Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of introducing legal duties on online marketplaces to (a) verify sellers of e-bikes and (b) remove unsafe e-bike listings.

All products placed on the market in the UK must be safe. However, the current legislative framework was not designed with online supply chains in mind. This is a key reason why Government has introduced the Product Regulation and Metrology Bill, which provides powers to update the framework and improve the safety of products sold online.

Following Royal Assent, we intend to consult on using the Bill’s powers to modernise the responsibilities of online marketplaces, so that they take steps to prevent unsafe products being made available to consumers and to ensure that sellers comply with product safety obligations.