48 Amendments of Karen MELCHIOR related to 2021/0170(COD)
Amendment 127 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 5 a (new)
Recital 5 a (new)
(5a) Children are particularly exposed to risks relating to products. Of all the products notified as dangerous in the Safety Gate/RAPEX system in 2019 as many as 32% were toys or products for childcare. For this reason, strong safety requirements for standards on products for children are needed.
Amendment 147 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 22
Recital 22
(22) Specific cybersecurity risks affecting the safety of consumers as well as protocols and certifications can be dealt with by sectorial legislation. However, it should be ensured, in case of gaps in the sectorial legislation, that the relevant economic operators and national authorities take into consideration risks linked to new technologies, respectively when designing the products and assessing them, in order to ensure that changes introduced in the product do not jeopardise its safety. Connected devices should be subjected to horizontal cybersecurity requirements such as under the future Cyber Resilience Act, which should lay down cybersecurity standards covering the entire lifecycle of the product.
Amendment 154 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 25
Recital 25
(25) Distance selling, including online selling, should also fall within the scope of this Regulation. Online selling has grown consistently and steadily, creating new business models and new actors in the market such as the online marketplaces. Increasingly, online sellers accept customer orders without keeping goods sold in stock (dropshipping). This poses specific problems for product safety, as the retailer is responsible for marketing and selling a product, but has little or no control over product quality, storage, inventory management, or shipping.
Amendment 158 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 26
Recital 26
(26) Online marketplaces play a crucial role in the supply chain - allowing economic operators to reach an indefinite number of consumers - and therefore also in the product safety system. They should be considered an economic operator when they fulfil the role of a fulfilment service provider. It should be clear for consumers when buying on the marketplace which role in the supply chain of a particular product they fulfill and correspondingly, what the consumer’s rights are in case of an unsafe product.
Amendment 166 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 29
Recital 29
(29) Online marketplaces should act with due care in relation to the content hosted on their online interfaces that concerns safety of products, in accordance with the specific obligations laid down in this Regulation. Accordingly, due diligence obligations for all online marketplaces should be established in relation to the content hosted on their online interfaces that concerns safety of products. This means at the least, that they are required to check and delist products that have been reported in the Safety Gate portal or by the national market surveillance authorities.
Amendment 170 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 31
Recital 31
(31) In order to be able to comply with their obligations under this Regulation, in particular in respect of timely and effective compliance with the orders of public authorities, processing of notices of other third parties and cooperating with market surveillance authorities in the context of corrective measures upon request, online marketplaces should have in place an internal mechanism for handling product safety-related issues. Additionally, the interface of the online marketplace should allow consumers to easily notify product safety issues and have their rights vis-a- vis the economic operator responsible explained. Online marketplaces should share these notices with the market surveillance authorities.
Amendment 171 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 32
Recital 32
(32) The obligations imposed by this Regulation on online marketplaces should neither amount to a general obligation to monitor the information which they transmit or store, nor to actively seek facts or circumstances indicating illegal activity, such as the sale of dangerous products online. Online marketplaces should, nonetheless, expeditiously remove content referring to dangerous products from their online interfaces, upon obtaining actual knowledge or, in the case of claims for damages, awareness of the illegal content, in particular in cases where the online marketplace has been made aware of facts or circumstances on the basis of which a diligent economic operator should have identified the illegality in question, in order to benefit from the exemption from liability for hosting services under the 'Directive on electronic commerce' and the [Digital Services Act]. Online marketplaces should process notices concerning content referring to unsafe products, received in accordance with [Article 14] of Regulation (EU) …/…[the Digital Services Act], within the additional timeframes established by this Regulation. Online marketplaces are obliged to prevent these identical products, which have been previously and repeatedly reported by market surveillance authorities as unsafe, from reappearing on their websites. They are obliged to use state-of-the-art technology to detect these products from reappearing.
