Market surveillance and compliance of products

KEY POINTS

The regulation applies to products:

• covered by EU harmonisation legislation (and set out in Annex I);
• imported into the EU which are not subject to specific legislation.

Certain products may not be offered for sale to EU consumers without an economic operator established in the EU:

• who keeps EU conformity and performance declarations and makes these and the technical documentation available to authorities when asked;
• who informs the authorities when they consider a product poses a risk;
• who cooperates with the authorities, when asked, by taking immediate corrective action — from remedying the fault to recall or destroying the item — if a product is considered non-compliant, and helps to eliminate or mitigate risks;
• whose name and contact details are on the product, packaging or accompanying document.

Market surveillance authorities:

• carry out effective surveillance of products sold online and offline;
• perform appropriate documentary, physical and laboratory checks on products, taking into account possible hazards;
• act when a product, properly installed, maintained and used for its intended purpose:
  • could damage users’ health and safety,
  • does not conform to EU legislation;
• ensure economic operators take corrective action when instructed and act when they fail to do so;
• establish procedures to follow up complaints and reports and to verify economic operators have taken corrective action;
• apply a high level of transparency and make available to the public any information they consider relevant to protect end users’ interests;
• provide economic operators with grounds for their decisions to give them an opportunity to respond;
• notify the European Commission and the other EU countries immediately of any measures they take if these could have an impact in other EU countries;
• may ask colleagues elsewhere in the EU to help with investigations and enforcement and participate in peer reviews to improve the system’s overall efficiency;
• have powers to:
  • start investigations on their own initiative,
  • require economic operators to provide relevant documents, data and information on supply chains, distribution networks, product models and ownership of websites,
  • carry out unannounced onsite inspections and physical checks,
  • enter any premises, land or means of transport an economic operator uses,
  • acquire product samples without revealing their identity,
  • instruct economic operators to take measures to end non-compliance or eliminate risk,
  • prohibit or restrict availability of a product and order it be withdrawn or recalled,
  • insist in case of serious risk that product content is removed from a website or require it be accompanied by a warning,
  • adopt measures, including penalties, against economic operators that fail to act.

EU countries:

• designate one or more authorities with the powers of market surveillance, investigation and enforcement;
• appoint a single liaison office to represent the surveillance authorities and communicate the country’s national strategy;
• ensure the authorities and office have sufficient budgetary and other resources;
• may authorise surveillance authorities to reclaim from an economic operator all the costs they incur when pursuing non-compliance cases;
• draw up an overarching national market surveillance strategy every 4 years from 16 July 2022 to promote a consistent, comprehensive and integrated approach to market surveillance — this must include:
  • data on non-compliant products,
  • priority areas for enforcing the EU legislation,
  • enforcement activities to reduce non-compliance,
  • assessment of cooperation between authorities in other EU countries;
• provide economic operators, at their request and free of charge, information on national implementation of EU product harmonisation legislation;
• introduce effective, proportionate and dissuasive penalties and notify these to the Commission by 16 October 2021.

The Commission:

• ensures the Your Europe portal provides users with easy online access to information about the EU’s product requirements, rights, obligations and rules;
• adopts implementing acts;
• assists the EU Product Compliance Network (see below) in all its activities;
• maintains a computer system to store and process all the data collected;
• reports to the European Parliament, the Council and the European Economic and Social Committee by 31 December 2026, and every 5 years thereafter, on the regulation’s implementation.

Specific rules apply to imported products:

• EU countries designate authorities with the necessary powers to check imports;
• market surveillance authorities provide them with information on products and economic operators where a high risk of non-compliance has been identified;
• authorities may impound a product if the necessary documentation is absent or there are concerns it presents a serious health, safety, environmental or public interest risk, and only release it when certain conditions are met.

The regulation:

• establishes an EU Product Compliance Network — it:
  • develops cooperation between the surveillance authorities and the Commission;
  • contains national and Commission representatives and experts;
  • organises a range of activities to improve market surveillance across the EU.