EU: Revision of Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 on market surveillance and compliance of products

 

The EU has launched a public consultation on a revision of the market surveillance regulation.

Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 on market surveillance and the compliance of products (“the Regulation”), applicable since 16 July 2021, ensures that non-food products placed on the EU market comply with EU regulatory requirements, including those governing safety. It covers all products entering the EU from non-EU countries and is enforced by market surveillance authorities within the single market as well as by designated authorities at the EU’s external borders, typically customs authorities.

The consultation includes an evaluation of the Regulation and a parallel impact assessment, both intended to assess how the Regulation is performing and to explore potential avenues for improvement. It responds to the 2025 EU single market strategy’s call for higher levels of product compliance by examining the possibility of establishing EU-level governance of market surveillance. Such governance would enhance structured coordination and guidance and would support the scaling-up and pooling of the capacity and expertise of market surveillance authorities across the EU, particularly in the context of expanding e-commerce.

The initiative complements Regulation (EU) 2023/988 on general product safety, draws on the 2025 evaluation of Article 4 of the Regulation and the 2017 evaluation of Regulation (EC) No 765/2008, and aligns with ongoing reforms to the New Legislative Framework (NLF) and standardisation rules.

The evaluation will examine the Regulation’s effectiveness, efficiency, relevance, coherence and EU-added value in securing compliance with EU requirements, including safety, while supporting optimal and efficient cooperation among Member States. It will incorporate evidence from the 2025 assessment of Article 4 and the 2022 evaluation of the NLF where relevant. Covering the period from 16 July 2021 to Q3 2025 across the EU and the European Economic Area (EEA), it will analyse all provisions and implementing acts, including their impact on SMEs and competitiveness.

The evaluation will apply five criteria:
• Relevance: Are the Regulation’s objectives still consistent with current and future needs?
• Effectiveness: Has the Regulation reduced the number and severity of non-compliant or unsafe products within the EU, improved legal certainty, and strengthened authorities’ ability to identify, check and remove such products from the market?
• Efficiency: Are the associated costs proportionate to the benefits, and is there scope for simplification and reduced burdens without compromising public-interest protection?
• Coherence: Does the Regulation fit coherently with broader EU legislation and policies, such as harmonisation rules, the General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR), the EU customs reform and the Digital Services Act (DSA)?
• EU-added value: What advantages are provided by EU-level action compared with Member State action alone?

The evaluation will specifically address checks carried out within the single market and those performed on products entering the EU, ensuring coherent enforcement across both areas.
As the evaluation is ongoing, the problem definition is preliminary and will be updated as new evidence emerges. Its objective is to identify market surveillance and product compliance issues that pose risks to consumers, workers and the environment or that distort fair competition. Particular attention will be given to inspections of products entering the single market from non-EU countries.

The initiative will analyse where market surveillance functions effectively, where it fails to meet expectations, and what types of problems persist. These may include:
• inconsistent enforcement at national level, across the EU or at its external borders, often linked to insufficient resources and staffing within Member States to enforce obligations of economic operators;
• a lack of pooled expertise and limited EU-wide coordination;
• insufficient specialist knowledge concerning the surveillance of new technology products;
• inadequate IT infrastructure;
• limited tools and capabilities for online market surveillance—despite studies indicating that, in certain sectors, up to 100% of products sold on specific e-commerce platforms may be non-compliant;
• burdens placed on businesses, particularly SMEs; and
• issues related to the availability of testing facilities and the feasibility of testing products manufactured overseas.

The review will also consider challenges in monitoring expensive or large products that cannot easily be purchased or made available for inspection, as well as factors such as differing national capacities, complex regulatory requirements, insufficient use of digitalisation and automation, the emergence of novel product categories, and regulatory gaps affecting online sales. Without intervention, these issues may intensify due to the continued growth of e-commerce and the increasing complexity of products entering or circulating on the market.

The initiative aims to ensure that all non-food products placed on the EU market—irrespective of origin—comply fully with EU law. Achieving this will help protect consumers and workers, maintain fair competition among economic operators and safeguard the environment. To this end, the initiative seeks to reinforce EU-level governance of market surveillance, promote more effective and coordinated enforcement, simplify compliance processes (including through digital tools) and reduce regulatory burdens. These efforts are intended to enhance product compliance and safety, especially in an expanding e-commerce environment.

Potential policy options include the following approaches or combinations thereof:

1. Baseline scenario: If the Regulation remains unchanged, existing challenges in achieving consistent and effective market surveillance across the EU may continue. Despite strong enforcement commitments under EU law (including the DSA and GPSR), disparities in enforcement and varying levels of coordination between Member States and customs authorities may persist, particularly as cross-border and digital trade—most notably e-commerce—grows rapidly. Even with ongoing national efforts, the absence of updated, harmonised rules and the resource constraints in certain Member States may worsen uneven market checks and customs controls, increase administrative burdens for businesses (especially SMEs), and elevate risks to consumer safety, environmental protection and fair competition.
2. Legislative options: Amending the Regulation to reinforce enforcement and improve the compliance of products, especially those entering the EU via e-commerce. Addressing the increasingly complex challenges posed by e-commerce imports and by the growing sophistication of products placed on the market may involve enhancing synergies between EU-level capacity and national customs and market surveillance authorities, as well as potentially creating an EU Market Surveillance Authority. Providing authorities with access to digitalised product information—such as via the Digital Product Passport—could also improve the efficiency of surveillance operations.
3. Non-legislative options: Enhancing guidance and training, upgrading authority coordination tools such as the Information and Communication System for Market Surveillance (ICSMS), and promoting their broader use.

To find out more about product compliance in the EU and the CE conformity assessment, do not hesitate to contact the Product Compliance Institute.