A proliferation of third-party sellers means that bike helmets that don’t meet federal safety standards can be easily bought online from sites including eBay, Facebook Marketplace, Shein, Temu, and Walmart
By Kevin Loria
Senior Multimedia Content Creator, Health
You probably care about one thing more than anything else when you’re buying a bike helmet: whether it will protect your head. Though poorly made products are never acceptable, the stakes are particularly high with a safety product like a helmet—which may be all that stands between you and a head injury or worse.
That’s why bike helmets are a carefully regulated product, with mandatory standards set by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) requiring that they adequately protect your skull in case of a crash. To comply with those standards, manufacturers of bike helmets sold in the U.S. must perform a series of tests designed to demonstrate impact protection and retention strap strength. They must also show that the helmet can stay in place and won’t block a cyclist’s peripheral vision. (The CPSC shares this guidance for manufacturers on its website and in PDF form.) To show that helmets have been tested to these standards, manufacturers are required to label helmets with specific, detailed information (see below for the exact requirements).
Yet in a recent spot-check, CR’s product safety experts were able to easily find helmets available for sale online that didn’t come with the required labels and thus didn’t meet CPSC standards.
“Consumers expect helmets to be safe. They don’t know to check and verify the certification—and they shouldn’t have to,” says Juan Alberto Arguello Garcia Pertusa, PhD, a scientist who works on product safety and sustainability at Consumer Reports.
To evaluate whether or not helmets sold through various online marketplaces complied with CPSC standards, Consumer Reports’ product safety experts recently bought 21 of them from eBay, Facebook Marketplace, Shein, Temu, Walmart, and others. Eight of the helmets lacked the required sticker or label declaring compliance with CPSC standards, meaning they didn’t meet the legal requirements for bike helmets sold in the U.S.
When contacted about these noncompliant helmets, Shein, Temu, and Walmart took down the listings. The listing for the helmet we bought from eBay was already down, but the company removed a listing for an identical helmet from a different seller. Meta, the owner of Facebook Marketplace, didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment.
“Bike helmets are required to comply with mandatory safety standards and, if they are found to be in violation of this rule, manufacturers are subject to enforcement action, including recalls,” a CPSC representative told CR. And while the agency doesn’t conduct premarket testing on products, any that are intended for children—including at least one of the helmets we identified as being without the CPSC labeling—should have a certificate of compliance showing it meets CPSC standards to be sold in the U.S.
CR’s recent investigation is a follow-up to a 2019 report that also found it was quite easy to find bike helmets online that didn’t meet federal safety standards. Yet despite growing awareness, these problems persist among a wide range of online retailers.
The good news is that there are several easy ways for consumers to make sure they’re buying a helmet that will keep them safe.
Our Bike Helmet Investigation
To conduct our investigation, CR experts selected helmets available for sale in the U.S. that appeared to be highly rated or frequently reviewed on these websites. We also chose helmets that didn’t mention CPSC certification on their product pages. (Information on CPSC certification doesn’t need to be included in product listings and often isn’t, but we used this as a way to select helmets that might be problematic.)
Of the 21 helmets we purchased, eight didn’t have a label indicating that they complied with CPSC standards. The absence of this label alone makes those helmets illegal to sell in the U.S. We didn’t subject the helmets to additional testing.
We bought the noncompliant helmets from eBay (one), Facebook Marketplace (one), Shein (one), Temu (two), and Walmart.com (three).
All of the helmets we bought from Amazon complied with CPSC regulations, which wasn’t the case in 2019. Of course, this doesn’t guarantee that noncompliant helmets aren’t available on Amazon. Our search was a spot-check, and the inventory on marketplaces that accommodate third-party sellers changes constantly. In fact, on Jan. 8 about 6,500 children’s bike helmets sold through Amazon were recalled for not complying with several CPSC regulations, including those for labeling and certification.
Five of the noncompliant helmets we purchased were labeled as in compliance with the European EN-1078 standard, indicated by a “CE” label. But this standard doesn’t require helmets to withstand impacts as strong as the CPSC standard does, and it doesn’t on its own allow products to be sold in the U.S. Three helmets mentioned no standard at all.
A Shein spokesperson told CR that the seller of the helmet we bought had documentation to show that it passed both E.U. and U.S. standards but that a product with only the E.U. label affixed to it had been mistakenly shipped to the U.S.
