Austrian consumers are increasingly buying food and other everyday products such as cosmetics, food supplements and children's toys online. The biggest challenge for efficient official market surveillance of online trade (eCommerce) is currently the rapidly increasing number of individual products ordered, which can only be checked with great effort and, in the event of infringements, can only be intercepted individually, as well as the difficulty in tracing them back to the manufacturer. The AGES Internet Unit works very closely with experts from the Federal Ministry of Social Affairs, Health, Care and Consumer Protection (BMSGPK) and the Federal Office for Consumer Health (BAVG) and draws attention to new health risks associated with cheap and ultra-cheap online purchases.

Monitoring online trade: online purchases are increasing massively

Products are often purchased online that cannot be bought anywhere in the EU and are not found during stationary checks. In 2023, two thirds of Austrians purchased everyday goods online. However, official inspections mainly take place in brick-and-mortar stores. In 2024, over 140 inspections and samples of toys, cosmetics and food supplements were carried out in cooperation with the BAVG. The large American and Chinese online platforms also fall under the BAVG's control regime. In 2024, the complaint rate for toys, for example, was over 80 per cent due to safety defects or labelling deficiencies. In a focus campaign on food supplements from the internet, some banned or unauthorised ingredients such as lithium or harmful mercury were found.

Consumer protection on the Internet: Cheap(est) toys are often dangerous

We work very closely with the BAVG and customs authorities to monitor toys. This is where a major difference between stationary and online retail becomes apparent: the complaint rate in stationary retail is much lower than for cheap products from the Internet. AGES analyses around 500 toy samples every year. In the case of safety defects that pose a "serious risk", the long-term average complaint rate is around 4 per cent. Serious safety defects are, for example, detachable and swallowable small parts in toys for children under 36 months or in magnetic toys and excessive kinetic energy in projectile toys. Therefore, pay attention to quality when buying toys.

Internet control is being expanded and the use of artificial intelligence is being researched

As part of the FFG-funded research project "eMarketshield" , we are already trialling the use of artificial intelligence (AI tools) for risk-based controls to efficiently monitor the online food market in order to exploit synergies in Austria and jointly develop solutions for online research, control planning and sampling.