A market surveillance authority sent us a letter

A letter from a market surveillance authority rests on two regulations. Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 gives every national authority a fixed set of powers: to require economic operators to provide relevant documents, technical specifications, data or information on compliance, in any form and wherever they are stored; to require information on the supply chain, the distribution network, the quantities on the market and other models with the same technical characteristics; to carry out unannounced inspections; to acquire samples under a cover identity; and to require operators to take appropriate action to end a non-compliance or eliminate a risk (Article 14(4)).^[2]

The General Product Safety Regulation (EU) 2023/988 applies those powers to consumer products (Article 23(1)) and adds its own duty of cooperation. On request, an economic operator provides all necessary information, in particular a full description of the risk presented by the product, related complaints and known accidents, and a description of any corrective measure taken; it also identifies who supplied it with the product or its components and whom it supplied (Article 15(2) and (3)). That information must be presentable for 10 years and six years respectively (Article 15(4) and (5)).^[1]

When an authority finds that a product is liable to compromise health or safety or does not conform, it requires the operator, without delay, to take appropriate and proportionate corrective action within a period it specifies; the action may range from bringing the product into compliance to withdrawal, recall and alerting the public (Regulation (EU) 2019/1020, Article 16(2) and (3)). If the operator fails to act, the authority ensures the withdrawal, recall or prohibition itself (Article 16(5)).^[2]

The regulation also protects the operator. Any measure, decision or order must state the exact grounds on which it is based, must be communicated without delay together with the remedies and time limits under national law, and may only be taken after the operator has had the opportunity to be heard within a period of not less than 10 working days, unless the urgency of the measure makes that impossible (Article 18).^[2]