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Failure to comply with rules and conditions of sale represent 50% of product violations

The market situation in relation to the regulatory and legislative compliance has been analyzed by the Market Surveillance Observatory of the Spanish Association for Standardization, UNE, in its first report. The objective: to prevent the marketing of unsafe products and services that cause damage to the economy and consumers and entail unfair competition for companies that do comply.

The Market surveillance report It has been prepared in collaboration with more than 30 business organizations and the Ministries of Consumer Affairs, Industry, Trade and Tourism, and Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation.

The most frequent type of infringement in the manufacture and marketing of products is linked to breaches of technical standards and conditions of sale, representing 53.9% of all infractions, followed by commercial transactions (7.6%), prices (7.3%), and weight fraud (0.01%). Other infractions monopolize the remaining percentage. The data collected in the first report of the UNE Observatory corresponds to the 2020 financial year, the last available, and has been provided by the consumption surveillance authorities of the Autonomous Communities to the General Directorate of Consumption.

By products, most nonconformities are produced in toys (10.9% of those controlled presented some non-conformity), followed by personal protection equipment (8%), small electrical material (7.2%), furniture (5.8%), textiles (4 %) and footwear (3.7%).

“The objective is to improve the functioning of the internal market through its surveillance, to ensure that the products that are sold are in accordance with the legislation and technical standards and thus contribute to increasing consumer and market confidence, to the growth of the economy , the development of companies and the creation of employment”says Javier García, general director of UNE.

Spanish market situation

The report covers all economic sectors, which are collected in three large areas: children’s products (toys, school supplies, accessories, leisure and sports), industrial products for domestic consumption (textiles, detergents, paints, cosmetics and furniture) and industrial products for professional use (electrical material, lighting, electrotechnical and construction materials).

Regarding products for children, the report includes a study in which 11 counterfeits of 204 toys purchased from third-party sellers were detected in four marketplaces online (Amazon, E-Bay, Wish and Ali-Express). Of the total, 134 toys were analyzed in the laboratory, of which 97.4% did not meet the strict EU safety standards and 55% were unsafe and dangerous for children.

In relation to industrial products for domestic consumption, the non-compliance related to labeling in detergents and cleaning products, the non-compliance with the European Eco-design Regulation in air conditioning equipment and the high number of frauds of imports of household appliances from Asian countries stand out. .

Lastly, in the case of industrial products for professional use, the report highlights the frequent handling of detergents by unqualified personnel and their commercialization for domestic and non-industrial purposes. Likewise, it highlights irregularities in the energy labeling of refrigerants in the cold sector, and, in relation to the manufacturers of electrical material, it underlines that 71% of the differentials and 77.8% of the magnetothermics analyzed were non-compliant.

Regarding the lighting manufacturers, the report indicates that 92% of the products harbored serious (66.7%) and very serious (25%) breaches. In addition, in the concrete sector, it is estimated that the economic impact of unfair competition can be estimated at approximately 20% of national production.

In relation to the safety of industrial products, from 2017 to May 2021, 1,759,992 items have been submitted for control, for an approximate value of 24 billion euros.

Likewise, the consumer surveillance authorities take into account several factors to discern what types of products and on what scale they must be analyzed: the existence of a high risk of non-compliance with the regulations; the history of non-compliance; possible changes in the regulations; consumer claims and complaints, and EU mandates.

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