With the meteoric growth seen in the e-commerce market in 2020, four of Australia’s largest online players have signed onto the ACCC’s new Australian Product Safety Pledge to protect consumers from unsafe goods.

Amazon Australia, AliExpress, Catch and eBay Australia signed onto the voluntary pledge, which launched yesterday, which will hold them to remove unsafe product listings within two days of being notified by the ACCC, among other things.

“The already fast growing e-commerce market in Australia has accelerated even more this year, as the pandemic meant people have had to do more of their shopping from home,” said ACCC deputy chair Delia Rickard.

“With the boom in online shopping, it is more important than ever for businesses to prioritise product safety… E-commerce giants like the four pledge signatories can help keep Australian consumers safe by preventing the sale of unsafe goods across their businesses.”

Signatories of the pledge are required to report product safety performance at the end of each financial year, which will allow the ACCC to release a public report each year detailing the progress made in product safety.

The pledge itself consists of twelve commitments, such as staying on top of relevent safety information; providing a dedicated contact point for the ACCC to contact; remove unsafe products within two days of a take-down request; co-operate with authorities to identify supply chain issues; and to explore the use of new technologies and innovation to detect and remove future unsafe products.