1 はじめに

Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 of the European Parliament and of the Council on market surveillance and compliance of products (1) (‘the Regulation’) introduces a comprehensive framework to protect consumers from unsafe and non-compliant products and to provide a level playing field for economic operators.

The EU single market gives economic operators access to consumers and other end-users in all the Member States, provided they and their products meet EU legal requirements aimed at delivering safety, environmental performance and other public interests. Market surveillance authorities and the authorities in charge of controls on products entering the EU market (2) (‘border authorities’) have to verify and enforce those requirements. This can be challenging, especially for distance sales.

The new rules on market surveillance and product compliance should ensure compliance with the requirements. They help to create a level playing field, i.e. protect businesses manufacturing compliant products from unfair competition. They also spare market surveillance authorities from incurring undue costs in their investigations.

These guidelines concern the implementation of a key provision of the Regulation: Article 4 on the ‘tasks of economic operators regarding products subject to certain Union harmonisation legislation’ (see section 6). Article 4 requires in essence that for certain products placed on the EU market there must be an economic operator in the EU who on request provides the authorities with information or takes certain action. This will apply as from 16 July 2021 (Article 44 of the Regulation).

These guidelines provide guidance on how economic operators should implement Article 4:

—Section 2 explains its scope and which economic operator should act as the economic operator referred to in Article 4 for a given product,

—Section 3 clarifies the tasks of the economic operator referred to in Article 4, and

—Section 4 provides more detail on the practical application of Article 4 according to the type of economic operator acting as the economic operator referred to in Article 4.

Further, as the aim of Article 4 is to facilitate the work of the market surveillance and border authorities, Section 5 sets out how the authorities can make use of this requirement in practice.

The guidelines are designed to help economic operators and authorities and facilitate consistent implementation. They concern the implementation of Article 4 only and do not apply to EU product legislation not covered by it, which may impose similar but different requirements (3). They refer to requirements under EU harmonisation legislation as they apply at the date of adoption of this guidance. Comprehensive guidance on EU harmonisation legislation is available in the Blue Guide, to which these guidelines refer (4). The Commission will update this guidance in the light of further legislative developments in other areas, like for instance the Digital Services Act (5).

This document is purely for guidance – only the text of the Regulation itself has legal force. The guidelines reflect the views of the European Commission and as such are not legally binding. The binding interpretation of EU legislation is the exclusive competence of the Court of Justice of the European Union. The views expressed here cannot prejudge the position that the Commission might take before the Court of Justice. Neither the Commission nor anyone acting on its behalf is responsible for the use that might be made of the following information.