Online Marketplaces Are Fueling an American Product Safety Crisis

On September 18, 2025, Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) Acting Chairman Peter Feldman announced the agency has already exceeded 2024's record of 369 recalls and warnings, issuing 376 recalls and safety warnings so far in 2025. CFA recognizes and celebrates CPSC's robust action to protect Americans, but the sobering reality is that these numbers expose a product safety crisis. Dangerous, non-compliant products are flooding US households at an unprecedented rate.

So, the real question is why are there so many hazards to catch in the first place and what must be done to protect US families?

Online Marketplaces: A Product Safety Crisis

The data tells a stark story about the source of this safety crisis. So far in 2025, the share of CPSC recalls and warnings involving products from China is nearly 66 percent. Even more alarming, Acting Chairman Feldman identified that almost 92 percent of these products are tied to major online platforms such as Amazon, Walmart.com, Temu, Shein, and AliExpress.

These aren't minor safety issues. The recalls and warnings can include children's pajamas that violate flammability standards, potentially causing fatal burns; lead-contaminated faucets that poison drinking water; baby loungers that create suffocation hazards; and power tools that malfunction. Each recall represents US families unknowingly exposed to products that could kill or seriously injure their loved ones.

A recent Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue report revealed a troubling global pattern across the US, EU, and UK: widespread availability of unsafe consumer goods, including electronics, children's toys, and infant products, being sold on major online platforms. Despite repeated warnings from government agencies and enforcement actions, many non-compliant products remained accessible to consumers.

This disparity highlights a critical gap. When the CPSC issues a recall or warning, many platforms respond by removing products. But then sellers simply relist the same dangerous products under different names, through different sellers, or on a different platform. For example, in October 2024, CPSC warned consumers to stop using a specific cordless drill due to the risk of explosion, fire, and death. When Amazon removed the listing following the CPSC warning, Temu continued to list a nearly identical drill, bearing the same branding, sold by a different reseller six months later.

But this represents only a fraction of what's getting through. In the last decade, the number of international low-value shipments has surged to millions of shipments every single day. Given the enormous volume of international, low-value shipments in recent years and the current 2025 recall and warning pace, which affects millions of products in just the first seven months of the year, it is clear that we are facing an unprecedented product safety crisis that can only be addressed by holding online marketplaces accountable for the products sold on their platforms.

Threats to CPSC

Despite these mounting challenges, the CPSC itself faces unprecedented political pressure. The Administration fired all three Democratic commissioners in May 2025. Additionally, an Administration budget proposal called for the elimination of the CPSC as it has existed since its creation in 1972 and to transfer its functions to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Eliminating the CPSC, especially amid this unfolding product safety crisis, would be a catastrophic mistake. The CPSC was created as an independent agency precisely because Congress believed that it could better fulfill its mission "with the cold neutrality that the public has a right to expect of regulatory agencies formed for its protection." Moving consumer product safety under the political umbrella of HHS would compromise the agency's ability to act as an impartial enforcer against powerful interests.

How to Solve This Product Safety Crisis

US families deserve protection from dangerous products before such products even reach their doorstep. US families deserve better than hoping their regulator can recall products quickly after the products have already caused harm.

For these reasons, the US needs a strong, independent CPSC with enhanced authorities to effectively address the unprecedented product safety crisis posed by unsafe products sold online. Policymakers must focus on preventing dangerous products from reaching US homes in the first place, which includes holding online platforms accountable, strengthening enforcement, and giving the CPSC the tools it needs to keep pace with rapidly evolving global commerce.

Consumer Federation of America is calling on our elected officials to ensure:

• Enhanced Authority Over Online Marketplaces: CPSC's current enforcement model was not built for a global digital marketplace. Its foundational authorities date back to the 1970s, long before online platforms and decentralized international sellers. Congress should give the CPSC explicit authority to require platforms to prevent and remove dangerous products listings.
• Mandatory Platform Accountability: Online marketplaces that profit from selling products to US consumers should bear responsibility for ensuring those products meet US safety standards. The recent determination that Amazon is a "distributor" for certain products that are defective or violate safety standards is a start, but this principle must be applied more broadly and universally.

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