Consumer watchdog Which? has found 150 potentially lethal baby products still for sale on major UK online marketplaces, according to an investigation reported by the Guardian. Researchers located these items across Alibaba, AliExpress, Amazon, eBay, Etsy, OnBuy, and TikTok Shop — all in product categories that UK safety officials had already issued formal warnings about.

Amazon alone hosted nearly a quarter of the flagged items. It's important to note that Which?'s researchers didn't conduct a broad sweep of these platforms. Instead, they deliberately searched for specific product types that the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) had already flagged as hazardous. This means the 150 count reflects known dangers that remain in circulation, not a complete safety audit of all infant goods sold online.

Three product categories dominated the findings. Which? identified 54 self-feeding devices — bottle holders designed to let parents keep their hands free during feeding — spread across five marketplaces, despite an OPSS safety alert from 2022 warning that these devices risk serious injury or death. Which? itself had issued its own alert in 2022 detailing the choking and pneumonia dangers. One bottle-holder pillow was even recalled over choking hazards. Of the 150 items, 21 were pillow-style holders designed to fasten around a baby's neck.

Sleep products made up the second major cluster. Researchers found 37 sleep pillows marketed for babies under 12 months old. The OPSS issued a warning in December 2025 that these pillows can cause suffocation and overheating, and have been linked to sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Additionally, Which? discovered 59 baby sleeping bags with serious design flaws — they had hoods, lacked armholes, or both — creating suffocation risks. The OPSS had already warned about these dangers in January 2024. Etsy was the single biggest platform for these problematic sleeping bags, hosting 38 of the 59.

One concrete example illustrates the problem. Amazon sold a swaddle blanket marketed for babies up to six months, featuring a hood with teddy bear ears but no armholes. The listing described it as usable as a sleeping sack. Which? reported a version of the same product to Amazon earlier in 2026 — meaning the listing, or something nearly identical, stayed live after being flagged once already.

Sue Davies, Which?'s head of consumer protection policy, called on the government to act. The organisation is asking ministers to use powers under the Product Regulation and Metrology Act to hold online marketplaces legally responsible for third-party products sold on their platforms. Currently, that responsibility falls on individual sellers — often based overseas and difficult to pursue. Shifting liability to the platforms themselves would create pressure for better enforcement.

The marketplaces responded when contacted by the Guardian. Alibaba said it "swiftly removed the non-compliant products" and would continue training sellers. AliExpress said it removed the flagged listings and would strengthen controls. An Etsy representative said safety was a priority and that the platform had removed all flagged listings. None of these responses explained why products subject to years-old safety alerts had remained listed in the first place.

This is not the first time Which? has found such products. In November 2025, the organisation published its own investigation titled "Hundreds of potentially deadly items found on online marketplaces" — a count that appears to have been larger than the current 150. Side by side, these findings suggest a pattern: the same hazardous categories keep reappearing rather than disappearing once flagged.

The underlying problem is where the legal responsibility lies. Under current UK product safety law, online marketplaces function more like notice boards than sellers. This limits how directly the government can penalize the platforms themselves, even when they know about a hazard. The Product Regulation and Metrology Act gives ministers the power to change this relationship, but it would require new regulations and likely complex negotiations with platforms operating across different countries with different rules. Whether the government acts on Which?'s request — and how quickly — will shape whether we continue finding the same recalled products, or whether the cycle finally breaks.