In addition to the missing label, we noticed other red flags with some of the noncompliant helmets we examined. The one bought from eBay didn’t appear to match typical bike helmet design at all, though it did look practically identical to a helmet the CPSC recalled in June 2024 for not complying with a number of safety requirements.
Some of the helmets also lacked required information on the manufacturer’s name and address, product serial number or lot, and manufacture date (see below for more details on what’s required). The helmet sold on Facebook Marketplace as new appeared to have significant wear and tear. That can be a safety problem because a helmet that has been involved in a crash no longer offers adequate protection and should be replaced.
The Trouble With Online Marketplaces
“With a seemingly endless number of offerings available at any given time, it’s not surprising that CR was able to find noncompliant helmets for sale,” says Oriene Shin, manager of safety policy at CR. “But the fact that it was so easy to do so is unacceptable.”
Shin attributes the problem in large part to a gap in the laws designed to keep dangerous goods out of consumers’ hands. Traditional brick-and-mortar retailers have long had a clear legal responsibility for the safety of the products they sell. That doesn’t mean everything they offer is safe, but you can feel more confident knowing they have a powerful financial incentive to do all they can to keep unsafe products off their shelves.
This isn’t necessarily true of online retailers, however. Many allow outside or “third party” vendors to sell goods on their platforms—and U.S. laws are outdated and don’t clearly hold retail sites responsible for the safety of goods sold by third parties. That should change, says Shin, who co-authored a recent report calling for consumer protection laws to hold all online marketplaces accountable for products sold through their websites.
While sellers operating through online marketplaces can be held responsible for selling unsafe products, they’re often in other countries, and it can be difficult to figure out who they are.
So which retailers allow third parties to sell goods on their platforms? Peer-to-peer marketplaces like Facebook Marketplace and eBay, which were designed from the start to facilitate third-party sales, obviously fall into that category. But there are many other retail sites where consumers may not realize they’re sometimes buying from third parties and not the site itself, including Amazon.com (where about 60 percent of the products are offered by third parties) and Walmart.com (which reportedly hosts more than 150,000 third-party sellers).
Since CR’s 2019 bike helmet investigation, there “has been a major increase in the number of direct-to-consumer sales and third-party platforms from China [Temu, etc.] and elsewhere,” says Neal Cohen, a consumer product safety lawyer and former CPSC official. “There is certainly a higher risk of finding unsafe and untested products on many of those platforms.”
Shin says it’s encouraging that platforms responded to CR’s concerns and (other than Meta) took down the listings in question. Still, there’s often little to stop a seller who’s had a listing removed—or any seller—from relisting the same sort of noncompliant products again.
“E-commerce and digital platforms have fundamentally reshaped how we shop,” she says. “There should be a baseline responsibility on platforms for third-party-sold products.”
While platforms need to do more to ensure the products sold in their marketplaces are safe, the CPSC also needs to remain vigilant and continue to monitor and enforce rules about noncompliant bike helmets it finds, Shin says.
Retailers Respond
Consumer Reports contacted all of the companies that operate the marketplaces where we purchased noncompliant helmets to ask how they verify that helmet sellers are selling legal products.
All except Meta, which operates Facebook Marketplace, responded by publication time.
Along with removing listings for the helmets CR identified, some retailers said they would review similar listings or said they already had policies in place that prohibited such listings.
A Walmart spokesperson told CR the company expects that any items sold on its marketplace by third-party sellers will be “safe, reliable, and compliant with our standards and all legal requirements.” The spokesperson added that when products that don’t meet these standards are identified, they are “promptly removed from the website and remain blocked.”
An eBay spokesperson told CR that the company “actively enforces our Product Safety Policy using highly trained investigators, artificial intelligence, and image detection to proactively identify potentially unsafe products.” The spokesperson said eBay “immediately removed the item identified by Consumer Reports and conducted a review of the marketplace for any similar listings.”
A spokesperson from Temu told CR that after removing the helmets from sale, the company instructed the sellers to address this issue before the helmets could be relisted. The spokesperson added that “as a precaution, we are reviewing all bike helmets listed in the U.S. to ensure compliance with labeling requirements.”
Amazon, where CR’s spot-check didn’t find any noncompliant helmets, told CR that it continuously monitors its store, and if it discovers a product was undetected by the automated checks, it addresses the issue immediately and removes noncompliant products.
