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Rules to ensure better checks and safety of goods sold in the EU were provisionally agreed by EU lawmakers on Thursday.
The market surveillance proposal, included in the “Goods package”, aims to strengthen checks made by national authorities and customs officers to prevent unsafe products from being sold to EU consumers. These measures should also prevent rogue traders from gaining an unfair competitive advantage over companies that respect the rules.
There are over 500 different authorities responsible for market surveillance in the EU member states. The new rules provide for them to cooperate and coordinate better, based on increased peer evaluations among member states and exchange of information on faulty products and ongoing investigations, stricter rules on mutual assistance and through the creation of an EU Product Compliance Network.
EU lawmakers strengthened market surveillance across the EU, including of products sold online, and national authorities’ powers to investigate and enforce the rules.
Keeping a closer eye on online sales
The growth of e-commerce and emerging technologies pose new challenges and threats. The new rules require EU member states to ensure proper market surveillance of products sold online to protect consumer health and safety. EU countries should make sure that online market surveillance is performed at the same level of effectiveness as for traditional supply channels.
New measures to improve data exchange between EU information systems to manage borders, security and migration were informally agreed with Council negotiators ....