General Product Safety (GPSD)

1. The purpose of this Directive is to ensure that products placed on the market are safe. 

2. This Directive shall apply to all the products defined in Article 2 (a). Each of its provisions shall apply in so far as there are no specific provisions with the same objective in rules of Community law governing the safety of the products concerned. Where products are subject to specific safety requirements imposed by Community legislation, this Directive shall apply only to the aspects and risks or categories of risks not covered by those requirements. 

This means that: 

(a) Articles 2(b) and (c), 3 and 4 shall not apply to those products insofar as concerns the risks or categories of risks covered by the specific legislation; 

(b) Articles 5 to 18 shall apply except where there are specific provisions governing the aspects covered by the said Articles with the same objective.

For the purposes of this Directive: 

(a) ‘product’ shall mean any product 

— including in the context of providing a service 

— which is intended for consumers or likely, under reasonably foreseeable conditions, to be used by consumers even if not intended for them, and is supplied or made available, whether for consideration or not, in the course of a commercial activity, and whether new, used or reconditioned. 

This definition shall not apply to second-hand products supplied as antiques or as products to be repaired or reconditioned prior to being used, provided that the supplier clearly informs the person to whom he supplies the product to that effect;

(b) ‘safe product’ shall mean any product which, under normal or reasonably foreseeable conditions of use including duration and, where applicable, putting into service, installation and maintenance requirements, does not present any risk or only the minimum risks compatible with the product’s use, considered to be acceptable and consistent with a high level of protection for the safety and health of persons, taking into account the following points in particular: 

(i) the characteristics of the product, including its composition, packaging, instructions for assembly and, where applicable, for installation and maintenance; 

(ii) the effect on other products, where it is reasonably foreseeable that it will be used with other products; 

(iii) the presentation of the product, the labelling, any warnings and instructions for its use and disposal and any other indication or information regarding the product; 

(iv) the categories of consumers at risk when using the product, in particular children and the elderly. 

The feasibility of obtaining higher levels of safety or the availability of other products presenting a lesser degree of risk shall not constitute grounds for considering a product to be ‘dangerous’; (

c) ‘dangerous product’ shall mean any product which does not meet the definition of ‘safe product’ in (b); 

(d) ‘serious risk’ shall mean any serious risk, including those the effects of which are not immediate, requiring rapid intervention by the public authorities; 

(e) ‘producer’ shall mean: 

(i) the manufacturer of the product, when he is established in the Community, and any other person presenting himself as the manufacturer by affixing to the product his name, trade mark or other distinctive mark, or the person who reconditions the product; 

(ii) the manufacturer’s representative, when the manufacturer is not established in the Community or, if there is no representative established in the Community, the importer of the product; 

(iii) other professionals in the supply chain, insofar as their activities may affect the safety properties of a product; 

(f) ‘distributor’ shall mean any professional in the supply chain whose activity does not affect the safety properties of a product; 

(g) ‘recall’ shall mean any measure aimed at achieving the return of a dangerous product that has already been supplied or made available to consumers by the producer or distributor; (h) ‘withdrawal’ shall mean any measure aimed at preventing the distribution, display and offer of a product dangerous to the consumer.

General safety requirement, conformity assessment criteria and European standards

Article 3

1. Producers shall be obliged to place only safe products on the market. 

2. A product shall be deemed safe, as far as the aspects covered by the relevant national legislation are concerned, when, in the absence ofspecific Community provisions governing the safety of the product in question, it conforms to the specific rules of national law of the Member State in whose territory the product is marketed, such rules being drawn up in conformity with the Treaty, and in particular Articles 28 and 30 thereof, and laying down the health and safety requirements which the product must satisfy in order to be marketed. 

A product shall be presumed safe as far as the risks and risk categories covered by relevant national standards are concerned when it conforms to voluntary national standards transposing European standards, the references of which have been published by the Commission in the Official Journal of the European Communities in accordance with Article 4. The Member States shall publish the references of such national standards. 

3. In circumstances other than those referred to in paragraph 2, the conformity of a product to the general safety requirement shall be assessed by taking into account the following elements in particular, where they exist: 

(a) voluntary national standards transposing relevant European standards other than those referred to in paragraph 2; 

(b) the standards drawn up in the Member State in which the product is marketed; 

(c) Commission recommendations setting guidelines on product safety assessment; 

(d) product safety codes of good practice in force in the sector concerned; 

(e) the state of the art and technology; 

(f) reasonable consumer expectations concerning safety. 

4. Conformity of a product with the criteria designed to ensure the general safety requirement, in particular the provisions mentioned in paragraphs 2 or 3, shall not bar the competent authorities of the Member States from taking appropriate measures to impose restrictions on its being placed on the market or to require its withdrawal from the market or recall where there is evidence that, despite such conformity, it is dangerous.