Law on the accessibility of goods and services, duties of distributors of goods

Article 10(1) of the Law requires a distributor offering goods on the market to act with due care in relation to the accessibility requirements. Article 10(1) of the Directive requires distributors making a product available on the market to act with due care in relation to the requirements of the Directive.

Article 10(2) requires the distributor, before offering goods on the market, to check that they bear the CE marking and are accompanied by the required documents and by instructions and safety information in the state language, and that the manufacturer and importer have met their marking and contact duties.

Article 10(3) forbids a distributor that considers its goods do not meet the accessibility requirements to offer them on the market until they do, and requires it to inform the manufacturer or importer and the market surveillance authority. Article 10(5) requires a distributor that considers goods it offered do not meet the requirements to ensure that the necessary corrective action is taken, to withdraw them where necessary and to inform the authority in detail.

Article 10(6) requires the distributor to give the market surveillance authority, on a reasoned request, the information and documentation it needs in the state language. Article 10(7) requires the distributor to cooperate with the authority, on its request, to remedy non-conformity. Article 13(1) limits the duty of each economic operator to the extent that compliance does not cause a significant change that alters the basic nature of the product or a disproportionate burden.

Article 13(6) requires an economic operator that applies that provision, other than the operator referred to in Article 13(4), to inform in writing the market surveillance authority or competent authority of the Member State where it places the goods on the market or provides the service. Article 16(1) requires the declaration of conformity to state which accessibility requirements the fundamental alteration or disproportionate burden provision is applied to.

Article 11 requires a distributor to identify, on request, the economic operators from which it received the goods and to which it supplied them. Article 6(11) treats a distributor as a manufacturer where it places goods on the market under its own name or trademark or modifies goods so that their conformity may be affected.

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. Article 19(9) of that Law 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 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). Article 1(1) point 8 defines the distributor as a private person in the supply chain, other than the manufacturer or importer, that offers goods on the market.

Article 1(8) of the Administrative Procedure Law defines a private person as a natural person, a legal person governed by private law or an association of such persons. 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 10(4) requires the distributor to ensure that, while goods are under its responsibility, storage and transport conditions do not affect their conformity.

Article 9.3(5) of the Law on Conformity Assessment gives a distributor that reimbursed the authority's test purchase, examination and transport costs a right of recourse against the manufacturer or importer it bought the goods from.