| Author (Corporate) | European Commission |
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| Series Title | COM |
| Series Details | (2013) 78 final (13.2.13) |
| Publication Date | 13/02/2013 |
| Content Type | Policy-making |
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The free movement of safe consumer products is one of the cornerstones of the European Union. It is an important pillar of the single market and gives consumers confidence when purchasing products. This proposal for a Regulation on consumer product safety, which will replace Directive 2001/95/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on general product safety (the "General Product Safety Directive" or simply GPSD), concerns manufactured non-food consumer products. Like the GPSD also the proposed Regulation requires that consumer products must be "safe", sets certain obligations on economic operators and contains provisions for the development of standards in support of the general safety requirement. However, the operation of the proposed Regulation and its interface with other Union legislation will be significantly streamlined and simplified whilst maintaining a high level of protection of the health and safety of consumers. Overlaps of market surveillance rules and obligations of economic operators laid down in various pieces of Union legislation (the GPSD, the Regulation (EC) No 765/2008 setting out the requirements for accreditation and market surveillance relating to the marketing of products and sector-specific Union harmonisation legislation that also covers consumer products) has led to confusion on the part of both economic operators and national authorities and has seriously hampered the effectiveness of market surveillance activity in the Union. This proposal aims at clarifying the regulatory framework for consumer products taking into account legislative developments in recent years such as the New Legislative Framework on the Marketing of Products adopted in 2008, the alignment of sector-specific Union harmonisation legislation to that new framework and the entry into application on 1 January 2013 of a new Regulation on European standardisation. The proposal is part of the "Product Safety and Market Surveillance Package" which also includes a proposal for a single market surveillance regulation and a multi-annual action plan for market surveillance covering the period 2013-2015. The Single Market Act (2011) identified the revision of the GPSD and the drawing up of a market surveillance plan as initiatives that will contribute to boosting growth and creating jobs. The Single Market Act II, adopted in 2012, confirms the "Product Safety and Market Surveillance Package" as a key action "to improve the safety of products circulating in the EU through better coherence and enforcement of product safety and market surveillance rules". |
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| Source Link | Link to Main Source http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=COM:2013:078:FIN |
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| Subject Categories | Business and Industry, Internal Markets |
| Countries / Regions | Europe |
