General Product Safety Information
General Product Safety Directive
The General Product Safety Directive (GPSD) 95/2001 was transposed into Irish law on 4 May 2004 by Statutory Instrument No. 199 of 2004.
The purpose of the European Communities (General Product Safety) Regulations, 2004 is to ensure the safety of consumer products on the Irish market. It does this by:
- Defining what is a safe product and specifying that all products must be safe
- Imposing obligations on manufacturers and distributors to ensure that their products are safe
- Outlining the powers of the National Consumer Agency to deal with unsafe products
- Placing a responsibility on manufacturers or distributors who are conducting a safety action or recall to inform the relevant authorities
A safe product is defined as one which, when used in normal or reasonably foreseeable conditions, does not present any risk, or only the minimum risks compatible with its use, to persons or animals.
Sometimes inherent risks exist (in candles, for example), and in such cases there is a duty on producers to provide adequate warnings to the consumer about those dangers and advise on safe use.
The NCA has responsibility for market surveillance. If it is of the opinion that a product presents a hazard to the consumer it has the power to order an operator to remove the item from the market and can prosecute if s/he fails to do so.
The NCA is also the Irish contact point for RAPEX, a Europe wide system for communication of information about hazardous products (see separate section on Product Recalls).
Other product safety legislation
The NCA is also responsible for market surveillance of a number of Directives relating to specific product groups:
- Toys
- Low Voltage Electrical Equipment
- Gas Burning Appliances
- Personal Protective Equipment (leisure aspects only)
Find out more information about the above Directives