The Norwegian Environment Agency has published its second investigation report of 2020 on hazardous substances in consumer goods sold online. According to the report, a large number of non-compliant cases are still present.
On April 30, 2020, the Norwegian Environment Agency released a report on the results of an investigation into hazardous substances in some consumer products sold online. It found that a large number of products contained substances that are harmful to human health and the environment. Products with hazardous substances concentrations exceeding the regulatory limits were recalled and forbidden to be sold online. Norway will continue to regulate products sold online.
On November 9, 2020, the Norwegian Environment Agency published a second report on its investigations into hazardous substances in consumer goods sold online, this time focused on electrical and electronic equipment (EEE), sports and leisure goods. According to the report, a large number of non-compliant products are still present, and more stringent law enforcement is needed in the future.
The results of the second report are based on 99 products bought by the Norwegian Environment Agency in April 2020 from 22 different websites, 42 of which were EEE. The products examined included headphones, toys with lights and clocks, swimming and exercise equipment, bath toys, etc. 14 of these websites were in Norway and 8 of them were from the EU.
80 products were sent to third party laboratories for testing by the Norwegian Environment Agency, and the hazardous substances identified included phthalates, short-chained chlorinated paraffins (SCCPs), chrome VI (Cr(VI)), cadmium, nickel, lead and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). In particular, EEE products were evaluated against the requirements of the EU’s RoHS Directive. Some of the results are highlighted in Table 1:
| Non-compliances | Specific reasons |
|---|---|
| 24 products contained hazardous substances, 7 of them contained substances exceeding the limits of relevant regulations | The relevant regulations include RoHS Directive, POPs Regulations, REACH, and the related hazardous substances were DEHP, DBP, SCCPs, Cr(VI). Eight of these products, were EEE products, with substances exceeding the limits of relevant regulations. |
| 21 products lacked mandatory marking | Lack of CE marking, information on manufacturers or importers, recycling labels, etc. |
Table 1
The Norwegian Environment Agency banned the sale of the non-compliant products. SGS suggests enterprises which use e-commerce to promote sales stay alert to law enforcement trends of relevant countries and pay attention to the compliance of their products.
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