The European Tech Alliance (EUTA) has joined a broad coalition of sellers, artisans, startups, SMEs, couriers, refurbishers, marketplaces and their associations in a letter to Executive Vice Presidents Séjourné and Virkkunen and Commissioners Dombrovskis and McGrath on the upcoming Product Act.
We share the objective of keeping unsafe and non compliant products off the Single Market. But the upcoming Product Act risks running counter to the Commission’s own simplification agenda.
Our key messages
- Build on existing rules, not on top of them. The DSA, the General Product Safety Regulation, the Ecodesign and Packaging Regulations, the Product Liability Directive and the new Union Customs Code are still being implemented. The priority should be smarter enforcement through structured cooperation between national and EU authorities.
- Legal certainty along the supply chain. Responsibilities and liability should follow each actor’s actual role, whether manufacturer, carrier, retailer or marketplace.
- Draw on the lessons of the packaging rules. Their rollout led many small shops and creative businesses to stop selling across borders. Careful sequencing will be key to making sure the Product Act does not have the same effect on products sold online.
The Product Act should ensure EU rules are respected while making it easy for sellers to sell, shippers to ship, startups to scale and consumers to choose.
