Alert on around thirty references of non-compliant condoms sold in France

Around thirty references of non-compliant condoms, sold online and in pharmacies in recent months, are likely to lead to unwanted pregnancies or sexually transmitted infections, alert the Fraud Repression and the Ministry of Health this Friday, August 21. Around a thousand boxes, or “more than 40,000 non-compliant condoms”, were sold on the internet, “mostly” via “Asian” distributors, their press release specifies.

According to the Rappel Conso website, the brands concerned are: Friday Bae (The Condom), Okamoto (003 and 002), Sagami (Sagami Original 002, sold on Amazon), and My Lubie, whose products are sold on Amazon, in pharmacies and by various brands: Nuoo, Mademoiselle Bio, Monoprix, Ayanature, Passage du Désir.

The products identified do not have a CE marking or any European conformity assessment and “for the most part, packaging in French”, specify the DGCCRF and the Directorate General of Health (DGS). But checks in stores and pharmacies also made it possible to identify "two references" of condoms having obtained the CE marking and yet non-compliant due to a "risk of bursting" for one and "the presence of perforations" for the other: some "260,000 units" were also the subject of "recalls launched at the end of May and the beginning of August", adds the press release.

Online platforms were ordered to “immediately remove the advertisements” for the products concerned – 36 were immediately removed – and to inform “third-party sellers”. Several “have” committed to examining their verification systems and filtering rules “on these products,” the press release specifies.

The stakes are high: non-compliant condoms can “present serious risks to the health and safety of users: sexually transmitted infections, unwanted pregnancies”, remind the authorities. They recommend that consumers who have used these condoms be screened for sexually transmitted infections and take a pregnancy test if a late period is noted.

The European conformity marking (CE marking) is “guarantor of the essential safety requirements” with which manufacturers must comply: consumers must check its presence, reminds the DGCCRF, like that of a user manual in French, and ensure the condition of the packaging and the expiration date of the products. It is not infallible - here, certain CE marked products were not compliant - but it already limits the risk.