Marketing of Products

In February 2007 the European Commission presented a package of legislative measures aimed at boosting trade in goods within the EU market and at ensuring a high level of product safety. The package of measures aims at strengthening market surveillance to protect consumers from unsafe or non-compliant products, at simplifying and clarifying the rules on the conformity assessment of products, and at improving confidence and trust in products marketed within the EU.

The provisions on the marketing of products are meant to revise the so-called “New Approach” to product regulation. It was introduced in the mid-1980s as a regulatory technique aimed at accelerating the completion of the European single market by removing technical barriers to the free circulation of goods.

The New Approach envisaged limiting European legislation on products to setting out the level of protection to be achieved (called essential requirements), but it left open the choice of the technical solution for achieving this objective, leaving the development of standards to the private sector. The principles of the New Approach have been the basis of some 25 Directives adopted since 1987, including the Construction Products Directive which applies to many glass products used in building. 

The following are the Commission’s proposals forming the package:

• Draft Decision on the common framework for the marketing of products, aimed at setting up a legislative framework for revision of existing legislation in the field of marketing of products.
• Draft Regulation on accreditation and market surveillance, aimed at establishing common requirements for accreditation of conformity assessment bodies and at strengthening market surveillance.