Findings: U.S. product recalls have moved online, overseas and to "send us a photo"
Original analysis by Recall Radar of all 1,210 CPSC recall notices from Jan 2024 to 2026-10-15. Free to cite with a link back.
42% → 59%share of recalls listing Amazon as a seller, 2024 to 2026
61% → 80%share listing China as a manufacturing country
29% → 62%share telling owners to destroy the product and send a photo
11% → 40%share whose only consumer contact is a Gmail/Outlook-type email
Five things the data show
- Recalls are now mostly marketplace goods. 59% of 2026 CPSC recalls list Amazon among the places the product was sold, up from 42% in 2024. All 631 Amazon-sold recalls.
- The "remedy" is increasingly do-it-yourself destruction. 62% of 2026 recalls ask owners to cut, mark or destroy the product and email a photo to get a refund (vs 29% in 2024). For Amazon-listed recalls it is 63% vs 33% for the rest.
- Recall contacts look less like companies. In 2026, 40% of notices give a free webmail address (Gmail, Outlook, Hotmail, Yahoo, 163, QQ) as the consumer contact, up from 11%. If a refund never arrives, the CPSC notice is the record to cite.
- Fire and burn hazards lead. 447 of 1,210 notices (37%) mention fire, burns or overheating; next are suffocation/entrapment (210) and falls/collapse (194). Fire-hazard recalls.
- Recalls often come before injuries. 17% of 2026 notices say no injuries or incidents were reported, so a recall is often an early warning and the best time to act.
Year by year
| Year | CPSC recalls | Amazon listed as seller | China listed as maker | Destroy + send photo remedy | Webmail-only contact | "No injuries" reported |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 305 | 42% | 61% | 29% | 11% | 29% |
| 2025 | 420 | 51% | 71% | 48% | 23% | 20% |
| 2026 (to 2026-10-15) | 485 | 59% | 80% | 62% | 40% | 17% |
Limits: shares come from keyword matching of CPSC notice text (seller, manufacturing country, remedy, contact fields) and can misclassify some notices. 2026 is partial. CPSC recalls are a subset of all U.S. recalls (vehicles: NHTSA, food and drugs: FDA/USDA). See method.