Product safety

The General Product Safety Directive establishes a common framework aimed at ensuring that all consumer products placed on the market in the EEA are safe. The Directive lays down general safety requirements and the conditions that must be satisfied in order to comply with those requirements.

The main responsibility for assuring that the products placed on the market are safe lies with the producers, but distributors must also discharge certain responsibilities. For example, producers and distributors are required to inform the competent national authorities if they know, or ought to know, that a product they have placed on the market is dangerous.

The EEA States are required to organise market surveillance and to take the measures necessary to enforce the safety requirements laid down in the Directive. They have the power to impose measures on producers or importers, such as the recall of a product or an import ban. As such measures may involve restrictions on the free movement of the product concerned, they must be notified to the Authority.

A specific network (RAPEX) has been set up to allow national market surveillance and enforcement authorities to rapidly exchange information concerning consumer products that pose a serious risk. For more details about RAPEX see "Notifications".

Relevant links:

• The General Product Safety Directive (PDF)
• List of the competent national authorities (PDF)
• List of RAPEX notifications by all the EEA States
• The EFTA Surveillance Authority RAPEX Guidelines (PDF) - amended November 2014
• The RAPEX Guidelines adopted by the European Commission (PDF)