eBay joins the airbag ban

The online retailer eBay is banning sales of airbags and airbag parts in the U.S., following competitors including Amazon, Meta, Temu and Alibaba.

Chinese inflators linked to deaths

In April, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that substandard airbag inflators imported from China were responsible for a dozen deaths or serious injuries since twenty twenty-three.

Faulty parts sold on eBay

In July, The Wall Street Journal traced faulty and potentially counterfeit airbag components and found that one had been purchased as an aftermarket part on eBay.

eBay's enforcement strategy

eBay said the decision was made following a comprehensive review of risks. The company will enforce the policy using seller compliance audits, filtering algorithms and AI-supported monitoring.

Safety advocates welcome the move

Rosemary Shahan, president of Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety, said it's good that eBay is no longer offering airbags. There are a lot of dangerous airbags out there, she said.

“It's a good thing that eBay is no longer going to be offering airbags or airbag components on their platform. And it's about time.”

Bans may not stop the problem

William Wallace, director of safety advocacy for Consumer Reports, cautioned that faulty or counterfeit airbags could still crop up on other sites. It is a game of Whack-A-Mole, he said.

“It is a game of Whack-A-Mole.”

How airbags become dangerous

Airbags are pyrotechnic devices. When they malfunction, the inflator's parts can become brittle and break apart, flying at your face as shrapnel during deployment.

The Takata recall history

NHTSA's largest airbag recall began in twenty fourteen after the Japanese company Takata's airbags caused fatalities. The recall affected an estimated sixty-seven million airbags in the U.S.

Why counterfeit airbags are worse

Counterfeit airbags may not work like genuine parts and might not have been tested properly. They are hard to recall because they masquerade as something else, making it difficult to trace who imported them.

Checking your car's airbag history

Carfax offers a free check for deployed airbags. Vehiclehistory.gov allows owners to purchase full vehicle history. A CLUE report from Lexis Nexis shows insurance claims from the previous seven years.

The only sure way to know

The only way to tell for sure if a car's airbag poses a risk is to have it inspected by an experienced mechanic who can determine whether it could be dangerous.