Black Friday and Cyber Monday are now key shopping dates for Brits looking to grab a bargain during the countdown to Christmas.

Shoppers are set to spend heavily again this year as they hunt for bargain goods and presents, and a fair amount of that money will be spent buying online. Using the internet to purchase goods is part of the way we shop these days.

Black Friday this year falls on 29 November, followed by Cyber Monday on 2 December, and many of us will begin our festive shopping then as thousands of retailers slash their prices to entice us to spend.

As we scroll through the online market places, the very least we want is for the goods we buy to be safe and not faulty in any way. We expect the presents that we purchase to be quality ones and certainly not anything that could cause an injury to our loved ones.

Sadly, some customers this year may end up with toys and gifts that are unsafe, with the potential to cause serious injury that is all too real.

Imagine you bought a soft toy online, which says it is suitable for babies, but it turns out to have unsafe buttons that could easily fall off and be swallowed by a youngster. The consequences could be devastating.

APIL had responded to a 2023 Office of Product Safety & Standards UK product safety review calling for a clampdown on online market places when unsafe goods or products that do not comply with safety standards in the UK are sold to unwitting customers. The Government has now responded and confirmed that it will have another look at the product safety framework and address the issues faced by the sale of unsafe goods through online marketplaces. But this will take time.

What happens at the moment, is that often items for sale on online market places involve complex supply chains and are being sold by third parties, which makes it a minefield for customers seeking redress when things go wrong.

We called for customers to be given statutory rights by introducing ‘joint and several liability’ laws which would make online market places equally liable, along with the manufacturers of products, for items sold on their sites when something goes wrong. Regardless of where a product originally came from, it should be subject to the laws of the country where the customer lives. This would mean a product bought by a customer in England would be subject to English law, which is not the case at present.

We are encouraged by the Government’s response to the consultation and that it accepts that reform of the product safety framework is needed. And that it intends to introduce new requirements on online marketplaces at the earliest opportunity to clarify and modernise online marketplace responsibilities. Protection for customers from shoddy and unsafe goods is vital.

Consumers need to be able to shop online and know the item they have bought is of satisfactory quality and fit for purpose, and there won’t be disappointment - or worse an injury - on 25 December.

Christmas should not be unforgettable for the wrong reasons. We hope these first steps to better oversight of online marketplaces will ensure gift giving is always joyful.