Revision of the General Product Safety Directive - BusinessEurope comments

Key messages

• The General Product Safety Directive (GPSD) largely serves the purpose of a general "safety net" and should maintain its current general safety requirements and accompanying criteria as lex generalis, though certain targeted adjustments may be necessary.
• Specific aspects of new technologies are better addressed through harmonisation legislation on the product-specific risk assessment basis, as this allows for more tailored solutions.
• Key definitions should be fully aligned and consistency of responsibilities of economic operators ensured in the GPSD and the harmonisation legislation (including new rules under the EU priority "A Europe Fit for the Digital Age"), in order to ensure legal certainty and uniform application as well as control over proportionality of enforcement actions.
• Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 on market surveillance provides the necessary framework for enforcement that could work for products falling both under the harmonised and non-harmonised sector. It should be first fully implemented and its effectiveness assessed, including the framework it provides for cooperation with businesses
• The GPSD application regardless of the channel of sale or the location of the economic operator responsible for the marketplace is key to ensure product safety and the level playing field.