Wish sells “fake, illegal and dangerous goods”; Which

Online retailer Wish is selling counterfeit goods that could put consumers at risk, according to consumer group Which.

Test purchases on the site carried out by Which – a car seat, two sets of headphones, a smartphone, a smartphone and a wireless speaker – were either fake, illegal, dangerous, were never delivered, or arrived too late to be tested.

“Wish.com is a serious player in the world of online marketplaces, and is well known for offering an eclectic and often amusing mix of cheap, quirky items for sale online,” says Which.

“But don’t be fooled – our research has shown that some of the products it sells can vary from misleading to downright dangerous.”

Out of the test purchases, the wireless speaker took three months to be delivered, and the smartwatch didn’t turn up. The child car seat – sold at £17 reduced from £71 – is illegal to be offered for sale in the UK as it didn’t meet EU safety regulations.

Which said it had found similar seats – dubbed “killer car seats” by Trading Standards – on sale on eBay, Amazon Marketplace and AliExpress.

The smartphone was claimed to be Huawei’s flagship P30 model, but was clearly fake and was shipped with an apple charging adaptor that was also thought to be counterfeit, according to the organisation.

A pair of Bose QuietComfort 35 II headphones was also tested, and Which says there is “zero chance this is Bose quality – there’s none of the sense of premium you’d expect from a Bose pair of headphones here.”

Ordering a pair of Apple AirPods resulted in the delivery of headphones that looked like the real thing but were in a box saying they were in fact i9S TWS headphones but claimed to be AirPods when connected to an iPhone.

Wish told Which that it has a “zero tolerance policy” for products that breach intellectual property rights or pose safety issues, without providing any statement about how it tackles these issues other than to say it offers “a comprehensive refund and returns policy.”

Notably, even though some of these products seem to be in clear breach of IPR, the company simply told Which it is “in the process of removing these items and the merchants in question have been reminded of the importance of complying with local laws.”