The European Union has approved a new regulation that strengthens safety rules for online and offline products while improving market surveillance for unsafe products. The move aims to give consumers greater protection and confidence in the safety of the products they purchase.
The EU Council has given the final green light to legislation that will make products safer for online and offline consumers. The general product safety regulation (GPSR) will reinforce the safety rules for products sold on the European Union (EU) market and improve market surveillance for unsafe products. It will also strengthen consumer rights for anyone sold an unsafe product.
The new regulation will require online marketplaces to cooperate with market surveillance authorities if they detect a dangerous product on their platform. They will also have to establish a single point of contact for product safety. Market surveillance authorities can order online marketplaces to remove dangerous products from their platforms or disable their access.
A single market surveillance regime will apply to all products. Economic operators must immediately adopt corrective measures and inform market surveillance authorities and consumers if a product has proven unsafe. If a product needs to be recalled, consumers will be entitled to have it repaired, replaced, or refunded.
The economic operators should have a person responsible for products sold online and offline who will ensure the availability of technical documentation, instructions, and safety information. The new regulation will modernize the rules for all economic operators, manufacturers, importers, distributors, online businesses, and marketplaces.
The GPSR replaces the 2001 directive on general product safety, ensuring that all consumer products placed or made available on the EU market are subject to general safety requirements. The increasing number of goods and products sold online required an update to keep the rules fit for current digital and technological developments.
The transformation of the directive into a regulation will also ensure a sound legal framework to guarantee that products are safe and follow European standards. Following today’s approval by the Council, the legislative act has been adopted. After being signed by the President of the European Parliament and the President of the Council, the regulation will be published in the Official Journal of the European Union and will enter into force on the 20th day after its publication.
Member states will have 18 months to apply the new rules on general product safety after the formal adoption of the regulation and its entry into force. Swedish Minister for Public Administration, Erik Slottner, stated “with the adopted regulation, we are making sure that consumers enjoy the highest level of product safety, whether they shop online or physically. If we are serious in our digital transformation, we need to make sure that citizens feel confident about the safety of what they purchase independently of how they purchase it.”
Similar legislation, the digital consumer bill, will be introduced in the UK Parliament.
