MEPs on the European Parliament’s Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) have reached a compromise and are set to vote on Thursday 16 June on the proposed EU General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR) to replace the outdated Directive 2001/95/EC of the same name.
Presented just over a year ago, this proposal for a regulation aims to ensure that all products made available on the EU market are safe, whether purchased in shops or online, and wherever they come from, taking into account new technologies and the challenges posed by online trade, which has grown considerably since the current directive came into force in 2004 (see EUROPE 12752/2).
In line with the wishes of the rapporteur, Dita Charanzová (Renew Europe, Czech Republic), and incorporating the views of the Legal Affairs Committee, which is responsible for giving its opinion, a balance has been struck between the need for a high level of consumer protection and the need not to impose too many bureaucratic burdens on economic operators (see EUROPE 12900/19).
“Economic operators shall make available on the EU market only safe products”: this will be the general safety requirement established by the regulation, according to MEPs.
The main changes to the original Commission text concern Chapter II on safety requirements.
Presumption of conformity (Article 6). Products conforming to European product safety standards shall be assumed to be safe, for the risks and categories of risks concerned, this will not however prevent supervisory authorities from taking all appropriate measures if, despite a presumption of safety, a product is dangerous.
In the absence of such standards, compliance with the health and safety requirements laid down by the legislation of the Member State where the product is made available shall be taken as presumption of conformity.
Safety assessment. The structure of the draft regulation is amended. The compromise to be voted on Thursday renames article 7 ‘additional elements to assess product safety’ by transferring article 5a to it.
Thus, as part of these ‘additional elements’, economic operators will have to take into account, inter alia, the characteristics of the product, the reasonably foreseeable effects that the product may have on other products or that other products may have on it when it is reasonably foreseeable that other products will be used with this product.
The following should also be taken into account: - product presentation, labelling, including age suitability labelling for children; - risks to vulnerable consumers such as children, the elderly and people with disabilities; - different impacts on health and safety of the different sexes; - the appearance of the product which could lead children to put it in their mouths.
Distance selling. Where products are made available on the market online or by other means of distance selling, the product offer should indicate the name, registered trade name or trademark of the manufacturer, the postal address and the website address or e-mail address at which they can be contacted.
In addition, economic operators will be able to use a digital format such as a QR code clearly visible on the product or, where this is not possible, on its packaging or in a document accompanying the product.
Product traceability. To ensure product traceability, the Commission may require the establishment of a traceability system to which economic operators must adhere, but it must first consult the European Consumer Safety Network (Article 28), expert groups and relevant stakeholders.
The network will serve as a platform for coordination and cooperation between national product safety authorities and the Commission, the parliamentary compromise says.
On the Member State side, work has progressed well, but the Council of the EU has yet to adopt a position (see EUROPE 12931/2).
See the compromise amendments: https://aeur.eu/f/24l (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)