Brussels, 25/04/2016 (Agence Europe) - The number of dangerous consumer products flagged up by national authorities in 2015 through the EU's rapid alert system, RAPEX, was 2,072, a figure slightly down on the previous year's (2,435), and 62% of the notified dangerous products were from China (compared with 64% in 2014), according to the RAPEX annual report published by the European Commission on Monday 25 April.
Thanks to RAPEX, information on dangerous products withdrawn from the market and/or recalled anywhere in Europe is quickly circulated among member states and the European Commission. Appropriate follow-up action, such as a ban/stop of sales, withdrawal, recall or import rejection by Customs authorities, can thus be taken. Consumers are informed of measures taken through the RAPEX web site.
The 2,072 alerts resulted in 2,745 follow-ups, with more than half of all notifications prompting responses. A total of 1,703 notifications related to products that posed a serious risk to consumers.
In presenting these results to the press, European Justice and Consumer Protection Commissioner Vera Jourova hailed a success story for both the internal market and the consumer. Nonetheless, efforts to further improve the system will continue, she said, with two major challenges having to be met.
Removing obstacles to the safety of products in the digital age. One of the challenges is “online sales bringing products directly to consumer's houses”. The aspiration was, she said, to complete the single market but so that trust and confidence can reign. This means that checks by customs authorities have to be improved and the Commission has made €2.5 million available to fund sampling so that goods sold on line can be checked.
The European Commission is taking very seriously the work being done by the OECD on e-commerce related risks and will launch a call to all stakeholders to improve the RAPEX web site by means of a dialogue in order to keep abreast of the challenges of the digital world, the commissioner said.
Enhancing bilateral cooperation with China. China remains the number one country of origin of dangerous products “unsurprisingly, given the volume of goods imported into the EU from China”, Jourova made clear.
Announcing that she will travel to China in June, the commissioner stressed the need to help that country improve its own rapid alert system so that checks can be tightened before export, to improve the traceability of goods and to explore possibilities with the relevant authorities (AQSIQ) of extending the scope of this system to online sales. Between 2006 and 2014, AQSIQ followed up on 3,000 alerts (one investigation conducted out of around 100 cases per month) and 57% of investigations resulted in preventive or restrictive measures. In many instances, it remains difficult to trace goods back to source. Improving traceability would mean that this percentage could be improved and that manufacturers guilty of wrongdoing could be identified and sanctions applied, Jourova stated.
The list of potentially dangerous goods withdrawn from the market was again topped in 2015 by toys (555 alerts, 27% of all notifications, compared with 28% in 2014).
Clothing, textiles and fashion items came next (346 alerts, 17% of notifications, compared with 23% the previous year), followed by motor vehicles (214 alerts, 10%, compared with 8% of alerts in 2014), electrical appliances and equipment (199 notifications, 9%, as in 2014) and jewellery and fashion jewellery (117 alerts, 6%).
In terms of risks, last year, chemical risks (572 alerts, 25%) were the most frequently notified leapfrogging the risk of injury (524 notifications, 22%) for the first time. The Commission says that monitoring authorities focussed on checking for the presence of unauthorised chemical substances in fashion jewellery, toys and clothing, thanks to joint monitoring activities, co-financed by the EU. Jourova said that efforts would have to be stepped up to address this hidden risk that requires market surveillance and checking companies.
Continuing the list of risks, injuries came next (395 alerts, 17%), then electric shocks (281 alerts, 12%) and fires (177 alerts, 8%). (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)