Institutional portal - Municipality of Milan

Misleading advertisements for the sale of electric scooters

Milan, 30 April 2021 – 8 misleading advertisements offering bicycles and electric scooters for sale which did not actually comply with the law were seized and ordered to be immediately removed from the web, following an order issued by the investigating judge Guido Salvini. The investigation, conducted by the Special Interventions Team of the local police on behalf of the Deputy Prosecutors Maura Ripamonti and Bianca Maria Baj Macario, coordinated by the Deputy Prosecutor Eugenio Fusco, was created to ascertain the methods of marketing of scooters, pedal-assisted bicycles, monowheels and similar.

Starting from the collection of historical data of the vehicles checked in recent months, the local police officers reconstructed the sales channels used by the drivers and initially carried out inspections in various sales points, where, however, no irregularities were found. From a further investigation, the agents found that most of the purchases had been made through e-commerce and therefore analyzed the main online sales sites.

In particular, on Amazon and eBay (the platform managers are not currently considered competitors of any crimes committed by sellers who use the structure for their own offers) several advertisements were found which, with misleading and deceptive advertising messages, described bicycles or scooters as electric vehicles which were not in fact attributable to either of the two categories, delivering a power greater than 0,5 kW, being equipped with a seat, lighting and braking devices and also well exceeding 20 km/h.

The vehicles on sale therefore had the technical characteristics of mopeds and motorcycles and therefore should have been approved by the Motorization Authority and provided with insurance coverage, as well as equipped, among other things, with adequate lighting devices and driven with the use of helmets approved.

"For years, the municipal administration has been committed to promoting innovative forms of sustainable mobility, so as to contribute to protecting health and the environment, always respecting road safety – commented the deputy mayor and councilor for safety Anna Scavuzzo –. This investigation is therefore doubly important: misleading photographs and descriptions of products on sale even on important platforms exposed citizens to purchases of non-compliant vehicles, the use of which would have been subject to sanctions and would have constituted a risk for users and other road users" .

"The issue of the safety of those who drive these vehicles and of all road users is also extremely relevant – concludes the Commander of the local Police Marco Ciacci –. From the beginning of 2020 to today, more than 350 accidents involving scooters have occurred electric scooters, of which 314 were injured; the local police issued 732 fines and removed 331 scooters parked in unauthorized positions and which made circulation unsafe; we have established a specific unit to monitor cycle paths and also included a training module for School of the Body for high school students, so that they can use these vehicles with the awareness it requires. Attention to the topic is therefore maximum and we cannot allow sales companies to put vehicles on the market that do not comply with the regulations".