Information | interpretation of EU new market regulation (EU) 2019 / 1020

From July 16, 2021, the new EU commodity safety regulation (EU) 2019 / 1020 will come into force and be enforced. The primary intention of the regulation is to ensure that products entering the EU through both offline traditional sales channels and online e-commerce channels have a clear economic operator, and to ensure that EU government regulatory organizations can supervise and accountability each product.

The first requirement of (EU) 2019 / 1020

For products sold in the EU, at least one of the following companies or personnel shall be responsible for the products. This company or person needs to be in the European Union. The intention is to ensure that there is a direct responsible person or company for each product sold in the European Union, and let the government regulators of European Union countries contact this company or person for product compliance issues（ This requirement comes from Article 2 of regulation Article 4)

1) The manufacturer is in the European Union;

2) The importer (in case the manufacturer is not in the EU);

3) Authorized representative of the manufacturer;

4) When the above three roles (1), 2) and 3) do not exist, the service provider of the product will assume the responsibility of the person in charge of the product.

There is at least one product owner for products sold in the EU. The following three items of information should be shown on the product, or on the package, or on the documents shipped with the product（ This requirement comes from Article 4 of Article 4 of the regulation.)

1) The name of the company or the name of the EU representative;

2) Registered trademark name or trademark mark;

3) The contact information should include at least the correspondence address.

Responsibilities of the product owner. For the original text, please refer to the specific content of Article 3 of Article 4 of this regulation

1) Ensure that the products comply with all applicable EU regulations, and keep doc compliance statement and skill documents (such as LVD and EMC, which are required to be kept for at least 10 years);

2) When required by the regulatory authority, provide all relevant product materials in a language that the other party can understand;

3) When potential risks are found in the products, it will automatically report to the regulatory authorities;

4) For non-conforming products, it is necessary to implement relevant remedial measures together with the regulatory authorities.

Impact of (EU) 2019 / 1020 on E-commerce

It has a great impact on e-commerce. According to the requirements of (EU) 2019 / 1020, when a manufacturer outside the EU sells products to the EU through e-commerce channels, if there is no clear importer in the selling process and the manufacturer does not appoint an EU representative, the service provider of such products will assume the responsibility of the person in charge of the products. E-commerce generally conforms to the definition of service provider, so if the manufacturer does not appoint the EU representative, e-commerce may become the person in charge of the product, and the demand assumes the relevant responsibilities. That's why after the release of this regulation, Amazon informed all manufacturers outside the EU and strongly recommended that they appoint their own EU representatives. Of course, manufacturers can also appoint Amazon as their EU representative, but they need to pay and sign relevant contracts.

Impact of (EU) 2019 / 1020 on domestic manufacturers

If your company does not touch the online sales of products to the European Union, it can be considered that this regulation has no impact on your company, and maintaining the status quo can meet the requirements of this new regulation. Because the off-line products entering the European Union will touch the importers, the importers need to print their name, trademark and contact address on the products according to the LVD, EMC and other basic laws and regulations, which meets the requirements of (EU) 2019 / 1020 at the same time.

If your company is involved in selling (e-commerce channel) products to the EU online, you need to pay attention to the cooperative e-commerce channel, confirm who will play the role and responsibilities of the product leader, and whether you need to appoint an EU representative.

Misunderstanding and clarification

Some manufacturers believe that from July 16, 2021, all manufacturers outside the EU must appoint an authorized representative within the EU to sell CE certified products, which is a misunderstanding.

After reading through this article, you can clearly understand that the real requirement of (EU) 2019 / 1020 is that the EU representative is only one of the options, not a mandatory requirement.

The situation in the UK

Currently, the UK has adopted (EU) 2019/1020 as the UK's own legislation, so the products sold to the UK need to meet the equality requirements.