   

However, to ensure these reforms genuinely protect consumers, the transition to a new framework must prioritise robust oversight and enforcement, with an appropriate balance between an outcomes-based approach and more prescriptive measures where needed.   Our responses to this consultation place some qualifications to our support, outlining where the proposals must go further to ensure appropriate requirements for products and full accountability for actors  across the modern supply chain: 

• Scope and exemptions

While we support the overarching expansion of the scope of products covered, we have concerns regarding proposed exemptions for artworks and think that caution is needed in relation to measures covering products intended for repair or refurbishment. Without precise, narrow definitions, there is a risk these categories could be exploited as dangerous loopholes by unscrupulous sellers, creating a grey market where functional, hazardous, or fundamentally faulty goods bypass rigorous safety testing. 

• Bringing products to market and safety assessment

We welcome the introduction of essential safety requirements (ESRs) and a more adaptable, risk-based approach. However, this shift must be cautious given the diversity of businesses, as well as products, in scope. We strongly warn against a model that relies too heavily on industry self-assessment and voluntary standards and fails to recognise that some products will present hazards and associated risks that require specific regulatory requirements in order to ensure consumers are assured an appropriate level of protection. The framework proposed shifts too far towards voluntary standards over regulation. Where standards are designated, the   government must mandate explicit, independent oversight, incorporate robust consumer representation in standard-setting, and the framework must be  firmly underpinned by the precautionary principle to ensure commercial innovation never compromises human safety. 

• Statutory duty of care for online marketplaces

We strongly support placing a statutory due care requirement on online platforms to end the safety lottery of e-commerce. However, a flexible, outcomes-based approach must not allow marketplaces to hide behind ineffective internal policies and paper compliance. Our extensive testing shows that voluntary measures and automated algorithms, for example checking listings for safety issues, consistently fail to protect the public. To ensure true accountability, this general duty must be underpinned by explicit, non-negotiable, baseline statutory requirements. These must include: robust trader verification, the mandatory appointment of strictly vetted, UK-based legal representatives for overseas platforms, proactive cross-referencing against global recall databases, and guaranteed, permanent takedowns coupled with a strict legal duty to directly notify consumers who have purchased unsafe or recalled goods.

• Accountability for onward suppliers

We strongly welcome the introduction of the onward suppliers category into the core framework. Crucially, this expansion finally closes a notorious regulatory blind spot by placing formal legal obligations on fulfilment service providers (FSPs). 

• Digital labelling

Measures to introduce e-labelling must be implemented with extreme caution. A digital-by-default approach risks digitally excluding vulnerable consumers and allows for critical safety information to be lost or silently altered over time. We believe that all safety-critical information must remain on physical packaging, with digital labels serving only as an enhanced, supplementary layer of information that retains historical data for the purposes of enforcement and consumer redress. 

• Artificial Intelligence and smart products

To future-proof AI's integration into both product functionality and e-commerce, the framework must address the novel hazards of smart devices and new AI shopping business models. This includes ensuring that the accountability mechanisms proposed are fit for purpose for these new products, e-commerce chains and business models. 

• Enforcement and cooperation

We welcome the push for greater cooperation between supply chain actors and regulators, including fixed response times and digital access for authorities.   

• An independent OPSS

For these new enforcement provisions to truly transform the UK’s safety regime, the OPSS must be reconstituted as a fully independent, standalone regulator with an uncompromising statutory mandate to put public safety first.