Online lighting products pose fire and shock risks, testing reveals

A testing program that examined 131 lighting products sold through five of Australia's most popular online marketplaces has revealed a landscape of serious safety failures. The Lighting Council of Australia purchased items from Temu, AliExpress, Amazon, eBay, and Kogan, then assessed them against local safety standards. Nearly three-quarters of what they found—73 percent—did not meet the requirements meant to protect Australian homes and the people in them.

When three downlights were sent to an independent laboratory for closer examination, the results were unambiguous. All three caught fire when exposed to heat and flame during mandatory safety testing. Two of the samples were destroyed entirely during a high-voltage strength test. These are not edge cases or unlikely scenarios. They are the two mechanisms by which electrical products kill people: fire and electrical shock. Yet these items were available for purchase by any Australian with a credit card and an internet connection, often at prices that seemed too good to refuse.

Malcolm Richards, chief executive of the Lighting Council, framed the problem with stark clarity. The question is no longer whether someone will be hurt. It is when, and who will be responsible when it happens. Right now, he said, the answer is nobody. Homeowners believe they are making a smart upgrade to their lighting. Instead, they are bringing fire hazards into their own homes, or exposing themselves and their families to electrical shock. The products are cheap and attractive—that is precisely why they sell.

The testing revealed a hierarchy of failure. Temu and AliExpress performed worst: none of the lighting products sampled from either platform passed compliance testing. Amazon fared slightly better, with 8 percent of tested products meeting standards. eBay managed 12 percent. The council wrote to all five platforms in June with the results. Only Temu responded meaningfully. Within a week, it removed all 240-volt lighting products from its Australian website. Amazon, AliExpress, and Kogan did not respond. Two months later, they were still selling the same products that had failed the same tests.

This is not a technical problem, Richards emphasized. Temu proved it was fixable in a week. The others chose not to act. The council has called for the platforms to remove all unregistered 240-volt lighting products from their Australian listings and for regulators to be given stronger powers to hold online marketplaces accountable. But there is a deeper structural problem: two of the products that failed laboratory testing cannot be identified, traced, or recalled because they carry no model number. Even with laboratory evidence of serious safety defects in hand, a regulator would struggle to identify the responsible supplier or prevent the same product from being re-listed the next day under a different seller's name.

Bea Sherwood, a senior advisor at the consumer advocacy group Choice, pointed to research showing that about 6 percent of people who buy products on online marketplaces experience injury or property damage from unsafe items. These are not isolated incidents. They are patterns. Choice encountered the same resistance from platforms when trying to raise safety concerns. The organization has called for government intervention, arguing that Australia's product safety regime is fragmented and that many consumers wrongly assume products sold online have already been vetted for safety before they reach the marketplace. That assumption is false. Right now, it is not the case. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has been asked to comment on the findings.