March 2016

Did you Know?

The European Commission has a Rapid Alert System, which enables quick exchange of information between 31 European countries and the European Commission about dangerous non-food products posing a risk to health and safety of consumers.

EDC News: EU Consumer Protection – Dangerous Products

The European Commission (EC) continually strives to provide a high level of protection for the consumers’ health and safety. This involves creating and applying strict common safety rules and standards for products and services circulating within the internal market, such as:

• General Product Safety Directive (GPSD) 2001/95/EC or,

• On specific product composition, such as products containing Dimethylfumarate (DMF) were banned (Decision 2009/251/EC)

• The Directive on dangerous imitations (87/357/EEC) prohibits the marketing, import and manufacture of products that look like foodstuffs but that are not in fact edible like soaps, candles and other decorative articles.

Legislation is only the first step in ensuring consumer safety. The most important step is the enforcement of the legislation; here market surveillance plays a critical role. Market surveillance for non-food consumer products is the responsibility of the Member States. National authorities in each Member State are charged with establishing if products meet the applicable safety requirements, and of taking necessary steps to ensure products are compliant, and apply sanctions when necessary. The national authorities then send daily reports, containing information about dangerous products found and the measures taken, to the European Commission. These reports are then used to comprise a weekly list of the dangerous products (including the risk they pose and the measures taken). The list is then published on the internet.

For more information:

• Rapid Alert System for dangerous non-food products

• Rapid Alert System – Database to search notifications on products

• Rapid Alert System – Statistics and annual reports

• Other European Commission decisions, standard and directives on dangerous products

• ASFF – the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed

• Product Safety and Market Surveillance Package

• Safety of services