Over 2,900 appliances such as toasters, kettles sold without safety mark on e-commerce sites in 2021

SINGAPORE — More than 2,900 household appliances such as toasters and hair dryers sold on major e-commerce sites from January to November this year did not have a safety mark or were not registered as required, the Consumer Product Safety Office (CPSO) said.

Warning that such products could pose safety hazards such as fire risk to users, the CPSO said in a media release on Friday (Dec 17) that it had worked with the online retail sites to delist the unregistered household appliances.

It has also issued fines or warnings to sellers of the products.

The crackdown on these "controlled" products, meaning those that must be registered with the CPSO to get a safety mark, followed market surveillance efforts by the office and also consumer complaints that it had received.

The top five categories of the products that did not meet regulatory requirements included:

• AC adaptors
• Portable socket outlets
• Cooking appliances such as toasters, grills and hotplates
• Hair care appliances such as hair dryers
• Liquid heating appliances such as kettles and hot water dispenser

Those found guilty of selling unregistered controlled goods can be fined up to S$10,000 or jailed up to two years, or both.

The products in question were sold on popular e-commerce sites such as Amazon, Carousell, Ezbuy, Lazada, Qoo10 and Shopee. They have since stepped up efforts to safeguard product safety.

CPSO urges consumers to:

• Do due checks on products and sellers when shopping online, such as on the reliability of the seller
• Ensure that the product bears a valid safety mark
• Ensure that the product is compatible for use in Singapore
• Ensure that the products meet safety regulatory standards in Singapore

Consumers may check the validity of a safety mark by visiting the Consumer Product and Accuracy Plus System to view the register of registered controlled goods.

They may also check if a safety alert has been issued for a product by visiting the CPSO's Product Safety Alerts and Recalls webpage.