Tillsyn 3/26: Enforcement of e-commerce articles

In English.

The project shows that articles sold via e-commerce mostly contain restricted substances. A total of 188 articles from 105 actors were examined in three different sub-projects.

139 articles were analysed in the categories of toys, jewellery, electronics, and soft plastic articles. Of these, 72 percent of the articles from drop shipping stores, 64 percent from market platforms, and 26 percent from classic online stores contained non-compliant levels of chemical substances.

The most common non-compliances were excessive levels of lead in electrical articles, cadmium in jewellery, and short-chain chlorinated paraffins and phthalates in soft plastic materials. Of the 49 textile articles analysed, only one item contained levels above the applicable limit values. All e-commerce actors removed the deficient articles after being informed of the results.

The project shows that non-compliant articles reported to Safety Gate are largely still available on the EU market, despite requirements that online marketplaces should scan notifications in Safety Gate to check that they do not have the non-compliant products on their platforms.

The introduction of new requirements for traceability of articles, especially with a focus on e-commerce, has contributed to more articles being formally correctly labelled. However, enforcement shows that the labelling of economic operators is often incorrect, for example by the authorised representative who does not exist or the identification marking not being traceable. As a result, articles that appear to be correctly labelled may be non-compliant and potentially risky.

Overall, the project shows that the current regulatory framework and market surveillance are not sufficient to handle the influx of non-compliant articles via e-commerce from countries outside the EU. There is a need for stricter requirements that ensure that economic operators take proactive responsibility before the articles reach the EU market.

The selection is risk-based, which means that the result is not representative of the entire market.