17 September 2025
A new Which? investigation has found illegal car seats still being sold on online marketplaces including eBay, Little Dreams, ManoMano, Shein and Wish, 10 years after the consumer champion first revealed the potentially lethal threat they pose to children.
The consumer champion first exposed the sale of flimsy fabric children's car seats in 2014. These were taken down at the time, but Which? recently found over a dozen new examples of these items on several well-known online marketplaces. Police have also warned that they found similar seats in vehicles at car seat checking events.
Car seats can be expensive, and Which? is concerned that families struggling with the cost of living could be tempted by these cheap but dangerous knock-offs. The consumer champion's research found prices ranging from £12.50 to just under £40 - far below the standard price of children's car seats, which start from around £80.
Buckinghamshire and Surrey Trading Standards has previously dubbed these products 'killer car seats' - and with good reason. When car seat manufacturer Britax used one to show the effect of a 30mph impact, the test dummy, which represented a three-year-old child, was hurled through the windscreen when the seat straps came loose.
The safety defects in these 'killer car seats' include a thin seat base and not having one central point of release for the harness. These are fundamental flaws since car seats must raise a child's height to position the seat belt correctly across their lap, and multiple buckles on the harness can make it difficult to rescue a child in the event of a crash.
A disturbing feature of these products is their clear lack of side impact protection, which is needed to protect a child's head from hitting the inside of the car. This omission is a fundamental safety failing that leaves children vulnerable to head trauma or death in the event of a side impact.
The seats Which? found also lack the distinctive orange labels that indicate which safety regulation the seats comply with. Child car seats must have an R44 or R129 regulation label to be sold legally in the UK.
Another concern is that while eBay's product listings describe these items as car seats, the full descriptions warn against using them in cars. Which? also felt that the warning against using these seats in a car is poorly worded and likely to confuse shoppers further. It reads:
"Note: it is best not to use it on high-speed cars. We recommend that it be used in non-motorized products such as electric vehicles, two-wheelers, and electric vehicles. Because it is not a child safety seat that complies with traffic."
Which? campaigned for new product safety laws, which received Royal Assent this year. Following this crucial first step, Which? is calling for secondary regulations to impose a clear and robust duty on online marketplaces to prevent the sale of unsafe products - backed up by strong penalties and rigorous enforcement.
The consumer champion's investigations have shown time and again that online marketplaces need to be given clear responsibilities for ensuring the safety of products that they list on their sites. Without tough secondary regulations, Which? believes online marketplaces will continue to put lives at risk by failing to prevent the sale of unsafe and illegal products.
Regulators such as the Office for Product Safety and Standards and Trading Standards must also be given strong enforcement powers that force online marketplaces to take product safety seriously.
(Source: Which?, 5 September 2025)
For more information on the safety of products, see 'Product safety'.