EU Machinery Regulation penalties and fines

Article 50 of Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 is a framework clause, not a tariff schedule. It tells Member States to lay down rules on penalties for infringements by economic operators, to ensure those rules are implemented, and to make the penalties effective, proportionate and dissuasive.

The same article says penalties may include criminal penalties for serious infringements. Member States must notify the Commission of their rules and measures by 20 October 2026 and notify later amendments without delay. The Regulation generally applies from 20 January 2027. A business assessing a current case must therefore check the law in every relevant Member State, its commencement provisions, the authority with jurisdiction, the actor and units involved, and the rules in force on the date of the conduct. This page cannot supply a Member State fine amount without those facts and the current national text.

A fine is only one possible national-law consequence. Corrective action addresses the product or the non-compliance; withdrawal prevents a product in the supply chain from being made available; recall seeks the return of a product already made available to a user; and a penalty sanctions an infringement under national law. More than one outcome can apply to the same case.

Article 46 also covers formal non-compliance even when the authority is not relying on a product-risk finding. Examples include missing or wrongly affixed CE marking, a missing or incorrect declaration, unavailable or incomplete technical documentation, and absent, false or incomplete operator information. If formal non-compliance persists, the Member State must take appropriate measures to restrict or prohibit market availability or ensure recall or withdrawal.

The Machinery Regulation's market-surveillance chapter starts with the product and the risk. If a market surveillance authority has sufficient reason to believe that machinery, a related product, or partly completed machinery presents a risk, it evaluates the product against the Regulation and the economic operator must cooperate.

If the authority finds non-compliance, it must require appropriate and proportionate corrective action to end the non-compliance, eliminate hazards, or minimise the risk within a reasonable period. If the operator does not act in time, or the non-compliance or risk persists, authorities can ensure withdrawal, recall, prohibition, or restriction. Separately, manufacturers, importers and distributors have their own immediate corrective-action and authority-notification duties when they know or have reason to believe a product is non-compliant or presents a risk; the exact duty depends on the operator and product.

Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 supplies the broader market-surveillance machinery for EU harmonisation legislation. It defines corrective action as action by an economic operator to end non-compliance, either because an authority requires it or on the operator's own initiative.

It also lists minimum authority powers: requiring documents and technical information, checking products, entering business premises where allowed by law, opening investigations, requiring corrective action, prohibiting or restricting availability, ordering withdrawal or recall, acquiring samples, and imposing penalties under national rules.

Machinery enforcement is not necessarily confined to the first authority that contacts the business. Under the Machinery Regulation, when non-compliance is not restricted to one national territory, authorities inform the Commission and other Member States of the evaluation result and required action.

Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 also creates mutual-assistance channels. One market surveillance authority can request information from another when needed to establish non-compliance, and can request enforcement measures where ending non-compliance requires measures in another Member State.