Amendment 179 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 35
Recital 35
(35) For the purposes of [Article 19] of Regulation (EU) …/…[the Digital Services Act], and concerning the safety of products sold online, the Digital Services Coordinator should consider in particularwork closely together with consumer organisations and associations representing consumers’ interest, upon their request, as trusted flaggers, provided that the conditions set out in that article have been met.
Amendment 185 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 37
Recital 37
(37) It is also important that online marketplaces closely cooperate with the market surveillance authorities, law enforcement authorities and with relevant economic operators on the safety of products. An obligation of cooperation with market surveillance authorities is imposed on information society service providers under Article 7(2) of Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 in relation to products covered by that Regulation and should therefore be extended to all consumer products. For instance, market surveillance authorities are constantly improving the technological tools they use for the online market surveillance to identify dangerous products sold online. For these tools to be operational, online marketplaces should grant access to their interfaces. Moreover, for the purpose of product safety, if market surveillance authorities cannot retrieve the required data from the primarily responsible economic operator, they may also need to scrape data from the online marketplaces. based on a targeted request.
Amendment 197 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 51
Recital 51
(51) Member States should notify in the Safety Gate both compulsory and voluntary corrective measures that prevent, restrict or impose specific conditions on the possible marketing of a product because of a serious risk to the health and safety of consumers or, in case of products covered by Regulation (EU) No 2019/1020, also to other relevant public interests of the end- users. To inform other stakeholders about the origins of previous incidents, notifications in the Safety Gate should explain how a serious risk occurred and include more detailed information where possible, such as an European Article Number.
Amendment 199 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 52
Recital 52
(52) Under Article 34 of Regulation (EU) No 2019/1020, Member States authorities are to notify measures adopted against products covered by that Regulation, presenting a less than serious risk, through the information and communication system referred to in the same article, while corrective measures adopted against products covered by this Regulation presenting a less than serious risk should be notified in the Safety Gate. Member States and the Commission should make available to the public information relating to risks to the health and safety of consumers posed by products. It is opportune for consumers and businesses that all information on corrective measures adopted against products posing a risk are contained in the Safety Gate, allowing relevant information on dangerous products to be made available to the public through the Safety Gate portal. Member States are therefore encouraged to notify in the Safety Gate all corrective measures on products posing a risk to the health and safety of consumers. The database and website of the Safety Gate should be easily findable and accessible for all consumers.
Amendment 211 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 62
Recital 62
(62) When a product already sold to consumers turns out to be dangerous, it may need to be recalled to protect consumers in the Union. Consumers might not be aware that they own a recalled product. In order to increase recall effectiveness, it is therefore important to better reach consumers concerned. Direct contact is the most effective method to increase consumers’ awareness of recalls and encourage action. It is also the preferred communication channel across all groups of consumers. In order to ensure the safety of the consumers, it is important that they are informed in a quick and reliable way. Economic operators should therefore use the customer data at their disposal to inform consumers of recalls and safety warnings linked to products they have purchased. Therefore, a legal obligation is needed to require economic operators to use any customer data already at their disposal to inform consumers of recalls and safety warnings. In this respect, economic operators will make sure to include the possibility to directly contact customers in the case of a recall or safety warning affecting them in existing customer loyalty programmes and product registration systems, through which customers are asked, after having purchased a product, to communicate to the manufacturer on a voluntary basis some information such as their name, contact information, the product model or serial number. While economic operators are primarily responsible for executing recalls, online marketplaces should at least provide information to economic operators and market surveillance authorities and support in the communication to consumers.
Amendment 213 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 64 a (new)
Recital 64 a (new)
(64a) The Commission shall publish guidance to market surveillance authorities to ensure more uniform enforcement and legally certain communication when dealing with recall notifications and respective requests by competent authorities. Member States should also ensure that the authorities have sufficient expertise and resources to ensure effective enforcement.
