The Federal Network Agency has had 73 million devices/products removed from the market in 2023 – both from online shops and from brick-and-mortar retailers. The recalled devices come from over 8,100 different device types, according to the authority. This is a significant increase compared to 2022. In 2022, the Federal Network Agency removed over 8,200 device types with a total of 16 million devices from the market.
The reason for the Federal Network Agency’s intervention: “These products did not meet the legal requirements and some had significant defects.” This also includes devices with formal defects, such as a lack of information about the responsible economic actor in the EU and a lack of CE marking.
The Federal Network Agency most often encountered problematic offers in online shops: “The Federal Network Agency’s online market surveillance identified more than 2,400 suspicious offers in 2023 and had them deleted from the sales platforms. This affected over 64 million devices. In 2022 there were over 13 million”.
The authority found that providers of products that had already been taken off the market in 2022 simply switched to other online platforms: “In 2023, a large number of products were found on new online platforms that were already in were identified as conspicuous on established platforms in previous years”.
In particular, the Federal Network Agency often removed so-called energy saving boxes that had defects from the online marketplaces. But the authorities also had radio remote controls and hand-held transmitters removed more often. However, the reason for the ban on the sale of these radio transmitters is different: these devices often work in the security-relevant, military frequency range.
But the authority also struck at stationary retail: “A total of 31 sales bans were issued and 1,006 requests to correct defects were issued for non-compliant products. This affected a number of over 8 million devices”. Here, for example, inverters have proven to be a stumbling block for the increasingly popular balcony power plants. These often had formal and measurement deficiencies, sometimes with a high risk, as the authority writes. According to the Federal Network Agency, the use of non-compliant inverters can lead to interference in the frequency ranges used by police, fire and rescue services.
There were also frequent problems with radio-controlled sockets. There is a risk of life-threatening electric shock if the workmanship is sloppy. Here, the Federal Network Agency achieved a return of the products and the cessation of production on certain models.
In cooperation with customs, the Federal Network Agency also struck and prevented the import of 860,000 products. So these didn’t even come onto the market in Germany.
