Draft IMCO Report for a Regulation on Consumer Products Safety: Steps in the wrong direction
Published: 23 August 2013
Policies & Issues: Internal Market - Compliance, Standards & Enforcement
Orgalime expects the Regulation on Consumer Product Safety (CPSR) along with the Regulation on Market Surveillance of Products (MSPR) to be the stepping-stones of a coherent and efficient legal framework for the marketing of products in the internal market. The intention of this package, which has been requested by European manufacturers increasingly faced with unfair competition in the internal market because of poor application of existing regulation, is to at last establish fair and competitive market conditions while at the same time ensuring that the protection of consumers is reinforced. We do not believe that the purpose of this draft Regulation is to create yet more confusion in the market and more administrative and financial burdens on EU manufacturers who respect the law. Therefore, we call upon the European Parliament and the Council to reject any vague requirement proposals that neither manufacturers would know how to apply, nor market surveillance authorities how to enforce. Such confusion would lead to scattered and uneven levels of market surveillance for consumer products and certainly not contribute to improving consumer safety. Moreover, we call on the European Parliament and the Council to refrain from adding administrative requirements for the marketing of consumer products. Legislation should be as simple and precise as possible, whether for market operators or market surveillance authorities. Only with such a framework are legitimate operators not discouraged and authorities focussed on identifying unscrupulous manufacturers and taking non-compliant or dangerous products out of the market.