This year, World Consumer Day will focus on product safety and its impact on consumer confidence. Under the slogan ‘Safe products, confident consumers’, the European Consumer Centre in Spain (ECC-Spain) aims, on the one hand, to raise awareness of the risks associated with the sale of unsafe products and, on the other, to call for measures to strengthen consumer protection, especially when shopping online.
In the new era of Artificial Intelligence and online commerce, product safety has become a priority challenge. According to a 2023 report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), 87% of products that have been withdrawn or banned are still available for sale online. These products generally came from foreign suppliers and online toy and game markets, including bath toys, inflatable baby bath accessories, and toys containing button batteries and magnets.
This is a problem that affects consumers worldwide and has a particularly significant impact on vulnerable people and low-income countries. In addition to direct safety risks, unsafe products can cause public health problems and hinder sustainable development, as they contribute to pollution and waste of resources.
In this context, EEC-Spain calls for more initiatives to raise awareness and ensure that all products sold on European markets comply with current safety regulations. However, it should be noted that, at European level, the authorities have stepped up their actions against dangerous products. Thus, over the last year, alerts registered in the European Rapid Alert System Safety Gate increased by 13%, reaching 4,671 notifications, the highest level recorded to date, according to the 2025 report published by the European Commission.
This European Union Rapid Alert System allows authorities in the Union and the European Economic Area to exchange information on dangerous non-food products and take immediate action. Over the last year, cosmetics and toys were among the products with the highest number of alerts, accounting for more than half of the cases reported.
Similarly, follow-up actions resulting from these alerts increased by 35% in 2025, including measures such as product recalls or withdrawals, border seizures, and removal from online marketplaces.
At the same time, the European Union has strengthened its regulatory framework for product safety. The General Product Safety Regulation, in force since 2024, establishes new obligations for online marketplaces operating in the EU, including registration on the Safety Gate portal and the designation of a single point of contact. By the end of 2025, more than 1,200 platforms had already registered with this system.
In addition to these measures, the new Toy Safety Regulation came into force on 1 January and will apply from August 2030. This regulation aims to strengthen the protection of children against harmful substances in toys and to raise the safety standards applicable to these products.
Through these initiatives, European institutions and consumer organisations are seeking to move towards a safer and more transparent market, in which the protection of consumers is a priority.
About ECC-Spain
The European Consumer Centre in Spain (ECC-Spain) is a public body that provides information, advice and assistance to help consumers living in Spain resolve any disputes they may encounter when purchasing goods or contracting services from businesses based in another European Union country (excluding Spain), Iceland, Norway or the United Kingdom. Consumers may seek assistance from ECC-Spain provided they have made a cross-border purchase from a trader (business), as a private individual (consumer), and for their private use.
ECC-Spain has no coercive power to issue binding decisions. Its role is to seek to reach amicable agreements that resolve the dispute between the consumer and the business through out-of-court means. Nor does it have the power to impose sanctions, and its agreements are reached on a voluntary basis. The Centre has no authority to act in cases of criminal offences (fraud, scams, etc.) if the purchase was made between private individuals (Consumer-to-Consumer) or between businesses (Business-to-Business).
ECC-Spain handles complaints relating to most consumer issues, acting on behalf of consumers with the aim of reaching an amicable settlement to resolve their disputes. However, there are some exceptions where ECC-Spain does not have the authority to act and – depending on the sector – complaints must be directed to other competent bodies.
About World Consumer Rights Day
On 15 March 1962, President Kennedy addressed the United States Congress, setting out for the first time in the world the rights to which citizens were entitled in their capacity as consumers. Since then, this event has been regarded as the starting point for the protection of consumer and user rights at an international level, and this date has been chosen to mark World Consumer Rights Day.