The Federal Network Agency stopped the sale of more than 15 million banned products last year. Among them were almost 2.8 million “energy-saving devices” alone, as the supervisory authority announced.
The devices with the often questionable energy-saving function had visible formal defects, such as incorrect CE markings, missing German operating instructions or the lack of a responsible European contact person from whom claims could be asserted in the event of a guarantee or damage. The operation of such defective devices is prohibited in Germany.
“The number of products that we took off the market was very high again last year. This is how we protect consumers from unsafe products,” said the President of the Federal Network Agency, Klaus Müller. In 2021, the authority even stopped the sale of almost 23 million products.
Hand-held transmitters and radio remote controls are also prohibited
Last year, the Netzagentur banned the sale of 3.2 million light effect devices for the private sector, such as flash cubes or disco balls. Here the experts complained, among other things, that devices worked in impermissible laser classes. In addition, the authority prohibited the sale of over 2 million hand-held transmitters and radio remote controls. The reason for this was often the illegal use of military frequency ranges.
The lion’s share of the bans concerned online trading. Here, the authority identified a total of more than 2,600 conspicuous offers and made sure that they were deleted from the sales platforms. More than 13 million devices were affected.
Due to controls in the German retail sector, the network agency issued 23 further sales bans and called for the correction of defects in a further 1145 cases. This affected a total of a good 1.7 million devices. Last but not least, it was about battery chargers that could cause interference in security-relevant radio services, military radio applications and IP services. However, the sale of smart radio-controlled sockets that did not meet the safety requirements because of the risk of electric shock or fire was also stopped.
Customs reported around 4,800 suspicious consignments to the Federal Network Agency last year. In around 91 percent of the cases, the products were not released for the European market. A total of around 720,000 devices were affected.
