The Product Regulation and Metrology Act 2025 has received Royal Assent and become law. The Act is more of an "enabler" and provides the UK government with the powers to make secondary legislation to tackle product safety problems. It also provides powers to ensure that products operate efficiently or effectively, and to ensure that products designed for weighing or measuring operate accurately.
Among other things, the government intends to use the new Act to hold online marketplaces to account for dangerous products sold through their platforms, which the government intends will create a level playing field with bricks and mortar stores. Which? has been campaigning for some time about unsafe and illegal products sold online.
The UK government intends to introduce requirements for online marketplaces at the earliest opportunity to update their responsibilities. They will be expected to:
- prevent unsafe products from being made available to consumers;
- ensure that sellers operating on their platform comply with product safety obligations;
- provide relevant information to consumers; and
- cooperate closely with regulators.
The UK's rules may end up being quite similar to those in the EU's General Product Safety Regulation which came into force in December 2024. Under the EU rules, providers of online marketplaces have duties to prevent dangerous products being sold. For example, they must co-operate with market surveillance authorities if they find a dangerous product on their platform and must establish a single point of contact responsible for product safety. The surveillance authorities can require online marketplaces to remove dangerous products from, or disable access to, their listings. As well as the GPSR, the European Commission can take action under the Digital Services Act.
The UK government has published a Code of Conduct clarifying how it intends to use its new powers under the Act. This sets out the statutory and non-statutory controls in place to ensure that regulations made under the Act are proportionate and evidence-based.
As the government has said that it will introduce new rules for online marketplaces at the "earliest opportunity", we expect to see a consultation very soon.
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