Law on Conformity Assessment, market surveillance of goods covered by European Union acts on goods accessibility requirements and the related fines

Article 4(2) of the Law on Conformity Assessment applies chapter III.1 of that Law to non-food goods for which requirements are set in legal acts, including European Union acts on goods accessibility requirements. The Law lists Directive (EU) 2019/882 among the directives it includes provisions from. The version of the Law with the Directive reference is that of the law of 16 February 2023, in force from 14 March 2023.

Article 9.5(1) requires an economic operator, where non-conformity of goods is found, to take appropriate corrective action so that the goods meet the requirements. Article 9.5(2) requires an economic operator that knows or should know that goods it placed or offered do not meet the requirements and pose a risk to inform the market surveillance authority at once.

Article 9.6(2) lets the market surveillance authority ban offering the goods, withdraw them from the market, recall them from end-users or have them destroyed. Article 9.3(4) requires the manufacturer or importer to reimburse the costs of a test purchase, laboratory or other expert examination and transport where goods are found not to conform.

Article 19(9) sets the fine for failing to ensure that goods meet the requirements of an act referred to in Article 4(2), or for breaching the rules on the circulation of goods, at 14 to 140 fine units for a natural person and 40 to 1,400 fine units for a legal person.

Article 19(10) sets the fine for placing on the market, offering or selling goods that do not meet the safety or essential requirements or technical parameters of such an act at 14 to 140 fine units for a natural person and 56 to 2,800 fine units for a legal person. Article 19(11) sets the fine for failing to maintain internal control processes that cause systematic non-conformity at 40 to 400 fine units for a natural person and 140 to 4,000 fine units for a legal person.

Article 16(2) of the Administrative Liability Law sets one fine unit at EUR 5. Article 16(4) of that Law sets the general maximum fine for a legal person at 4,000 fine units. Article 20(1) of the Law on Conformity Assessment makes the Consumer Rights Protection Centre the authority that conducts the administrative offence proceedings for the fines in Article 19(1), (3), (7), (8), (9), (10) and (11).

The law of 11 June 2026, in force from 10 July 2026, deleted Article 19(2) of the Law on Conformity Assessment and added paragraphs 6 to 11, among them the fines in paragraphs 9 to 11.

In the version in force from 14 March 2023 to 9 July 2026, Article 19(2) set a fine of 14 to 140 fine units for a natural person and 140 to 1,420 fine units for a legal person for placing on the market, offering or selling goods that do not meet the essential requirements or technical parameters set in normative acts.

Article 1(2) makes the economic operator under that Law the manufacturer, authorised representative, importer, distributor and fulfilment service provider within the meaning of Article 3 of Regulation (EU) 2019/1020. Article 9.1 requires an economic operator to offer on the market only goods that meet the requirements of the acts referred to in Article 4(2).

Article 9.3(1) point 3 lets the authority request, free of charge, any information needed to establish conformity, including technical documentation, and access to embedded software. Article 9.3(4) point 2 makes the economic operator that first offered the goods on the Latvian market reimburse the costs where the manufacturer or importer is not registered in Latvia.

Article 9.4(1) lets the authority publish information on non-conforming goods and its decision, at the cost of the economic operator concerned.

Article 9.7(3) lets the authority, where non-conforming goods are still offered through an online interface after the time set for corrective action, or where they pose an immediate and serious risk or no other effective means is available, order electronic communications operators, domain registries and information society service providers to restrict access to the interface or remove its content.

Article 9.8(1) makes the decisions under Articles 9.6(2) and 9.7(3) effective when adopted, and an appeal does not suspend them. The Saeima adopted the law of 16 February 2023 on 16 February 2023 and the President promulgated it in Riga on 28 February 2023. The Saeima adopted the law of 11 June 2026 on 11 June 2026, and it entered into force on 10 July 2026. The law of 11 June 2026 added general product safety to Article 4(2).