Online marketplaces that host third-party sellers may indeed collect certificates of compliance from them, but they’re not likely to physically see or test the products themselves. Plus, they’re unlikely to be held liable for the sale of noncertified products like bike helmets when it’s third-party sellers that are offering them.
How to Buy a Safe Helmet
It’s reasonable to be wary about purchasing a bike helmet online. Here are some tips to help ensure that a helmet complies with CPSC standards. (Also see CR’s bike helmet buying guide.)
Watch out for third-party sellers. It’s important to be cautious about platforms like Amazon or Walmart that allow outside vendors to sell goods. They’re legally responsible for products they sell themselves, but not for those sold by third parties—and it’s often hard to tell the difference. You can determine the seller by looking directly below the “Add to Cart” and “Buy Now” buttons, where it lists the shipper (“Ships From”) and the seller (“Sold By”). And you’ll find that info a little farther down on the right-hand side of Walmart.com product pages, below the shipping options. It should say, for example, Amazon.com or the name of a bike helmet manufacturer—not a random seller.
Be especially wary of “too good to be true” deals on legitimate helmets—if, say, an unfamiliar seller is offering a $200 helmet for $20. Andrew Love, head of brand security for Specialized Bicycle Components, says counterfeit versions of legitimate helmets are commonly offered for sale online.
Buy from a trusted retailer. Brick-and-mortar bike shops are much more likely to be selling only certified products because they tend to have direct relationships with manufacturers and distributors. (If you go to a local bike shop, you can also try on a helmet and get advice from knowledgeable staff members.) If you don’t have access to a local cycling or sporting goods store, brick-and-mortar big box stores still offer some safeguards compared with online marketplaces full of unvetted third-party sellers.
Online purchases can be a reasonable option if you buy directly from a trusted helmet manufacturer (such as Bell, Giro, or Bontrager), from a trusted brand’s official Amazon store, or from an authorized dealer listed on a trusted manufacturer’s website. Buying online from reputable retailers like REI and Performance Bicycle is also a good option.
Check our helmet ratings. All the helmets in CR’s bike helmet ratings (available online for free to everyone) are certified and carry the required CPSC information on labels. Plus, you can pick out a helmet that best meets your needs, whether you want top-quality impact protection on a budget or a model that meets a standard designed specifically for speedy e-bikes.
Verify your own helmet. Want to know if a helmet you already own meets the required standards? Examine it closely. It should have come with instructions on how it should fit and be worn, and the labels should include the following:
- A statement saying the helmet “Complies with U.S. CPSC Safety Standard for Bicycle Helmets for Persons Age 5 and Older” or “Complies with U.S. CPSC Safety Standard for Bicycle Helmets for Persons Age 1 and Older (Extended Head Coverage).”
- The name, address, and telephone number of the manufacturer or importer issuing the certificate or the private labeler of the helmet.
- The name and address of the foreign manufacturer if the helmet was manufactured outside the U.S.
- Information (such as a serial number) that allows you to identify the production lot of the helmet and the month and year it was manufactured.
- Five warnings listed on the CPSC website, including one that states “that no helmet can protect against all possible impacts, and that death or serious injury could happen.”
Bike helmets may also be labeled as certified to additional standards beyond the CPSC’s. Some are certified to meet a Dutch e-bike standard, for example, or by a third party like the Snell Foundation. But no matter what, if a helmet is sold in the U.S., it should have the CPSC labeling.
It’s still worth noting that counterfeit and knockoff helmets are difficult to avoid completely just by verifying certification. Some may even have CPSC language on labels, though many counterfeits may not have all the required label language.
Don’t assume a product is safe or certified just because you can find it on sale in the U.S. Because bike helmets are safety products subject to regulatory standards, many people expect that if they’re on sale—even through an online marketplace—they should be correctly certified. But this isn’t necessarily the case, which is a problem that may persist until there are stricter standards holding platforms themselves accountable, according to CR’s Shin.
This applies to all products, she says. “We can talk about bike helmets today—tomorrow it could be an electric blanket or a blender. But the pattern is the same,” she says. “It’s a third-party seller selling potentially unsafe products, disappearing when there is an issue, and leaving consumers hurt or injured.”
Kevin Loria is a senior reporter covering health and science at Consumer Reports. He has been with CR since 2018, covering environmental health, food safety, infectious disease, fitness, and more. Previously, Kevin was a correspondent covering health, science, and the environment at Business Insider. Kevin lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife and children. Follow him on Twitter @kevloria.