The Charter on the withdrawal of dangerous products is generally being well respected by the four signatory online retailers, namely AliExpress, Amazon, eBay and Rakuten-France (see EUROPE 12048/18). This is the conclusion of a first progress report published on 30 July by the European Commission.
This Charter, which contains 12 voluntary actions, follows negotiations started in March 2017 (see EUROPE 11747/10). It fills the gap left by the e-commerce Directive (Directive 2000/31/EC) which introduces notification and withdrawal procedures for problematic online content, but does not regulate them in detail.
The progress report shows that the four online retailers regularly use the EU Safety Gate portal to remove dangerous products from their websites and that they have removed 87% of the products reported by the authorities within two working days. One bad note: it seems that one company has not taken any measures to provide information or training to sellers on European product safety legislation.
In its press release, the European Commission welcomes the fact that the C-Discount platform has joined the initiative. It also invites other actors, including social media such as Facebook, to join in to improve online consumer protection. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)