European UnionGeneral Product Safety Regulation (GPSR), Article 22 (specific obligations of providers of online marketplaces related to product safety)
Regulation (EU) 2023/988, Article 22
In force since .
A notice and action rule binding private bodies.
- Obligation class
- Disclosure, Governance, Reporting
As of .
What it requires
- It reaches you if you provide an online marketplace, an intermediary service whose online interface lets consumers conclude distance contracts with traders for the sale of products: designate a single point of contact for direct electronic communication with Member States' market surveillance authorities on product safety issues, register with the Safety Gate Portal, and indicate your contact point there.
- Designate a single point of contact that lets consumers communicate directly and rapidly with you on product safety issues.
- Have internal processes for product safety in place so that you comply without undue delay with the Regulation's requirements, including mechanisms through which traders provide the manufacturer or responsible person information and their self-certification that they will offer only products that comply with the Regulation, with the identification information Article 30(1) of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 requires where applicable.
- Take the necessary measures to receive and process an order from a market surveillance authority to remove content referring to an offer of a dangerous product from your online interface, to disable access to it or to display an explicit warning. Act without undue delay and in any event within two working days from receipt of the order, and tell the issuing authority by electronic means, using the contact details published in the Safety Gate Portal, what effect you gave it.
- Where an order so requires, remove, disable access to or warn on all identical content referring to an offer of the dangerous product for the period the order prescribes. The search is limited to the information the order identifies and needs no independent assessment of the content, provided the search and removal can be done proportionately by reliable automated tools.
- Take into account the regular information on dangerous products that market surveillance authorities notify through the Safety Gate Portal when you apply voluntary measures to detect, identify, remove or disable access to offers of dangerous products, using the Portal's interoperable interface where applicable. Tell the authority that notified you what action you took.
- For the purpose of compliance with Article 31(3) of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 as regards product safety, use at least the Safety Gate Portal.
- Process each notice about a product safety issue that you receive under Article 16 of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 without undue delay and in any event within three working days from receipt.
- Design and organize your online interface so that traders offering a product can provide, and consumers can see or easily reach on the product listing, for each product: the manufacturer's name, registered trade name or trade mark and its postal and electronic address; where the manufacturer is not established in the Union, the name, postal and electronic address of the responsible person; information identifying the product, including a picture, its type and any other product identifier; and any warning or safety information to be affixed on or to accompany the product, in a language consumers can easily understand.
- Suspend, for a reasonable period of time and after a prior warning, the provision of your services to traders that frequently offer products which do not comply with the Regulation.
- Notify directly and without undue delay all affected consumers that can be identified when a product they bought through your interface is subject to a safety recall or safety warning of which you have actual knowledge, and publish information on product safety recalls on your online interfaces.
- Cooperate with market surveillance authorities, traders and relevant economic operators on any action to eliminate or mitigate the risks of a product offered through your services: inform the relevant economic operator of a decision to remove or disable access to an offer of a dangerous product, cooperate in effective recalls without obstructing them, and cooperate on accidents notified to you.
- Immediately inform, through the Safety Business Gateway, the market surveillance authorities of the Member States where the product has been made available about dangerous products offered on your interfaces of which you have actual knowledge, giving the details of the risk, the quantity by Member State of products still circulating if available, and any corrective measure taken to your knowledge. Notify through the Safety Business Gateway, without undue delay, any accident you have been informed of that resulted in a serious risk or actual damage to a consumer's health or safety caused by a product made available on your marketplace, and inform the manufacturer.
- Cooperate with law enforcement agencies at Union and national level, including the European Anti-Fraud Office, through regular and structured exchange of information on offers you removed under Article 22. Allow market surveillance authorities access to your interfaces for their online tools to identify dangerous products, and respond to their data requests to help identify the supply chain of dangerous products where the information is not publicly available.
- Where you or online sellers have put in place technical obstacles to extracting data from your online interfaces, allow data scraping on a reasoned request of the market surveillance authorities, only for product safety purposes and on the identification parameters they provide.
Who enforces it
Enforcement body
The market surveillance authorities of the Member States, on which Member States confer the power to order a provider of an online marketplace to act against content referring to an offer of a dangerous product (Article 22(4)).