Amendment 231 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 3 – paragraph 1 – point 1
Article 3 – paragraph 1 – point 1
1. ‘product’ means any item, including software or products embedded with software, interconnected or not to other items, supplied or made available, whether for consideration or not, in the course of a commercial activity including in the context of providing a service – which is intended for consumers or can, under reasonably foreseeable conditions, be used by consumers even if not intended for them;
Amendment 240 #
13. ‘economic operator’ means the manufacturer, the authorized representative, the importer, the distributor, the fulfilment service provider or any other natural or legal person who is subject to obligations in relation to the manufacture of products, making them available on the market in accordance with this Regulation;. Online marketplaces can be considered economic operator, when they fulfil the role of a fulfilment service provider.
Amendment 251 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 6 – paragraph 1 – point b
Article 6 – paragraph 1 – point b
(b) in the absence of European standards referred to in point (a), as regards the risks covered by health and safety requirements laid down in the law of the Member State where the product is made available on the market, if it conforms to such national requirements., including those laid down by [ the Cyber Resilience Act and the expected renewed standards on children’s products ];
Amendment 254 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 6 – paragraph 2
Article 6 – paragraph 2
2. The Commission shall adopt implementing acts determining the specific safety requirements necessary to ensure that products which conform to the European standards satisfy the general safety requirement laid down in Article 5, taking into account the criteria listed in Article 7(1). Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 42(3).
Amendment 268 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 7 – paragraph 1 – point h
Article 7 – paragraph 1 – point h
(h) the appropriate cybersecurity features that cover the entire lifecycle necessary to protect the product against external influences, including malicious third parties, when such an influence might have an impact on the safety of the product;
Amendment 272 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 7 – paragraph 1 – point i a (new)
Article 7 – paragraph 1 – point i a (new)
(ia) the connectivity of a product.
Amendment 274 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 7 – paragraph 1 – point i b (new)
Article 7 – paragraph 1 – point i b (new)
(ib) Risks are further specified in the Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2019/417 of 8 November 2018 laying down guidelines for the management of the European Union Rapid Information System ‘RAPEX’ established under Article 12 of Directive 2001/95/EC on general product safety and its notification system;
Amendment 294 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 8 – paragraph 3
Article 8 – paragraph 3
3. Manufacturers or the person responsible for making a product available on the Union market as referred to in Article 15 shall keep distributors, importers and online marketplaces in the concerned supply chain informed of any safety issue that they have identified.
Amendment 298 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 8 – paragraph 4 – introductory part
Article 8 – paragraph 4 – introductory part
4. Manufacturers or the person responsible for making a product available on the Union market as referred to in Article 15 shall draw up technical documentation of the product. The technical documentation shall contain, as appropriate:
Amendment 299 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 8 – paragraph 4 – introductory part
Article 8 – paragraph 4 – introductory part
4. Manufacturers shall draw up technical documentation of the product before a product is made available on the Union market. The technical documentation shall contain, as appropriat at least, where applicable:
Amendment 302 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 8 – paragraph 4 – point c a (new)
Article 8 – paragraph 4 – point c a (new)
(ca) where relevant, (CE) certifications and the European Article Number.
Amendment 310 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 8 – paragraph 9 a (new)
Article 8 – paragraph 9 a (new)
9a. Manufacturers of products to which software updates or other digital alterations may change the product throughout its lifecycle, posing new risks to the safety of users, shall provide specific safeguards to mitigate these risks.
Amendment 319 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 9 – paragraph 1
Article 9 – paragraph 1
1. A European or non-European manufacturer may, by a written mandate, appoint an authorised representative.
Amendment 347 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 13 – paragraph 1
Article 13 – paragraph 1
The economic operators shall ensure that they have internal processes for product safety in place, allowing them to respect the general safety requirement laid down in Article 5all the obligations laid down in this legislation, including the general safety requirement laid down in Article 5. The product safety and compliance program should include at least accident recording and investigation processes, a compliance verification process and risk assessment with protective measures to reduce risk. This program should be audited by a third party auditor. This obligation shall apply to operators of harmonised and non-harmonised products.
