Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2019/417 of 8 November 2018 laying down guidelines for the management of the European Union Rapid Information System ‘RAPEX’ established under Article 12 of Directive 2001/95/EC on general product safety and its notification system (notified under document C(2018) 7334) (c. 417)

ANNEX U.K.

GUIDELINES FOR THE MANAGEMENT OF THE EUROPEAN UNION RAPID INFORMATION SYSTEM ‘RAPEX’ ESTABLISHED UNDER ARTICLE 12 OF DIRECTIVE 2001/95/EC (THE GENERAL PRODUCT SAFETY DIRECTIVE) AND ITS NOTIFICATION SYSTEM U.K.

PART II U.K. EU RAPID INFORMATION SYSTEM ‘RAPEX’ ESTABLISHED UNDER ARTICLE 12 OF THE GENERAL PRODUCT SAFETY DIRECTIVE

3. Notifications U.K.

3.4. Workflow U.K.

3.4.6. Follow-up to notifications U.K.

3.4.6.3. Follow-up techniques U.K.

To ensure efficient and effective follow-up, best practice follow-up techniques should be employed by national authorities, including:

(a) Checks on the market U.K.

National authorities organise regular (planned and random) checks on the market in order to establish whether consumer products notified through the RAPEX application are made available to consumers. When the Member State is mentioned as a country of destination, reinforced checks on the market shall be carried out, notably by contacting the economic operator(s) indicated in the notification.

(b) Cooperation with business associations U.K.

National authorities provide, when necessary, business associations with overviews of the most recent notifications and enquire whether any of the notified products were produced or distributed by their members. National authorities provide businesses only with summaries of notifications, such as the weekly overviews published on the RAPEX website. Whole notifications should not be transmitted to third parties, as certain information (e.g. details of the risk description or information on distribution channels) is often confidential and should be protected.

(c) Publication of RAPEX data via the internet or other electronic and paper media U.K.

National authorities regularly alert consumers and businesses about consumer products notified through the RAPEX application via their websites and/or other media, e.g. referring consumers and business to the RAPEX website. Information published in this way allows consumers to check whether they have and use products posing a risk and often provides the authority with useful feedback.

(d) Online checks U.K.

National authorities regularly perform online checks to try to identify whether products notified via RAPEX are available on online markets. Online check techniques may include web-crawling, data mining, data scraping, etc.

National authorities apply various follow-up techniques in parallel and ideally do not limit their activities to only one of them.

The Member State in which a manufacturer, a representative or an importer of the notified product is established (‘Main Member State’) ensures appropriate follow-up to notifications distributed through the RAPEX application. The ‘Main Member State’ often has better legal and technical means of obtaining information on the notified case, which will help other Member States to undertake effective follow-up activities.