In accordance with the General Product Safety Directive 2001/95/EC (GPSD) and Regulation 765/2008, in May 2017 the European Commission validated180 notifications on dangerous products and transmitted them to the Member States (EU Member States and EEA-EFTA countries Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway). Most of these concerned products presenting serious risk: 154 notifications (86%). 10 notifications (6%) concerned products presenting less than serious risk and 16 notifications (9%) were circulated for information.

Compared to the total number of notifications on dangerous products submitted during the month of May 2016 (167) the number of notifications was 8% higher in May 2017.

During themonth of May, 18 EU Member States sent notifications on dangerous products through the RAPEX system.

The notifications validated in May covered 17 categories of products.

The five most frequently notified product categories accounted for 81% of all notifications: 3. Type of risk The notifications validated in May covered 14 different types of risk. The five most frequently notified risk categories accounted for 87% of all notifications: 4.Country of origin From the dangerous products notified, about half originated from China. 57 notifications (32%) concerned products originating from EU/EEA Member States. 18 notifications (10%) concerned products originating in other countries. In 15 notifications (8%) the information available did not allow for identification of the country of origin of the notified product.

In the month of May, 120 notifications (67%) were of compulsory preventive and restrictive measures ordered by national authorities (‘compulsory measures’). In 57 other notifications (32%), economic operators took preventive and restrictive measures on a ‘voluntary’ basis (‘voluntary measures’), i.e. they complied with their legal obligations without the formal intervention of a national authority. In 3 cases both types of measures were applied. It is very frequent that there is more than one measure adopted in relation to a notified product. That is, it is regularly the case, that when the authorities ordered a sales ban they have also ordered a withdrawal from the market.

There were 15 cases where the compulsory measures were initiated by a customs authority, and this was in Finland, Germany and Spain.

Number of notifications by type of measure per country (absolute values):