Key facts
- Lego said it detected unusual activity on BrickLink and took the marketplace offline while it investigates.
- Lego said it wants to "fully understand" what happened before restoring the site.
- Lego did not say whether the platform was breached or whether customer data was affected.
- BrickLink had been offline for three days; an earlier message attributed the outage to maintenance.
- A message saying the site would return by Wednesday evening was deleted, leaving no stated time frame.
- Lego said it was not aware of wider payment issues after a collector reported a resolved payment problem.
Lego took its BrickLink marketplace offline after detecting what the company described as unusual activity on the platform, the company said in a message on the site's homepage. Lego said that before restoring BrickLink it wanted to "fully understand" what had happened, adding: "That means containing the issue, investigating how it happened and checking for related issues." The company did not provide further detail on whether the site had been breached or hacked, or whether customer data was affected. Lego published the update after being contacted by the BBC.
BrickLink, used by Lego collectors worldwide to buy and sell secondhand sets, source individual bricks and buy limited edition releases, has been offline for three days. A previous homepage message said it was down for maintenance. An earlier message on the site said the platform would be back online by Wednesday evening; that message has since been deleted and no time frame for its return is given.
Melanie Hoskin, a cyber professional who has collected Lego for 45 years and regularly uses BrickLink, told the BBC she received multiple payment links for a limited edition release she had pre-ordered after she had already paid for it. She said Lego did not believe the payment had been taken and at one point said it would ban her from BrickLink. Hoskin said the problem had since been resolved and Lego said it was not aware of wider payment issues. It is unclear whether the payment glitch was connected to the issue that took the site offline. Hoskin said she felt she had been accused of theft.
Lego acquired BrickLink in 2019; the marketplace was originally set up by a fan.