Amazon to recall dangerous motorcycle riding kit

The Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) has issued a recall of the Jet Womens Motorcycle Jacket and Trousers that were sold on Amazon. Bennetts BikeSocial has reported on other cases of potentially dangerous motorcycle kit sold on the online marketplace, including motorcycle airbags and motorcycle gloves, which – as you can see in the video below, were the number one best-seller on Amazon.

Amazon’s best-selling gloves are dangerous

Watch our investigation, lab testing and open letter to Amazon

The OPSS says that these products sold via Amazon present a risk of injury as they fail to provide adequate protection to the user in the event of an accident, due to the fabric used failing to meet the necessary tear strength. The back, shoulder, elbow and knee protection is also mentioned as failing to be protective.

Both the jacket – which was listed as ‘Womens Ladies Motorcycle Motorbike Jacket Waterproof Armoured ROCHELLE’, and the trousers, which were called ‘Jet Womens Ladies Motorcycle Motorbike Trousers Leggings Aramid Kevlar Lined CE Armoured Luna’ failed to meet the requirements of Regulation 2016/425 or the Personal Protective Equipment (Enforcement) Regulations 2018.

Both products have been recalled, which means that Amazon will need to not only withdraw them from sale, but also contact every purchaser to offer a full refund.

Online marketplaces like this MUST take responsibility for the products sold on their platforms as lives are being put at risk due to huge numbers of items being offered – illegally – without the necessary safety certification. Without being properly tested, buyers have no way of knowing if the kit they’re buying will offer any protection in the event of a crash.

Bennetts BikeSocial would strongly urge riders to only buy riding gear from reputable dealers, as properly-certified protective kit – be it gloves, jackets, trousers, helmets or boots – does NOT need to be more expensive than some of the rubbish being sold via platforms like Amazon.

To understand the labels and safety certification used in ALL motorcycle riding kit legally sold in the UK, check out this guide to the safest motorbike gear.

An Amazon spokesperson told us that “We require all products to comply with all applicable laws and regulations and Amazon policies.

“We ensure our selection meets industry-accepted standards, and we develop innovative tools to prevent unsafe products from being listed.

“We continuously monitor our store, and if we discover a product was undetected by our automated checks, we address the issue immediately and refine our controls.

“We take action to maintain a safe selection for our customers, including removing non-compliant products, and contacting sellers, manufacturers, and government agencies to request additional information, when appropriate."

The time between a product being reported and investigations by Trading Standards completed can be very long – Amazon pointed out that “The products in question were removed in December 2023.”

We have asked Amazon for more details of the ‘innovative tools’ it mentions in its statement.

Bennetts BikeSocial is aware of many more items that being reported, so we’ll be following progresses and reporting back. Unfortunately the Cofit gloves that we flagged in July are still for sale, and our requests for proof that these are being legally sold have so far gone unanswered.

The affected Amazon ASIN IDs for the two products are B07TBTDM1M and B07YR8S2G4.

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