Amendment 356 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 15 – paragraph 1
Article 15 – paragraph 1
1. Article 4(1), (2) and (3) of Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 shall also apply to products covered by this Regulation, meaning that any product subject to this legislation may only be made available on the EU market if there is an economic operator established in the Union. For the purposes of this Regulation, references to “Union harmonisation legislation” in Article 4(1), (2) and (3) of Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 shall be read as “Regulation […]”.
Amendment 357 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 15 – paragraph 1 a (new)
Article 15 – paragraph 1 a (new)
1a. The responsible person should be able to handle consumer complaints regarding product safety.
Amendment 359 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 15 – paragraph 2
Article 15 – paragraph 2
2. In addition to the tasks referred to in Article 4(3) of Regulation (EU) 2019/1020, the economic operator referred to in Article 4(1) of Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 as well as economic operators of harmonised products, shall periodically carry out sample testing of randomly chosen products made available on the market. When the products made available on the market have been subject to a Commission decision adopted under Article 26(1) of this Regulation, the economic operator referred to in Article 4(1) of Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 shall carry out, at least once a year, for the entire duration of the decision, representative sample testing of products made available on the market chosen under the control of a judicial officer or any qualified person designated by the Member State where the economic operator is situated.
Amendment 372 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 17 – paragraph 4 a (new)
Article 17 – paragraph 4 a (new)
4a. Economic operators who make available certain products, categories or groups of products, which bear a very serious risk to the safety of consumers, on the market, are required to register with their EU contact details with the market surveillance authority in the Member State where the product is offered.
Amendment 378 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 19 – paragraph 1
Article 19 – paragraph 1
1. The manufacturer shall ensure that, through the Safety Business Gateway referred to in Article 25, an accident resulting in the risk to or actual damage of the health or safety of a consumer caused by a product placed or made available on the market is notified, within two working days at the latest from the moment it knowshas been notified about the accident, to the competent authorities of the Member State where the accident has occurred. The notification shall include the type and identification number of the product as well as the circumstances of the accident, if known. The manufacturer shall notify, upon request, to the competent authorities any other relevant information.
Amendment 411 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 20 – paragraph 2 – subparagraph 1
Article 20 – paragraph 2 – subparagraph 1
Online marketplaces shall take the necessary measures to receive and process the orders issued in accordance with this paragraph. They shall act upon receipt of the order issued without undue delay, and in any event within two working days in the Member State where the online marketplace operates, from receipt of the order. They shall inform the issuing market surveillance authority of the effect given to the order by using the contacts of the market surveillance authority published in the Safety Gate. , or whether more information is needed to give effect to that notice. In cases where an European Article Number or another identification number is communicated to the online marketplace, it shall ensure that all identical products that are offered under that code are removed from their platform and shall not reappear.
Amendment 425 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 20 – paragraph 5 – point a
Article 20 – paragraph 5 – point a
(a) name, registered trade name or registered trade mark of the manufacturer, as well as the postal or electronic address and telephone number at which they can be contacted;
Amendment 426 #
(ba) where the trader is registered in a trade register or similar public register, the trade register in which the trader is registered and its registration number or equivalent means of identification in that register;
Amendment 427 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 20 – paragraph 5 – point b b (new)
Article 20 – paragraph 5 – point b b (new)
(bb) the name, address, telephone number and electronic mail address of the economic operator, within the meaning of Article 3(13) and Article 4 of Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 of the European Parliament and the Council;
Amendment 428 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 20 – paragraph 5 – point d a (new)
Article 20 – paragraph 5 – point d a (new)
(da) a self-certification by the trader committing to only offer products or services that comply with the applicable rules of Union law and where applicable confirming that all products have been checked against the Safety Gate;
Amendment 429 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 20 – paragraph 5 a (new)
Article 20 – paragraph 5 a (new)
5a. The online marketplace allowing consumers to conclude distance contracts with traders shall, upon receiving that information before allowing the display of the product or service on its online interface, and until the end of the contractual relationship, make best efforts to assess whether the information referred to paragraph 5 is reliable and complete, by checking the information provided by the trader through the use of Safety Gate or through direct requests to the trader to provide supporting documents from reliable sources.
