Periodical reminder the European Commission runs something called Safety Gate.

It's an easy way to find out whether that niche and/or dodgy thing you bought has been part of an official recall anywhere in the single market.

Apart of branded stuff where the manufacturer made a genuine error there's also the utter crap (often sold by Amazon, don't buy there) like the murderous brush cutter chainsaw attachments that keep popping up.

https://ec.europa.eu/safety-gate-alerts/screen/search

#EU #europe #tech #safetyish

Smoke and carbon monoxide detectors pop up rather frequently btw. And even so most of the shitty ones probably fall through the cracks.

As usual the very large online retailers (Amazon, and the ones like Alibaba even more blatantly shitting on EU consumer rights and small companies) are a large vector for this.

When you go through the effort of installing these, just try to buy something from a reputable large brand that is somewhat widespread in your country.

Example: https://ec.europa.eu/safety-gate-alerts/screen/webReport/alertDetail/10098636?lang=en

Smoke-detector.

"The product is not sensitive enough to detect smoke."

Sold via Amazon, Wish, Shein, Alibaba, Aliexpress

Might be laughable but also there's a lot of people who now have these in their house. It kills people.

It's difficult to enforce stuff on Wish, Shein, Alibaba and Aliexpress (although the EU could / should make advertising these sites illegal) but fricking Amazon ships this shit from EU warehouses. It's infuriating they're never fined for this.

https://ec.europa.eu/safety-gate-alerts/screen/webReport/alertDetail/10093833?lang=en

@Pepijn Do you have any recommendations for smoke detectors? Existing law in Poland will make them mandatory In few years time, but even before that I am thinking of buying and installing one in my apartment.

@ThePolishDispatch If possible get a wired product, and a networked one at that (all detectors go off at the same time). It's just more reliable.

The market for good quality is very much a local one with brands often limited to countries or regions. So I don't have specific recommendations.

@Pepijn If a local distributor, advertising on local platforms, indicates that the product was Made in China would that be a red flag in light of your earlier alibaba comment?
@ThePolishDispatch Not directly. Most of the good ones are also manufactured in China. I'd look for recommendations from a local consumer advice organisation as this is the type of product they have opinions about.