New EU General Product Safety Regulation!

A proposal for a new General Product Safety Regulation was just published by the EU Commission.

The Regulation would repeal the existing General Product Safety Directive 2001/95/EC and, contrary to it, will apply in all member states directly, without a national transposition.

The proposal for a Regulation on consumer product safety is in line with the New Consumer Agenda of 2020 aiming to:

(i) update and modernise the general framework for the safety of non-food consumer products;

(ii) preserve its role as a safety net for consumers;

(iii) adapt the provisions to challenges posed by new technologies and online selling; and

(iv) ensure a level playing field for businesses.

The Regulation would align the market surveillance rules for products falling outside the scope of the EU harmonisation legislation (‘non-harmonised products’) with those applying to products falling under the scope of the EU harmonisation legislation (‘harmonised products’) as set out in Regulation (EU) 2019/1020.

The proposal also takes into consideration provisions of different other recent pieces of EU legislation such as: the Cybersecurity Act, the legislative proposal on artificial intelligence (AI), the REACH regulation or the Circular economy action plan.

Since the General Product Safety Regulation has a proposal status, it is not improbable that its provisions will change in the legislative process.