How a recall reaches you
Regulators watch the market
ERAC says checks after sale include audits and investigations by each jurisdiction’s electrical safety regulator, along with coordinated “check test programs”. NSW Fair Trading says it “removes unsafe equipment from the marketplace from shop inspections or complaints of equipment failure.”
The supplier recalls it
“If an electrical product is unsafe and likely to cause injury or damage property, it will be recalled as soon as possible.” Recalls are “usually” made by “the responsible supplier”, which Queensland describes as the Australian legal entity that imported the product.
It is published
Western Australia’s regulator describes Product Safety Australia as a website run by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s Compliance Strategies Branch, which publishes “information about voluntary safety related recalls”. The EESS states also share “information related to incidents, investigations and recalls”.
You act on it
“Consumers are then able to return the product for a refund, replacement or modification, or they may be requested to dispose of it.” And until then: “Recalled items should not be used as they might cause electric shock, fire or property damage.”
Where to look a product up
Queensland’s Electrical Safety Office points people to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s recall website to “Check electrical appliances and equipment in your home that may be under a recall”. Energy Safe Victoria suggests the same check for older Christmas lights, “by searching the Product Safety recalls website at https://www.productsafety.gov.au/recalls”. That site is Product Safety Australia’s recalls.
The regulators in Queensland and Victoria also keep lists of their own. Queensland lists current electrical recalls on its electrical product recalls page, and Energy Safe Victoria keeps product recall notices “relevant to the Victorian public, covering gas and electrical appliances and equipment.”
The register behind the RCM answers a different question, whether a product is registered; the RCM guide covers it.
A recall is not the only tool
A recall comes from the supplier. Some regulators can also stop a product being sold or used at all.
Queensland
“The Electrical Safety Office may prohibit the sale, use or installation of equipment that has been determined to be not electrically safe.” Its current notices cover kinds of equipment including room heaters with pins for insertion into socket outlets, mist fans, submersible pumps, DC isolators and several brands of electrical cable.
Western Australia
The Director of Energy Safety can prohibit the sale, hire or use of an appliance or component that the Director considers unsafe or dangerous in use, or likely to become so. Its advice: switch off or turn off any appliance that may be unsafe or dangerous, and report it to the Director.
New South Wales
“Suppliers of electrical equipment are responsible for the safety of the products they sell.” Sellers of unsatisfactory goods “may also be instructed to suspend sales, recall previously sold goods or face prosecution.”
Reporting an unsafe product
Each regulator takes reports through its own channel. Queensland’s electrical product recalls page says: “Report unsafe electrical equipment to the Electrical Safety Office.” Western Australia asks for reports to the Director of Energy Safety, on its prohibited electrical and gas products page. NSW Fair Trading takes complaints about electrical products and says it is responsible “for monitoring the safety of electrical goods sold in NSW.”
Queensland’s advice on any appliance, recalled or not, applies here too: “If you suspect your electrical equipment is broken or faulty, don’t use it. Get it repaired or dispose of it.”