Amazon and country of origin? 2 June 2020 at 1:57PM edited 2 June 2020 at 1:58PM in Consumer Rights 23 replies 913 views

Steveglw

I'm now starting to pay attention to the country of origin before I buy anything now especially made in China. I thought by law you had to mention the country of origin but I cannot find anywhere on amazon the country of origin before buying.... Is this allowed? 

unforeseen

Items may need to have country of origin on them but there is nothing to say that their has to be any mention in the marketing/advertising of said product

davidmcn

I think the specific rules depend on the sort of item you're talking about, and as above I doubt a website generally needs to tell you in advance.

Not sure how much it helps you anyway as you get things like clothing items which qualify as "Made in UK" because the buttons were sewn on here.

Lomast

To be honest country of origin is not always a good indicator anyway, I personally know and have dealt with a factory in Shenzhen that knocks out absolutely top of the line products and another in Germany that makes parts I would not touch with a barge pole

Spank

OP do you mean where it was made or where it's shipped from?

JJ_Egan

OP you need to be aware that not buying stuff made in China can be rather problematic .

IPhone  etc is in no way China free . Your post to this forum has possible gone through a couple of Huawei connectors .

neilmcl

Steveglw said:

I'm now starting to pay attention to the country of origin before I buy anything now especially made in China. I thought by law you had to mention the country of origin but I cannot find anywhere on amazon the country of origin before buying.... Is this allowed? 

Well you're going to have a very small shopping list in future then, especially from Amazon.

mattyprice4004

I owned an online retailer for 7 years, and there's no legislation that stipulates I must say where the product was made (and frankly this can change, so I'd be forever updating things). 

Mickey666

Lomast said:

To be honest country of origin is not always a good indicator anyway, I personally know and have dealt with a factory in Shenzhen that knocks out absolutely top of the line products and another in Germany that makes parts I would not touch with a barge pole

Absolutely right.  Because places like China have built their manufacturing industries relatively recently they have bought in all the very latest production equipment and techniques and are world class, if not world-leading.  People may have many reasons for not buying goods made in China but quality is not one of them.  Similarly places like India.  While the UK struggles to roll out superfast broadband and is seriously disadvantaged by all the legacy copper twisted-pair connecting our homes and businesses, 'Developing' countries just leap-frog right to the front of the technology queue and install the latest and greatest.

Steveglw

Thanks to everyone for your comments. I have spoken to a trading standards officer in Glasgow who confirmed there is no legislation for any goods being sold (apart from food products) mandating them to state their country of manufacture or origin. They can only get involved for false information therefore misleading the public. I think this is absolutely ridiculous that we the consumer have no way of finding out where it was made till it arrives but even then there is no guarantee of a mention of country of origin.

This is not me being anti Chinese but I would like to have the option based on my own personal ethical reasons whether to buy the product or not.

Looks like I need to speak to my local MP and get the ball rolling as it looks like noone else is taking on that challenge... I'm a bit bored now and always like a challenge so wish me luck... 😂 

Steve

pinkshoes

On Amazon it's quite easy to tell by looking at the delivery date. All the UK companies have much shorter delivery date estimates than the goods coming from China, but higher prices! 

e.g. I was looking for a widget recently. They all seemed to have the same stock photo, but the more expensive ones were the ones with quick delivery dates, so I can only assume someone in the UK has bought these products in bulk then is marking up the price with their niche of quick delivery.