In accordance with the General Product Safety Directive 2001/95/EC (GPSD) and Regulation 765/2008, in October 2017 the European Commission validated 154 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: 125 notifications (81%). 13 notifications concerned products presenting less than serious risk and 16 notifications were circulated for information.

Compared to the total number of notifications on dangerous products submitted during the month of October 2016 (207) the number of notifications was 26% lower in October 2017.

1. Notifying country

During the month of October, 25 EU Member States and Norway sent notifications on dangerous products through the RAPEX system.

The five most frequently notifying countries accounted for 49% of the notifications:

The notifications validated in October covered 15 categories of products.

The five most frequently notified product categories accounted for 82% of all notifications:

3. Type of risk

The notifications validated in October covered 9 different types of risk.

The five most frequently notified risk categories accounted for 95% of all notifications:

4. Country of origin

From the dangerous products notified, more than half originated from China. 28 notifications (18%) concerned products originating from EU/EEA Member States. 35 notifications (23%) concerned products originating in other countries. In 8 notifications (5%) the information available did not allow for identification of the country of origin of the notified product.

5. Measures adopted

In the month of October, 88 notifications (57%) were of compulsory preventive and restrictive measures ordered by national authorities (‘compulsory measures’). In 61 other notifications (40%), 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 5 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 3 cases where the compulsory measures were initiated by a customs authority, and this was in Finland and Spain.

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

6. Professional products and products posing risks other than health and safety

Adding up to these notifications, in the month of October were also validated 9 further notifications on professional products. They concerned products from the category "motor vehicles" posing risk of "Injuries" or "Fire". They were notified by Germany.

There was also one extra notification this month concerning consumer products posing a risk to the environment. This was a product from category "Electrical appliances and equipment" and was notified by Finland.