Amendment 430 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 20 – paragraph 5 b (new)
Article 20 – paragraph 5 b (new)
5b. The online marketplace shall make best efforts to identify and prevent the dissemination, by traders using its service, of offers for products or services which do not comply with this Regulation through measures such as: a) random checks on the products and services offered to consumers in addition to the obligations referred to in paragraph 1 and 2 of this Article. b) regularly checking and delisting products that have been reported in the Safety Gate portal or by the national market surveillance authorities. c) using state-of-the-art technology to prevent products which have been previously reported as unsafe from reappearing on their marketplace.
Amendment 431 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 20 – paragraph 5 c (new)
Article 20 – paragraph 5 c (new)
5c. The interface of online marketplaces should allow consumers to easily: a. Notify where they can report product safety issues in accordance with [Article 14] of Regulation (EU) ../..[the Digital Services Act]. Online marketplaces should share product safety notices they receive with market surveillance authorities; b. Understand the role of the online marketplace in the supply chain regarding a specific product; c. Understand which rights the consumer therefore has in case of an issue relating to product safety.
Amendment 434 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 20 – paragraph 6 – point a
Article 20 – paragraph 6 – point a
(a) cooperating to ensure effective product recalls, including by abstaining from putting obstacles to product recalls;such as by informing consumers and providing contact details to market surveillance authorities
Amendment 436 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 20 – paragraph 6 – point e
Article 20 – paragraph 6 – point e
(e) upon request of the market surveillance authorities, when the data is not available through the responsible economic operator, online marketplaces or online sellers have put in place technical obstacles to the extraction of data from their online interfaces (data scraping), allowing to scrape such data based on a targeted request for product safety purposes based on the identification parameters provided by the requesting market surveillance authorities.
Amendment 442 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 23 – paragraph 1
Article 23 – paragraph 1
1. The Commission shall further develop and maintain a rapid alert system for the exchange of information on corrective measures concerning dangerous products (‘the Safety Gate’) and economic operators that have repeatedly impeded this regulation.
Amendment 448 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 24 – paragraph 6 a (new)
Article 24 – paragraph 6 a (new)
6a. The Commission shall make a separate overview of the manufacturers and traders whose products were notified and found to be unsafe in the Safe Gate more than three times, and the manufacturers that have been deleted from online marketplaces as a result of repeated infringements.
Amendment 449 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 24 – paragraph 8 a (new)
Article 24 – paragraph 8 a (new)
8a. Economic operators should be informed about the decision to include their product in the Safety Gate with undue delay. Where an economic operator believes that his product has been wrongly included in the Safety Gate, he should be able to provide comments to the relevant market surveillance authority. The recall procedure would not be stopped until the claim of the economic operator has been found legitimate.
Amendment 450 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 24 – paragraph 8 b (new)
Article 24 – paragraph 8 b (new)
8b. The Commission shall publish guidance to market surveillance authorities to ensure more uniform enforcement and legally certain communication when dealing with recall notifications and respective requests by competent authorities.
Amendment 473 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 32 – paragraph 1
Article 32 – paragraph 1
1. For the purpose of Article 31(1) and Article 19, the Commission shall maintain a Safety Gate portal, providing the general public with free access to selected information notified in accordance with Article 24. The Commission shall ensure that this website is easily findable and accessible for the general public.
Amendment 490 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 36 a (new)
Article 36 a (new)
Article 36a Amendments to Directive 2020/1828/EC on Representative Actions for the Protection of the Collective Interests of Consumers The following is added to Annex I of Directive 2020/1828/EC: Article 5, 6, 7, 15, 18, 20, 26, 31, 33, 35 of the Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on a General Product Safety Regulation