Making sure modern products are ‘safe’

Consumer markets move fast. In the past two decades, people have been buying more and more products online and these products increasingly have features that did not exist before: connected or smart products  such as fitness trackers or ‘smart’ coffee machines for example.

Product safety legislation had not caught up with this globalised and digitalised market. For instance, BEUC highlighted a test by its members of 250 electrical goods, toys, cosmetics, and other products bought from online marketplaces which showed that two-thirds of them failed safety tests. The possible consequences of this include electric shock, fire, or suffocation. Even when products are taken down from websites, they can easily re-appear online a few weeks later.

What did BEUC do?

With this and other evidence by our members, we made the case to EU policymakers to bring product safety legislation into line with today’s market.

In November 2022, EU institutions reached agreement on a new product law – called the General Product Safety Regulation – which ticks many consumer protection boxes.

For instance, the new law will make ‘cybersecurity’ a factor that needs to be looked at when assessing whether a product is safe. Together with the Digital Services Act, it will also require better traceability of products in the supply chain by demanding contact details of producers and importers. Meanwhile, EU Member State authorities will have to intensify controls of products sold online. Producers will have to abide by the new rules as of December 2024.

To achieve this updated legislation, BEUC worked closely together with its sister organisation, ANEC – the European consumer voice in standardisation. BEUC will continue its product safety work and stress test this legislation via its members’ product tests and other market surveillance projects.