UK PSTI Product Security OPSS enforcement and penalties

A Compliance Notice can require action within a specified period to comply with a Chapter 2 duty and can require evidence. OPSS needs reasonable grounds to believe that the duty was breached and cannot use another Compliance Notice for the same act or omission. A Stop Notice can prohibit an activity that OPSS reasonably believes is occurring or likely to occur in breach of a Chapter 2 duty, or restrict a product from being made available until specified steps are completed.

A Recall Notice concerns UK consumer connectable products already supplied to customers. OPSS needs reasonable grounds to believe there is a compliance failure, must consider the business's action inadequate, and may use recall only where it considers a Compliance Notice, Stop Notice, or forfeiture application insufficient to address the risk. The Act does not create a general duty to recall every failed product, but the underlying reasonable-steps duties can still require the business to consider recall or another corrective action before OPSS intervenes.

OPSS may impose a Monetary Penalty when it is satisfied, on the balance of probabilities, that a Chapter 2 duty was breached. It may also ask a court for a Forfeiture Order covering qualifying products or for an order relating to failure to comply with an Information Notice. The statutory tests differ, and OPSS guidance says it selects action on the facts and may combine measures.

Before serving a Compliance Notice, OPSS gives a notice of intent and allows 10 days beginning with the day it is given for written representations. OPSS normally follows the same process for Stop and Recall Notices. It may serve a Stop Notice without prior notice where it considers this urgently necessary to address a consumer health or safety risk, and may serve a Recall Notice without prior notice where it considers there is an urgent need. A proposed Monetary Penalty carries a 28-day representation period.

A recipient generally has 28 days to appeal a Compliance, Stop, Recall, or Monetary Penalty Notice, a variation, or an eligible compensation decision to the First-tier Tribunal. An appeal against a notice suspends it pending the outcome. An appeal against a variation suspends only the variation, so the original notice remains effective. Forfeiture appeals follow separate court routes and also have a 28-day period under the OPSS guidance.

Manufacturers and importers must investigate potential compliance failures and act on failures they know or ought to know about. Authorised representatives and distributors also have actor-specific duties to act. Manufacturers, importers, and distributors must notify specified persons, including OPSS, in the circumstances set by Chapter 2.

OPSS guidance asks a notification to identify the failure, known risk, remedial steps and their result, and, for an importer or distributor, known remedial action by the upstream manufacturer or importer. OPSS says it considers compliance with investigation, action, and notification duties when deciding whether and how to enforce.

OPSS can publish details of compliance failures where it considers publication in the public interest, including information about product risks and protective steps. It publishes details of formal notices and penalties in line with its Enforcement Policy. A response plan should therefore cover customers and other affected parties as well as the regulator.

Compensation for a Stop or Recall Notice is limited. The underlying breach must not have occurred, and service of the notice must not be attributable to the recipient's neglect or default. A claim should document the loss or damage, amount sought, causal link to the notice, and steps taken to minimise loss. OPSS guidance says it will give a written decision within 45 days.