What Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 changes in market surveillance

The regulation did not replace sector product laws or create one conformity regime for every product. Sector laws still set essential requirements, conformity assessment, technical documentation, declarations, labels, instructions, and CE marking where applicable. Article 2 applies the MSR where an Annex I sector act does not regulate the same market-surveillance or enforcement point more specifically.

From 16 July 2021, the MSR replaced Articles 15 to 29 of Regulation (EC) No 765/2008. The Network, ADCO, Commission-coordination, and financing provisions in Articles 29 to 33 and 36 had already applied from 1 January 2021. The MSR retained market surveillance as a Member State responsibility while setting a stronger common framework for risk-based online and offline checks, economic-operator cooperation, minimum authority powers, mutual assistance, the EU Product Compliance Network, ICSMS, Union testing facilities, and controls on products entering the Union market.

As an operating control, connect product listings, import records, applicable Article 4 evidence, technical documentation, risk signals, authority correspondence, and corrective-action logs to the same product model and supply chain before a complaint, customs hold, online-interface request, or cross-border authority query arrives.

Article 4 covers a subset of the products in MSR Annex I. Article 4(5) lists the covered acts, including construction products, personal protective equipment, gas appliances, batteries, machinery, toys, ecodesign, RoHS, radio equipment, low-voltage equipment, electromagnetic compatibility, pressure equipment, and the other acts named there. For a product under one of those acts, placement on the market requires an economic operator established in the Union responsible for the Article 4 tasks.

Depending on the chain, that operator can be an EU manufacturer, importer where the manufacturer is not established in the Union, authorised representative with a written mandate for the Article 4 tasks, or an EU fulfilment service provider for products it handles where none of the other qualifying operators is established in the Union.

The operator's work extends beyond displaying contact details. It must verify declarations and technical documentation where required, keep declarations available to authorities, ensure technical documentation can be supplied on request, provide information in a language the authority can easily understand, inform authorities when there is reason to believe the product presents a risk, and cooperate on immediate corrective action or risk mitigation.

Article 4 uses placing on the market, meaning the product's first making available in the Union. Article 6 separately treats an EU-targeted online offer as making available on the market. An online offer can therefore be checked before delivery without necessarily being the product's first supply in the Union; determine placement from the actual distribution chain.

Article 6 closes the gap between product compliance and online selling. Products offered online or through other distance-sales channels are deemed made available on the market when the offer is targeted at end users in the Union. The Blue Guide adds that this requires a case-by-case assessment, with factors such as delivery areas, languages, ordering, and payment methods.

The regulation also connects online enforcement to authority powers. Information society service providers must cooperate at an authority's request in specific cases to help eliminate or mitigate risks. Where no other effective means are available to eliminate a serious risk, authorities can require removal of content referring to the product or an explicit warning on an online interface. If that request is not followed, they can require an information society service provider to restrict access.

Assess adjacent product-safety law separately. Since 13 December 2024, Article 22 of the General Product Safety Regulation has imposed specific duties on providers of online marketplaces for products within its scope.

Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 requires Member States to organise market surveillance and designate authorities and a single liaison office. Those authorities must conduct online and offline market surveillance, use risk-based checks, follow up complaints, verify corrective action, and participate in ADCO cooperation. The EU Product Compliance Network coordinates broader cooperation between Member State enforcement authorities and the Commission.

The authority powers are broad and practical. They include requiring technical and compliance information, supply-chain and distribution details, website ownership information, unannounced inspections, premises access, own-initiative investigations, corrective-action orders, product withdrawal or recall measures, penalties under national rules, product samples including cover-identity purchases, reverse engineering, and serious-risk online-interface measures. These are minimum powers conferred and exercised under Union and national law, so the responsible authority, procedure, and remedy depend on the Member State.

Article 18 adds procedural safeguards. An authority measure, decision, or order must state its exact grounds and available national remedies. The operator normally receives at least 10 working days to be heard; an urgent health, safety, or other protected-public-interest case can proceed first, followed by a hearing as soon as possible and prompt review.

When a product subject to Union harmonisation legislation, used for its intended purpose or under reasonably foreseeable conditions and properly installed and maintained, is liable to compromise users' health or safety, or does not conform to applicable legislation, the authority must require appropriate and proportionate corrective action without delay and set a period for completion. Corrective action can mean bringing the product into compliance, preventing availability, withdrawal, recall, destruction or inoperability, warnings, prior conditions, or immediate alerts to affected end users. Warnings, conditions, and direct alerts under Article 16(3)(e) to (g) are limited to products that present a risk only in certain conditions or to certain end users.

Serious risk is a separate classification based on the nature of the hazard and likelihood of occurrence; the availability of safer products is not a ground for classifying the risk as serious. Authorities must ensure withdrawal, recall, or prohibition where no other effective means eliminates the serious risk. Article 20 governs rapid information exchange for the relevant authority measures and for voluntary measures communicated to an authority after a serious-risk product has been made available. The Safety Gate Rapid Alert System is the current system used for those notifications.

Customs controls are part of the market-surveillance model. Products entering the Union market under release for free circulation must be suspended where required documentation is missing or doubtful, marking or labelling is deficient, a required conformity marking is false or misleading, applicable Article 4 operator details are missing or unidentifiable, or there is cause to believe the product is non-compliant or presents a serious risk. If other customs requirements are met, release follows when the market surveillance authority approves it or does not request continued suspension within four working days. Release is not proof of conformity.

The regulation also makes information sharing more structured. ICSMS is the information and communication system for market-surveillance data, including measures, testing reports, corrective action, injury information, safeguard objections, and border-control information. The EU Product Compliance Network coordinates enforcement practice, while Safety Gate distributes rapid alerts about corrective measures concerning dangerous non-food products.