New research launched on registering household appliances
The Office for Product Safety and Standards has marked its first anniversary by launching a new research project that will look at the reasons why many consumers fail to register household products such as fridges, freezers and cookers.
Figures from the Association of Manufacturers of Domestic Appliances show that less than a third of people have currently registered their large appliances.
The OPSS wants find out why some people do not register their products in order to develop mechanisms to improve take-up rates. Ideas such as making registration mandatory will be tested on almost 5,000 product purchases.
Following completion of the research, manufacturers and retailers will be issued with guidance on how best to increase rates of product registrations.
Consumer Minister Kelly Tolhurst said: “Registering your fridges, freezers and other every day appliances only takes a few minutes and makes it easy for manufacturers to get in touch in the unlikely event there is a problem.
“This research will build on a fantastic first year for the Office for Product Safety and Standards. It has helped build on the UK’s already world leading consumer protection regime, raising awareness of faulty products and keeping in place the strong protections we will need after EU Exit.”
The launch of the research co-incided with the AMDEA’s Register My Appliance Day which is designed to raise awareness of the benefits of regsitering household products.
Douglas Herbison, chief executive of the AMDEA, said: “We congratulate OPSS on its first anniversary and have been particularly grateful for its support of our Register My Appliance campaign. All AMDEA members are committed to product safety and we have been pleased to share our technical and standards expertise with the new teams in OPSS and look forward to working with them in the future.”
