Notice to amateurs… For the second consecutive year, the General Directorate for Competition, Consumption and the Repression of Fraud (DGCCRF) has just pinned electric scooters, hoverboards and other monorwheels in a report made public this Thursday, on the base of surveys carried out in 2019. “The situation is still not satisfactory, warns Romain Roussel, chief of staff at the DGCCRF.
There are still too many security and compliance issues.
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Out of the 280 establishments inspected for electrical appliances, the repression of fraud issued 48 warnings, 20 compliance orders, 7 criminal reports, 3 administrative reports and a prefectural withdrawal decree.
Maximum penalties of 2 years' imprisonment and a fine of 300,000 euros for a natural person, and up to 1,500,000 euros in the case of a legal person, may be imposed in the context of trials. -verbaux, the investigations being still in progress.
Risks of short circuits, batteries that could ignite ...
Even more serious, after analysis, 16 models of electric scooters, hoverboards and monowheels were declared non-compliant and even dangerous for half of them. In the batch, some devices did not withstand water, causing short circuits, while others drove on their own, without human intervention. “Some had a problem with poorly adjusted handlebars, others with solidity,” still lists Romain Roussel. And in some rare cases, batteries could catch fire while charging. Fortunately, to our knowledge, there were no serious injuries. "
The same inglorious observation was made for the tests of mechanical scooters: out of the 11 samples, 2 were deemed unsatisfactory, in particular because of the risk of getting your fingers caught, and 8 declared dangerous, mainly for folding unlocking systems that could trigger while the machine was rolling. In total, 130 establishments selling or manufacturing so-called mechanical scooters were inspected.
A record that must however be tempered. The devices tested were targeted after a consumer complaint or because they were positioned at the entry level. In other words, the repression of fraud had a high chance of finding non-compliant products. Still! Already in 2001, Le Parisien echoed an investigation by the DGCCRF which alerted consumers to the dangers of mechanical scooters. Of the 14 models inspected at the time, 4 presented a defect in the locking of the telescopic rod, another a risk of breaking the axis of the handles and a sixth a faulty workmanship in the folding system.
Twenty years later, therefore, nothing has changed.
Except that scooters run more on electricity than on elbow grease.
This is even the second year in a row that these devices have been singled out by the crackdown on fraud.
In 2018, out of the 35 electric models analyzed, all were deemed non-compliant.
And the 250 establishments inspected had then resulted in 50 warnings, 23 restoring injunctions, 3 prefectural decrees - two to impose withdrawal, recall and destruction measures on professionals and one to carry out laboratory tests -, 3 reports administrative and 3 criminal reports.
"A market that has still not reached maturity"
A worrying situation which should still persist at the end of the analyzes of the years 2020 and 2021. In its general assessment of the year 2020, presented last week, the DGCCRF indeed indicates that it has checked 160 establishments. “At this stage, the first observations made […] appear similar to those of the 2019 investigation, writes the repression of fraud. The three samples analyzed in mid-January 2021, also targeted on suspect products, were all declared non-compliant, including two dangerous due to a risk of electric shock. Some of these products have been recalled. This is the case with the Qilive brand hoverboard from the Auchan distributor on November 6, due to the risk of the battery exploding. On October 1, it's a Revoie electric scooter, distributed by Décathlon,which was recalled for a solidity problem.
“Sometimes, several thousand machines can be recalled,” notes Romain Roussel. It is a market that has still not reached maturity. Professionals, for some, do not understand the regulations. »Not very reassuring, while this market has been booming for several years. “Before buying an electric scooter or a hoverboard, check that it has CE standards, strongly advises Romain Roussel. It is a guarantee of safety. "