Revision of the General Product Safety Directive: feedback period open

The Commission recently published the roadmap for the review of the General Product Safety Directive (GPSD). The GPSD is the cross-sectoral legislation that lays down safety requirements for non-food consumer products -to the extent that there are no specific provisions with the same safety objective in other EU legislation. The directive is nearly 20 years old. One of the objectives of the revision is to take into account technological developments such as the development of AI and IoT.

According to the inception impact assessment “ [t]he initiative should: (1) ensure that the EU legal framework provides for general safety rules (lex generalis) for all consumer products and risks, including product risks linked to new technologies; (2) address product safety challenges in the online sales channels; (3) make product recalls more effective and efficient to keep unsafe products away from consumers; (4) enhance market surveillance and ensure better alignment of rules for harmonised and non-harmonised consumer products; and (5) address safety issues related to food imitating products.”

The European Commission envisages several options, such as a targeted revision of the directive or a full revision of the directive (the directive would be repealed and a regulation would be adopted). The full revision is likely to be favoured.

The feedback period for this initiative is open until 1 September 2020. Eurosmart will provide its feedback, members are welcome to contribute within the CDI Committee. 

Next steps:

Evaluation of the directive, which will feed into an Impact Assessment.

In parallel, a report will be prepared on the implementation of the GPSD.

Q2 2021: proposal for a revision

For any questions on this issue, do not hesitate to contact Camille Dornier: camille.dornier@eurosmart.com