We keep no register of complaints

The General Product Safety Regulation (EU) 2023/988, which applies from 13 December 2024, turned complaint handling from good practice into a written duty. Article 9(11) requires manufacturers to make publicly available communication channels, such as a telephone number, an electronic address or a dedicated section of their website, through which consumers can submit complaints and report accidents or safety issues. Article 9(12) then requires them to investigate the complaints and accident information that concern the safety of their products and that the complainant alleges to be dangerous, and to keep an internal register of those complaints as well as of product recalls and any corrective measures taken.^[1]

Importers carry a parallel duty. They verify whether the manufacturer's communication channels are available to consumers and provide their own if they are not (Article 11(9)). They investigate the safety complaints and accident information they receive and file them, together with recalls and corrective measures, either in the manufacturer's register or in their own (Article 11(10)). They also keep the manufacturer, distributors and, where relevant, fulfilment service providers and online marketplaces informed in a timely manner of the investigation and its results.^[1]

The register is limited by data protection. It may store only the personal data necessary to investigate the complaint, kept only for as long as the investigation needs and in any event no longer than five years after the data were entered (Articles 9(13) and 11(11)). The product facts and the outcome of the investigation are a different matter: on request, every economic operator must give the market surveillance authority a full description of the risk, related complaints and known accidents, and of any corrective measure taken, and must be able to present that information for 10 years after it was supplied with or supplied the product (Article 15(2) and 15(4)).^[1]

A register is what makes that request answerable. Market surveillance authorities follow a risk-based approach that takes into account, among other factors, the economic operator's past record of non-compliance and consumer complaints and other information received from other sources (Regulation (EU) 2019/1020, Article 11(3), applied to GPSR products by Article 23(1)). An operator that already records and investigates complaints can show what it knew and what it did.^[2]