European Rapid Alert System for Dangerous Consumer Products ‘RAPEX’ European Rapid Alert System for Dangerous Consumer Products Stefano Soro Head of Product Safety Unit Health and Consumers DG European Commission

OBJECTIVE to provide a rapid exchange of information between European countries and European Commission about measures and actions taken in relation to consumer products posing a serious risk to the health and safety of consumers

LEGAL FRAMEWORK RAPEX was established under the General Product Safety Directive (2001/95/EC) Applies to consumer products Provides general safety requirements Provides conformity assessment criteria Imposes obligations on producers & distributors, European countries and European Commission Establishes RAPEX RAPEX Guidelines – define the operation of the RAPEX system (2004/418/EC)

RAPEX MEMBERS 30 European countries: 27 Member States of the European Union 3 EFTA/EEA countries (no internal borders + harmonized requirements for products) Access to RAPEX is open to third countries under conditions specified in the GPSD.

RAPEX NETWORKS RAPEX Contact Points network at the European level: 1 single Contact Point per Member State National RAPEX networks in Member States. They include: RAPEX Contact Point Market surveillance authorities Customs authorities

RAPEX NOTIFICATION CRITERIA Non-food consumer product Serious risks to the health and safety of consumers Restrictive and preventive measures adopted by authorities (“obligatory measures”) or by economic operators (“voluntary measures”) “Cross border effect”

RAPEX WEBSITE www.ec.europa.eu/rapex Information to the public on dangerous products: Weekly overviews of RAPEX notifications on products posing serious risks Latest safety news Contact details of the RAPEX Contact Points Legal documents and guidelines

INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION Bilateral cooperation China – AQSIQ, EU-China High Level Dialogue; product safety on the agenda U.S. - CPSC, US-EU Transatlantic Economic Council; focus on product/import safety Trilateral co-operation Joint China-U.S.-EU Initiative High-Level Trilateral EU-China-U.S. Summit Multilateral co-operation OECD; Roundtable on Product Safety, CCP ICPSC / ICPHSO: Multilateral cooperation between regulators ISO/COPOLCO: International standardisation

“RAPEX-CHINA” application System operational since May 2006 – allows AQSIQ to tackle safety issues at source Feedback from AQSIQ every 3 months RAPEX – China WG meetings AQSIQ reporting 7 reports between September 2006 and August 2008 Average of 80 investigations per quarter (peak in summer 2007 with 184 investigations)

“RAPEX-CHINA” application AQSIQ has so far investigated 599 cases In 51% of cases this has resulted in corrective action, such as export bans and strengthened supervision over Chinese companies The lack of measures in the remaining cases was mostly due to incorrect or insufficient information on the Chinese manufacturers

RAPEX ELEMENTS Legal framework (GPSD, Guidelines) Online application ‘REIS’ RAPEX Contact Points Network at the EU level National RAPEX networks at the MS level Commission RAPEX Team RAPEX Contact Points Working Group International cooperation RAPEX website RAPEX publications Program of seminars and trainings

RAPEX STATISTICS 2008 data is based on an extrapolation of data for the first 9 months of the year

RAPEX STATISTICS Toys: 33% Electrical appliances: 12% Motor vehicles: 11% Clothing, textiles, fashion items: 8% Childcare articles and children’s equipment: 6%

RAPEX STATISTICS Injuries: 20% Chemical: 18% Choking: 16% Electric shock: 16% Fire: 10%

RAPEX STATISTICS China: 55% Unknown: 11% Germany: 6% Italy: 4% Hong Kong: 3%

PLANS FOR 2009 New RAPEX Guidelines ! to clarify the scope of RAPEX to better explain the notification criteria to introduce new provisions on languages to better regulate RAPEX procedures (e.g. follow up to suspended notifications) to explain rules on confidentiality ...

PLANS FOR 2009 New Risk Assessment Guidelines ! Process (1/3) To eliminate diverging risk assessment results 9 WG meetings 2006 - 2008 + Stakeholder Workshop Dec 2007 Public internet consultation Aug – Oct 2008 10th and final meeting in Dec 2008 1 ... OJ L 208, 10.6.2004, p. 73.

New Risk Assessment Guidelines Changes (2/3) Develop an injury scenario: "Let the accident happen." Combine the severity of consumer's injury with its probability: Read the risk level from a table. Develop further injury scenarios -> further risks: Highest risk = risk of the product

New Risk Assessment Guidelines Advantages (3/3) More transparent -> More consensus Better separation of hazard and probability Examples and assistance provided by tables

Head of Product Safety Unit Health and Consumers DG CONTACT DETAILS Stefano Soro Head of Product Safety Unit Health and Consumers DG European Commission Office B232 6/116, 1049 Brussels, Belgium Stefano.Soro@ec.europa.eu + 32.2.296.75.43 20