‘Market Surveillance and Product Recalls: Linking Policy to Action in Case of Online Sales’
Plenary session 1 featured speakers from Amazon, TIC Council Americas, UL Solutions and Anushi Amin of Cooley (UK) LLP.
The panel examined how the new European Union (EU) General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR) would affect the EU’s approach to market surveillance and recalls, particularly in relation to products sold online. The EU’s approach also was compared at a high level with the approach taken when it comes to product safety in the United States.
Below are some key takeaways from the discussion during the session:
- The panel explained that changes introduced by the EU’s GPSR are broadly designed to provide market surveillance authorities (MSAs) with more information about the products being placed on the EU market, as well as the ability to co-ordinate and communicate more effectively with consumers and entities in the supply chain if a corrective action is required. Changes include:
- The appointment of a ‘responsible person’ for certain compliance tasks.New labelling requirements.
- New accident reporting obligations.
- In addition, the panel identified that the EU’s GPSR specifically addresses online marketplaces, with new obligations including:
- Minimum information on product listings.
- Appointing a single contact point responsible for communicating with consumers and MSAs.
- Registering on the EU Safety Gate Portal.
- Giving effect to notices received from MSAs within two working days.
- Observing a general obligation to co-operate with MSAs to address any risks posed by dangerous products sold on the marketplace.
- One panellist explained that, historically, one of the big obstacles to effective product recalls has been ineffective communication of recalls, which has meant that affected consumers lack awareness of the recall and/or do not take action once notified of the recall. To address this, the EU’s GPSR requires online marketplaces to directly notify affected customers that the products they purchased from the platform are subject to a recall (making use of personal data that they might hold for them to do so), along with publishing recall information on their platform and following the new language requirements prescribed by the GPSR on how recalls should be communicated.
- In terms of practical steps that can be taken to help meet the new obligations, one panellist explained that they recommended monitoring multiple recall portals – including Safety Gate and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) portal. They also recommended hat online marketplaces could provide advice and education to their customers on how to use products safely.
- The panel also discussed some of the differences between the EU and US approaches to product safety in the online space. Aside from differences in their legislative frameworks, it was observed that:
- The concept of a ‘responsible person’ designated as responsible for compliance tasks in relation to the product did not exist in the US – although unsuccessful legislative efforts had been made to introduce it, and that usually the manufacturer or importer would have these responsibilities as a matter of fact.
- The starting point in the US is not for ‘only safe products’ to be placed on the market. Rather, triggers for dangerous incidents for unsafe products were relied on. This meant that, if a product is found to be unsafe by an economic operator, they must bring this to the attention of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and work with the CPSC to ensure that it is made safe, which ultimately in his view, achieves the same result of only safe products being placed on the market.
Overall, the panel highlighted potential product safety challenges in the case of online sales, identifying that regulatory responses to these challenges were now being rolled out – the impact of which would be seen in the short term, with an anticipated increase in enforcement with a view to ensuring greater product safety in online channels.
The Cooley products team will be posting highlights from other plenary panel sessions on our blog throughout the event.
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