Revised General Products Safety Directive

1
Revised General Products Safety Directive
2
Impact and Key Concerns
3

• General Products Safety Directive
• 2001/95/EC
• Who is affected?

Producers
Distributors
Member States
4

• Definition of Producer

5

• Definition of Distributor

6
Key areas of impact

• Products Covered
• Obligations for
• Producers
• Distributors
• Both
• Member States
• Compliance Issues for Companies
• Good News!

7

• Products covered when
• considered safe

1992 Directive goods supplied to consumers for
their own use
New Directive, any product Intended for
consumers Supplied in the course of commercial
activity New, used or reconditioned Also,
products that may migrate to consumer use.
8
Obligations for Producers

• Onerous Obligation
• Produce only safe products
• In order to fulfil this obligation,
  Producers have specific
  obligations to
• Warn Consumers
• Monitor the safety of their products
• Take appropriate action where necessary

9
Warnings

• Provide Relevant Information
• Allow consumers to take precautions
• Not for immediately obvious risks
• Warnings in the official language of the
  intended market

10
Warnings

• 2 Questions need to be addressed
• 1 What information is required to allow a
  consumer to use a product safely?
• 2 What is the normal period of a products use?

11
Monitoring

• Keep informed of risks
• Monitor performance
• Track products back to source

12
Monitoring

• To do this a producer must
• Product reference
• Batch marking if necessary
• Sample testing
• Complaint register
• Inform distributors of above

13
Appropriate Action

• When risks do emerge
• Withdrawing product
• Issuing effective warnings
• Product recall

14
Appropriate Action

• Appropriate action relies on effective monitoring
• Tracking of products facilitates effective recall
• Withdrawal of Products

15
Obligations for Distributors

• Expanded obligations
• Help ensure compliance with safety
  requirements
• Must not supply dangerous products

16
Obligations for Distributors

• Steps not clarified in the Directive
• Participate in the monitoring
• Pass on information
• Keep records of origin
• Cooperate in appropriate action measures

17
Obligations for Both

• Joint Obligations
• Cooperation with Authorities
• Inform the Authorities
• Provide details of actions taken

18
Obligations for Both

• Information to include
• Identification of product
• Description of risk
• Product tracing information
• Description of the action taken

19
Obligations for Member States

• Expanded Obligations
• Designate competent authorities to
  monitor compliance
• Develop penalties for infringements
• Take action where appropriate
• Ensure market surveillance

20
Compliance Issues for Companies

• Either distributing or producing
  companies
• Application of Standards
• Interaction with existing legislation

21
Standards

• Be aware of all applicable standards
• If no community standards exist,
  national standards are acceptable
  or

22
Standards

• Voluntary national standards
• Standards developed by Member States
• Commission guideline recommendations
• Codes of good practice
• The state of the art
• Reasonable consumer expectations

23
Interaction with sector specific community
legislation

• Revised GPSD is designed to compliment
  pre-existing community
  legislation

24
Interaction with sector specific community
legislation

• Guidelines on Interaction are
  available from the
  Directorate General Health and Consumer Protection

25
Good News?

• Revised GPSD is designed to Protect
  the consumer
• Compliance to the Directive will reduce the risk
  of costly product recall

26
Good News?

• The Directive helps to offset liability when
  applied correctly.

27
Consumers

• 142 British people were injured in 1999 by
  wearing shirts without removing all the pins
• 58 British people are injured each year by using
  sharp knives instead of screwdrivers
• 31 British people have died since 1996 by
  watering their Christmas tree with the fairy
  lights turned on