eBay bans sale of airbags and inflators on site

eBay will no longer permit the sale of airbags on its platform starting later this month, according to a post on its community forums. 

Effective Sept. 24, sellers may not list or sell airbags and airbag inflators on eBay, the post states. It adds that the policy applies across the entire airbag category. 

“This decision was made following a comprehensive review of the risks these products may pose to eBay users,” the post states. 

The decision follows a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) article that identified eBay as a location where deadly counterfeit airbags have been sold. 

While automakers sell certified replacement parts for deployed airbags, counterfeit airbags sell for as little as $100 on websites such as eBay and Facebook Marketplace — one-tenth of the typical OEM cost, the WSJ reported. Often the parts are labeled as OEM.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Administrator Jonathan Morrison told WSJ that a traditional recall is unlikely to work for counterfeit parts. 

“Normally, carmakers can easily trace where potentially problematic parts originated and how they were imported, but with the substandard airbag parts, there are no records of who sent them to the U.S. and distributed them,” the article states. 

eBay says in its post that along with airbags and airbag inflators, steering wheel airbag covers will also no longer be sold. 

“Outside the United States, all sellers may continue to list permitted airbag-related parts that do not contain an airbag or inflator (listed below),” eBay states in its post. “In the United States, the sale of these permitted parts is restricted to sellers who are currently pre-approved. Parts for airbags can continue to be listed by pre-approved sellers.” 

This includes: 

• • “Airbag control unit;
  • “Airbag crash sensor (impact sensor);
  • “Diagnostic module; and
  • “Passenger sensor.”

eBay asks sellers to review their active, scheduled, and draft listings in the affected categories. It adds that sellers are to remove any listings mentioned above by Sept. 24. 

eBay says it will remove items on sellers’ behalf that aren’t taken down by that date, the post states. 

“Any listings you remove yourself, or that eBay removes for you as part of this update, will not negatively affect your account’s policy compliance history,” the post adds. “Relisting these items may result in selling restrictions.”

Last week, NHTSA identified an 11th death caused by a counterfeit airbag part that the agency banned earlier this year. 

The death happened Aug. 27 in Dallas, Texas, and is described as an otherwise survivable crash by NHTSA. 

It is the first death involving one of the replacement airbag inflators installed in a Chevrolet Equinox, according to a NHTSA press release. The previous 10 deaths and three serious injuries happened in Chevrolet Malibu and Hyundai Sonata vehicles. 

Teena Bohi, an Automotive Anti-Counterfeiting Council (A2C2) board member, said during a Collision Industry Conference (CIC) in July that NHTSA’s investigation has uncovered how dangerous counterfeit parts find their way into vehicles. 

“Up until the point that a counterfeit product gets installed in the vehicle, everything about it is legal,” she added. 

The vehicles are typically fleet vehicles or self-insured vehicles that were at some point totaled, Bohi said. 

Technicians looking for guidance on identifying a DTN airbag can also refer to a NHTSA document. The document outlines the materials and design characteristics that can be used to indicate whether an airbag is counterfeit. DTN airbags are also often marked with DTN60DB. Yet, it can be hard to identify DTN airbags when they’re still installed in a vehicle.  

Bohi said the council has reached out to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) to get clarification on those processes. 

“How do you safely handle these things, and what do you do if you get one? Because there are special permits to transport or get rid of these things if there is a counterfeit because we don’t know what’s in them. It’s an unknown explosive, potentially,” Bohi said. 

NHTSA’s technician guidance does offer warnings that strongly advise technicians not to electronically probe or electrify airbag connecting terminals because they can detonate and cause serious injury or death. 

Bud Center, I-CAR director of technical products and curriculum, previously told Repairer Driven News that electronic probes can be used to deploy a removed airbag. However, if a repairer believes an airbag is counterfeit, they should contact the vehicle’s OEM and ask for instructions. 

Center dives into the issue of counterfeit parts from the collision shop level in I-CAR’s most recent Repairers Realm web series episode.

Nearly all OEMs and many major aftermarket parts companies have people within their organizations who can answer questions concerning products, Bohi said. 

If an owner has a vehicle with one of these suspect inflators, they should contact their local Homeland Security Investigations office or FBI field office to report it or submit an online complaint to the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center.  

Owners should also contact NHTSA  online or call the agency’s Vehicle Safety Hotline at 888-327-4236, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern time.

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