Around 23 million devices and products were taken out of service by the German Federal Network Agency in 2021 due to radio interference caused or an increased risk. This was officially announced by the authority last Friday.
Radio interference: significantly more devices affected than in the previous year
As the Federal Network Agency announced on Friday, 23 million products were withdrawn from circulation during the year due to radio interference caused or because they were classified as dangerous. This corresponds to around two million devices more than in the previous year 2020. Some of the devices also had “significant formal defects.”
Radio headsets topped the list with about 7.7 million devices, some of which transmitted on police or fire department frequencies. Last year’s sad front-runner in the form of baby monitors is at least no longer to be found in the top three.
Low-cost measuring devices and drones also had to be taken off the market by the Federal Network Agency. Frequently, the main complaints were a lack of CE marking or the absence of contact details for the manufacturer.
Mainly online trade affected
A total of 1936 products were identified by the Federal Network Agency that were offered for sale exclusively online and did not comply with European specifications. This brings the total number of individual devices blocked and removed from the respective online platforms to 21.4 million.
A further 3554 retail products were also inspected, resulting in a further 23 sales bans and 1,095 reminder procedures. Particularly conspicuous or defective had been here with above all different LED illuminants and favorable power supplies.
The Federal Network Agency had already warned of glaring defects in the area of LED illuminants in 2020. Customs also reported almost 6,500 suspicious consignments of goods to the Federal Network Agency in 2021.
In around 91 percent of the cases, the products had not been released for the German market, as clear defects had been detectable. A total of around 320,000 products were affected.
