BBC – TikTok and Temu have pulled cheap electric heaters from their online stores after Which? found they could explode or start house fires.
The consumer group tested eight heaters, the cheapest of which was £7.20, and found most did not meet UK safety standards. It said the devices, some of which had been promoted by influencers on TikTok, posed “a serious safety risk” to users. TikTok and Temu both said customer safety was their priority. However, despite both companies removing the items from sale, Which? said it had found that more similar listings had since appeared in their place.
Temu and TikTok, though its Shop platform, have emerged as rivals to more established online marketplaces such as Amazon and eBay, with millions of UK shoppers turning to them for seemingly affordable products.
Which? said its heater research showed they needed to be better regulated. “Cheap electric heaters are a tempting purchase for consumers struggling during the cold winter months, but our latest tests have revealed that models sold on TikTok and Temu are a serious safety risk and must be avoided at all costs,” said Sue Davies, Which?’s head of consumer protection policy.
“It’s vital that the government urgently gives greater legal responsibility to online marketplaces for unsafe products so that they are forced to take action to prevent dangerous products ending up in people’s homes.”
Which? has also highlighted the role influencers play in promoting the heaters. TikTok Shop is interwoven into the video-sharing app, with products available on it frequently appearing in creators’ videos on the platform.
Which? identified several posts from influencers promoting fire hazard heaters in TikTok search results.
Lesley Rudd, chief executive of Electrical Safety First, urged them to take responsibility for their actions, saying they had “a moral duty” to ensure the products they recommended to followers were safe.
