Meeting in the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection on Tuesday 8 April, MEPs expressed their broad approval of the direction taken by the report by Salvatore De Meo (EPP, Italian) on the safety and conformity of e-commerce products, particularly those from third countries.
As we have reported in previous articles, a long list of amendments – over 320 of them – have been tabled to contribute to the substance of the report (see EUROPE 13598/8).
The shadow rapporteurs, in justifying their choice of amendments, supported the Italian MEP’s approach and noted that the European Commission’s initiative on this subject (see EUROPE 13582/8), while welcome, also needed to be urgently combined with action in order to achieve tangible results on the internal market.
“We have to get to the root of the problem: most of these dangerous products come from China”, stressed the shadow rapporteur for the Social Democrats, Maria Guzenina (Finnish), who spoke about the numerous amendments that had been incorporated into the original text (see EUROPE 13615/19).
The need to force these platforms to ensure the compliance and security of their products through tools such as the reform of the customs code and the implementation of the Digital Services Act was once again presented as the best solution being tabled.
According to Gheorghe Piperea (ECR, Romanian), we also need to “force platforms to provide extensive information about the product and its designer” before they even have a possibility to send their items to Europe.
The first compromise amendments have already been sent to the various shadow rapporteurs with a view to reaching a compromise by the end of the month. (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)