AirTags withdrawn from sale, in the sights of the regulator

In Oceania, the ACCC (for Australian Competition & Consumer Commission) is responsible for controlling the Australian market in the same way as the AMF in France. A state body which therefore has particular weight in negotiations with large technological suppliers. His new target? AirTags. Indeed, the institution considers that these perhaps pose a security problem and therefore encourage us to recall all models already sold.

According to a recent report, the directives sent to the various resellers even mentioned an outright withdrawal from the market. This advice is already followed by Officeworks. The office supply chain is one of the largest in the Melbourne region, and is already reportedly working to resolve the issue through direct discussions with Apple.

For what ?

The reason for this sudden incident could in fact be found in a very specific policy of the Australian government. Indeed, on site, large-scale promotional campaigns tend to warn parents of the risks of ingestion of button batteries by young children. Around twenty people end up in hospital every week following an accident of this type, three of them having even died from their injuries since 2013.

• Apple accepting donations to fight Australia fires

To tell the truth, as we noticed during our first use of images, the danger does not seem so obvious with AirTags. Indeed, to access their CR2032 battery, it is even necessary to carry out a fairly specific manipulation - probably - to prevent anyone from having fun with it. More concretely, you actually have to push and then turn the cover of the device to reveal the battery, like a bottle of risky household product.

Tile, for their part, works even more simply:

No consequences expected in France

For the moment, Apple has not reacted publicly to this news. However, it is likely that talks with Australian lawmakers are already taking precedence in order to find common ground. Until then, it is still possible for consumers to order from the competition.

In France, for the moment, the various resellers also continue to offer AirTags at an average price of thirty-five euros per unit. The pack of four AirTags, for its part, costs 119 euros.But it already seems to be out of stock.