New REGULATION (EU) 2023/988 for consumer products

REGULATION (EU) 2023/988

New regulation for consumer products

On 12^th June 2023, the General Product Safety Regulation (EU) 2023/988 (GPSR) entered into force. Until 13^th December 2024, this new regulation will exist alongside the Directive 2001/95/EC on general product safety (GPSD).

This new regulation revises and updates the GPSD in light of new technologies and online selling, which has created new business models, challenges for product safety, and new economic operators on the market. Ensuring better product safety is vital to protecting consumers and providing safe products.

Economic operators and consumers should be aware of the below changes under GPSR:

• The legislation for product safety in European Union(EU) is now classified as a regulation, meaning that it is directly applicable in all Member States and can be immediately enforced (unlike as a directive, in which case each Member State must transpose it into national law within a specific timeframe).
• Economic operators and providers of online marketplaces should be obliged to place only safe products on the market.
• New definition of economic operators and providers of online marketplaces have been defined, as well as their obligations.
• Manufacturers should draw up technical documentation regarding the products they place on the market, which should contain the necessary information to prove that those products are safe. The technical documentation should be based on an internal risk analysis carried out by the manufacturer and this information must be kept for 10 years.
• Information about the identification of a product and the economic operators, as well as instructions and safety information, may additionally be provided by the economic operators in a digital form by means of electronic solutions, such as a QR or data matrix code.
• The safety of a product should be assessed by taking into account all relevant aspects of the product, including new technologies and concerns, such as cybersecurity and digital connectivity.
• To assess the safety conformity of a product, it is important to make use of European standards pertaining to certain products and risks. In the absence of European standards, the national law of the Member State where the product is made available on the market should be applied.
• Economic operators should have an internal conformity procedure which ensures their duties and obligations are followed.
• All economic operators and providers of online marketplaces must comply with market surveillance authorities in order to eliminate or mitigate any risks of the products on the market.
• The Commission shall provide practical guidelines and tailored guidance to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), including micro-enterprises.
• If an economic operator was established outside the European Union, it is mandatory to appoint a responsible economic operator established within the European Union.
• The obligations of the economic operators, providers of online marketplaces, Commission and Member States’ in the case of accidents related to product safety have been defined.
• Modernisation of the rapid alert system RAPEX. The system now uses Safety Gate, which ensures that information on measures taken against non-food dangerous products is circulated quickly among the national authorities responsible for product safety in the Single Market countries.
• Directive 87/357/EEC shall be repealed and replaced by the new regulation, which takes into account the fact that products which can be placed in mouth, sucked or ingested, and which are likely to be confused with foodstuff due to their form, odour, colour, appearance, packaging, labelling, volume, size or other characteristics, can be harmful and are considered dangerous.

The new Regulation shall apply from 13^th  December 2024.