The European Market Surveillance and Compliance of Products Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 comes into effect in July 2021. The intention of the regulation is to ensure that products entering the EU market have a designated authority who is responsible for the compliance of products to applicable EU regulations.  Online sales by distant sellers are a particular focus of the regulation.

In preparation for the regulation going live, the Commission published a guidance document to assist duty holders and enforcement authorities. Two other guidance documents addressing mutual recognition and free movement of goods within the EU were also published. The Market Surveillance and Compliance of Products guidance document is available on the europa website[1].

The guidance lists the four types of actors that may be responsible for product compliance and it explains the circumstances under which each would be responsible. The four types of actors (in order of precedence) are:

• • Authorised representative
  • EU manufacturer
  • Importer
  • Fulfillment service provider

The guidance document provides a decision tree to help determine which economic operator is responsible in meeting the requirements specified in Article 4 of the regulation. The decision tree is excerpted below (Figure 2).

A fulfillment service provider is described as a supply chain actor that, without taking ownership of the product, fulfills at least two of the following services:

• • warehousing,
  • packaging,
  • addressing, and
  • dispatching

The fulfillment service provider may hand over the product to a postal/delivery service or it may deliver it themselves.

Figure 2: Decision tree in identify the economic actor who is responsible

[1] Commission guidance on Compliance regulation, https://ec.europa.eu/docsroom/documents/44908