Banning RF interferers from sale

Germany’s telecommunications watchdog, the Bundesnetzagentur, blocked about 460,000 unsafe electrical devices from entering the country in 2017.

Those devices could have caused radiofrequency interference or electromagnetic incompatibility.

“There has been a continuing trend in recent years for many unsafe products to reach the German market via the internet. Many of these products come from East Asia. We put a stop to the sale of unsafe products even if retailers do not cooperate with us,” said Jochen Homann, Bundesnetzagentur’s president.

“Our market surveillance contributes to consumer protection and also has a preventive effect.”

The 460,000 affected products included 388,000 wireless headphones that use police radio frequencies required for security purposes.

In 2016 the number of blocked products was even higher, including 744,000 products that had FM transmitters.

The Bundesnetzagentur also conducts anonymous test purchases so that it can check products that are not provided voluntarily. In 2017 it examined 52 such product types — comprising 14,700 devices such as drones, smart home and LED products — all of which displayed anomalies.

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/alexhliv

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