Radio interference & Co: BNetzA withdraws millions of devices from circulation

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Maintaining the safety and compliance of electronic devices on the German market remains an ongoing task for the Bundesnetzagentur (BNetzA). In 2025, the regulator's market surveillance identified a total of around 7.7 million non-compliant devices, which can cause radio interference, for example. The number of products flagged has thus risen significantly compared to the previous year.

In 2024, around 5.3 million devices were identified as non-compliant. In previous years, however, controllers often had even more to do: in 2021, for example, they had almost 23 million relevant products removed from the market. The authority is concerned with both fair competition and consumer protection.

The deficiencies discovered during the random checks can generally be divided into two categories. On the one hand, inspectors encounter purely formal defects, such as the absence of a CE marking or insufficient information about the responsible company. On the other hand, they identify fundamental technical defects that can have direct impacts on the technical infrastructure.

Dangerous interference signals and technical risks

A critical technical defect is exceeding emission limits. In its current market surveillance statistics, the agency cites, for example, a network switch and an inverter for photovoltaic battery storage systems where massive exceedances were measured.

Such violations are not minor offenses: in the network switch examined, the controllers found a "high risk" as it could interfere with networked products and even military radio applications. The interference voltage on the power line was up to 26.48 dB above the permissible values.

A checked inverter with WLAN also stood out due to significant exceedances of interference voltage and field strength limits. The Bundesnetzagentur classified the device as particularly risky, as it could interfere with radio microphones and broadcasting in addition to IP services. The manufacturer was asked to rectify the defects but preferred to cease production and sales of the model.

False promises in online trade

A focus of the authority's work in 2025 was also on online trade, where market surveillance identified 1,266 suspicious offers. The number of affected products was particularly high here, at around 5.4 million units. Certain smartwatch models, which were already listed in the EU rapid alert system Safety Gate, were particularly conspicuous. These watches advertised blood sugar measurement, which, according to experts, was only simulated.

In addition, these devices often lacked a German user manual. Compliance with the Radio Equipment Act was also not guaranteed. PMR446 radio devices, often sold as walkie-talkies, were also under scrutiny because they used frequencies requiring authorization without permission. As soon as the Bundesnetzagentur reported such offers to the platform operators, they usually deleted them immediately.

Checks on store shelves and at the border

In stationary retail, the statistics also show an increase in inspection activities: the number of device types checked in 2025 rose from 1,540 in 2024 to over 2,100. The error rate remained alarmingly high, with 58 percent of the types checked not complying with legal requirements. This amounted to around 1.9 million non-compliant devices in traditional retail. The authority issued 707 measures against economic operators, including numerous requests for defect rectification and sales bans.

A key pillar of market surveillance is the close integration with customs to intercept imports from third countries like China at the border. In 2025, customs reported significantly more cases of suspicious shipments with 8,202 compared to the previous year (5005). The accuracy was high: in 89 percent of cases, access to the EU internal market was denied. This prevented the import of almost 360,000 conspicuous products.

Complete failure with game console

As a striking example from customs cooperation, the regulator cites a game console that met practically none of the required criteria. The device lacked not only the CE marking but also a German user manual, the EU declaration of conformity, and any identification marks and the manufacturer's address.

Despite the high number of complaints, there are also positive signals from targeted campaigns: in a European inspection of corded vacuum cleaners, around 68 percent of the products met the requirements. In Germany, six devices were tested, only one of which showed formal irregularities. No limit values were exceeded. For the future, the Bundesnetzagentur plans to expand the use of AI and web crawlers.

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