Product safety – Upcoming Presentation of the annual report on Rapex, the rapid alert system for non-food dangerous products

On May 8th, 2012  Commissioner John Dalli will present the key findings of the 2011 annual report published on that day concerning Rapex, the EU-wide rapid alert system for dangerous products. The findings of the report will include the trends in the number of products notified thanks to the system, the top product categories, the most active member states notifying unsafe products, and the countries of origin.

The event:  Press Conference with John Dalli, Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy

Directly following the press conference, the Commissioner will visit the exhibition on product safety outside the press room, and will be able to answer further questions. Commission experts as well as representatives of national authorities and industry associations will be present to show products and testing equipment.

When: Tuesday 08 May, after the Midday Briefing
Where: Berlaymont Press Room, in Brussels

IP and MEMO will be available on the day

• Available on EbS

The background:
RAPEX is a Community rapid alert system for dangerous products. It ensures that information about dangerous products withdrawn from the EU market and/or recalled from consumers is quickly circulated between Member States and the European Commission, with the aim of preventing or restricting the selling of these products on the market. 30 countries currently participate in the system. The participating countries are all the European Union countries and the EFTA/EEA countries: Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.

Both preventive and restrictive measures ordered by national authorities and measures taken voluntarily by producers and distributors are covered by RAPEX. The most common measures are a ban/stop on sales, withdrawal of a dangerous product from the market, providing information to consumers about the risks related to the use of the product, or recall of a dangerous product from consumers.

On 1 January 2010, the scope of RAPEX was extended to cover also ‘non-consumer’ products and risks to other public interests than ‘health and safety of consumers’. RAPEX applies now to both ‘consumer’ and ‘non-consumer’ products (for instance, a power drill, a lamp, a cosmetic or a toy). The RAPEX system covers the majority of products, but certain categories of products are excluded from its scope. For example, for food and feed, a specific alert system (RASFF), similar to RAPEX, is in place. Specific systems are in place also for medical devices and pharmaceuticals.

The sources:
http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/index_en.htm
http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/safety/news/index_en.htm

Commissioner John Dalli’s website:
http://ec.europa.eu/commission_2010-2014/dalli/index_en.htm

The contacts:
Frédéric Vincent: +32 2 298 71 66 Frederic.Vincent@ec.europa.eu
Aikaterini Apostola: +32 2 298 76 24 Aikaterini.Apostola@ec.europa.eu

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In this context be sure to attend the EACC New York event on the subject:
Doing Business in the US vs. Europe Series: Product & Toy Safety
Thu. May 24, 2012 – 5:30 pm – 8:00 pm