Over 20 Mercury-Containing Skin Whitening Products Remain Circulating on Platforms Including Amazon

As reported on September 17, more than 20 mercury-laced skin whitening products on the banned sales list are still available on e-commerce platforms including Amazon, Temu and TikTok Shop, despite the Minamata Convention adopted in 2013 explicitly prohibiting the production, import and sale of mercury-containing products.

According to a Reuters investigation completed as of September 1, these products are not only present on the U.S. market, but also sold to countries and regions including France, India, the United Arab Emirates and Belgium via Amazon's third-party marketplace. Related products typically do not list mercury as an ingredient on their product labels, and some delisted items often return to circulation through rebranding or relisting by other sellers.

In response, Amazon, Temu and TikTok have all stated that their platforms explicitly ban the sale of such products, and have rolled out measures to remove relevant listings and penalize non-compliant sellers. However, most of the targeted products were still available for purchase during the period when Reuters conducted the investigation.

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