Responsibility of online platforms as regards product safety, consumer law and other EU regulations

Subject: Responsibility of online platforms as regards product safety, consumer law and other EU regulations

Several investigations have revealed huge numbers of illegal, harmful products entering the single market from traders in non-EU countries who uses online marketplaces, such as Amazon, Wish and Aliexpress. The Commission has acknowledged this problem, which undermines consumer protection and distorts competition for many European businesses.

The Commission’s proposal for the Digital Services Act avoids imposing liability and accountability on online marketplaces for the compliance of products sold on these sites by sellers in non-EU countries.

The Commission has stated that this legislative loophole concerning products from non-EU country traders sold via online marketplaces should instead be solved in sectoral legislation.

1. Does the Commission plan to regulate online marketplaces, which facilitate the sale of products from traders in non-EU countries to European consumers, as economic operators in sectoral legislation to ensure that these products are connected to an operator in the EU that can be held accountable for safety and environmental compliance?

2. If so, what legislative proposals will focus on the issue of illegal products from non-EU country sellers on online marketplaces, and how will the proposals aim to solve this problem?

3. Has the Commission considered separate omnibus legislation dealing with the obligations for online marketplaces when facilitating the sale of products from traders in non-EU countries to EU consumers?

Answer given by Mr Reynders on behalf of the European Commission

(10 March 2022)

1. Building on the proposal for the Digital Services Act (1), the Commission’s proposal for a General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR) (2), further specifies the product safety obligations for online marketplaces.

Entities providing online marketplace services, depending on the extent of their activities, could be considered as economic operators for a given product and subject to the obligations imposed to the corresponding economic operators under the sectorial legislation or the General Product Safety Directive (3) and, in the future, the GPSR.

For certain categories of harmonised products, Article 4 of the Market Surveillance Regulation (4) requires that an economic operator established in the EU performs specific tasks on product compliance and cooperates with the market surveillance authorities. The GPSR proposal extends this obligation to all non-harmonised products. If the manufacturer is not established in the EU, the article 20(5)(b) of the GPSR proposal requires that online marketplaces ensure the contacts of the responsible person are displayed or made accessible on the product listing.

2. The Commission is consulting stakeholders on whether the Product Liability Directive (5) should be revised to ensure compensations from an economic operator established in the EU also for damages suffered by defective product from a non-EU producer. The Commission has also launched a stakeholder dialogue on the upcoming EU Toolbox against counterfeiting to consider roles of online intermediaries to fight against counterfeiting.

3. The Commission continues to monitor the market situation and is committed to assessing whether additional legislation or other action are needed in the medium-term to ensure equal fairness online and offline.

⋅1∙ Proposal for a REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL on a Single Market For Digital Services (Digital Services Act) and

amending Directive 2000/31/EC (COM/2020/825 final).

⋅2∙ Proposal for a REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL on general product safety (COM/2021/346 final).

⋅3∙ Directive 2001/95/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 3 December 2001 on general product safety (Text with EEA relevance), OJ L 11, 15.1.2002,

p. 4‐17.

⋅4∙ Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 2019 on market surveillance and compliance of products and amending

Directive 2004/42/EC and Regulations (EC) No 765/2008 and (EU) No 305/2011 (Text with EEA relevance.), OJ L 169, 25.6.2019, p. 1. ⋅5∙ Council Directive 85/374/EEC of 25 July 1985 on the approximation of the laws, regulations and administrative provisions of the Member States concerning liability

for defective products,, OJ L 210, 7.8.1985, p. 29‐33.