What this law does
Article 3, point (14), defines a provider of an online marketplace as a provider of an intermediary service using an online interface which allows consumers to conclude distance contracts with traders for the sale of products. Article 2(2) provides that the Regulation does not apply to medicinal products, food, feed, living plants and animals, animal by-products, plant protection products, certain equipment on which consumers ride or travel, certain aircraft or antiques.
Article 22(1) and (2) require a provider of an online marketplace to designate a single point of contact for direct electronic communication with the market surveillance authorities of the Member States on product safety issues, to register with the Safety Gate Portal and indicate that contact point there, and to designate a single point of contact enabling consumers to communicate directly and rapidly with it on product safety issues.
Article 22(3) requires a provider of an online marketplace to have internal processes for product safety in place in order to comply without undue delay with the relevant requirements of the Regulation.
Article 22(4) requires Member States to confer on their market surveillance authorities the power to issue an order requiring a provider of an online marketplace to remove content referring to an offer of a dangerous product from its online interface, to disable access to it or to display an explicit warning, and requires the provider to act without undue delay and in any event within two working days from receipt of the order and to inform the issuing authority of the effect given by electronic means.
Article 22(5) allows an order under Article 22(4) to require the provider to remove, disable access to or warn on all identical content referring to an offer of the dangerous product for the prescribed period, provided that the search is limited to the information identified in the order, needs no independent assessment of that content and can be carried out in a proportionate manner by reliable automated tools.
Article 22(6) requires a provider of an online marketplace to take into account the regular information on dangerous products that market surveillance authorities notify through the Safety Gate Portal when it applies voluntary measures to detect, identify, remove or disable access to offers of dangerous products, and to inform the notifying authority of any action taken.
Article 22(7) requires a provider of an online marketplace, for the purpose of compliance with Article 31(3) of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 as regards product safety, to use at least the Safety Gate Portal. Article 22(8) requires a provider of an online marketplace to process notices related to product safety issues, received in accordance with Article 16 of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065, without undue delay and in any event within three working days from receipt of the notice.
Article 22(9) requires a provider of an online marketplace to design and organize its online interface so that traders can provide, and consumers can see or easily access on the product listing, the manufacturer's name and address, the responsible person where the manufacturer is not established in the Union, information identifying the product including a picture, and any warning or safety information.
Article 22(10) requires the internal processes to include mechanisms through which traders provide that information and their self-certification committing to offer only products that comply with the Regulation, together with additional identification information in accordance with Article 30(1) of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 where applicable.
Article 22(11) requires a provider of an online marketplace, for the purpose of compliance with Article 23 of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065, to suspend for a reasonable period of time and after a prior warning the provision of its services to traders that frequently offer products which are non-compliant with the Regulation.
Article 22(12) requires a provider of an online marketplace to cooperate with the market surveillance authorities, with traders and with relevant economic operators to facilitate any action taken to eliminate or, if that is not possible, to mitigate the risks presented by a product that is or was offered online through its services.
Article 22(12), point (a), requires it to notify directly all affected consumers who bought the relevant product through its interface of a product safety recall or safety warning of which it has actual knowledge, and to publish information on product safety recalls on its online interfaces.
Article 22(12), points (b) and (c), require it to inform the relevant economic operator of a decision to remove or disable access to content referring to an offer of a dangerous product, and to cooperate with market surveillance authorities and economic operators to ensure effective product recalls, including by abstaining from obstructing them.
Article 22(12), points (d) and (e), require it to inform the market surveillance authorities of the Member States concerned, through the Safety Business Gateway, about dangerous products offered on its interfaces of which it has actual knowledge, and to cooperate with regard to accidents notified to it, including by notifying without undue delay through the Safety Business Gateway any accident it has been informed of that resulted in a serious risk or actual damage to the health or safety of a consumer.
Article 22(12), points (f) to (i), require it to cooperate with law enforcement agencies at Union and national level, to allow market surveillance authorities access to its interfaces for their online tools, to cooperate in identifying the supply chain of dangerous products by responding to data requests, and to allow data scraping only for product safety purposes on a reasoned request of the market surveillance authorities.
Article 39 applies Directive (EU) 2020/1828 to representative actions brought against infringements by economic operators and providers of online marketplaces of provisions of the Regulation that harm, or may harm, the collective interests of consumers. Article 44 requires Member States to lay down the rules on penalties applicable to infringements of the Regulation that impose obligations on providers of online marketplaces, which must be effective, proportionate and dissuasive.
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app operates an app store or operates a social platform.