New EU Market Surveillance Regulations...products shipped from outside EU could be held at border

[fergua3]

First off, this has nothing to do with VAT or taxes.   This is a new regulation requiring product safety be assured by someone in the supply chain prior to it being admitted into the EU.   This directly impacts online purchases from outside the EU and from the way i am interpretting it,  anyone on Ebay who sells to the EU.

I don't know if this just effects action figures, toys or all products.......i suspect it is just toys but not sure.  As i've heard nothing about this on the boards or from Ebay, i am wondering if i am not understanding correctly, but to me it seems all products (or just toys) that don't have someone as a designated "economic operator' vouvhing for them, will be held at the EU border.

Read the thread below for details.  Hopefuly i'm understanding this wrong.

http://dinotoyblog.com/forum/index.php?topic=9691.0

[mrdutch1001]

I suspect this may be a similar regulation such as the USA gov't's CPSIA that several years ago had all the USA toy sellers/handcrafted toy sellers scratching their heads trying to make sense of it all, trying to figure out who it was intended for; if it was just for big businesses or if it included all the little sellers, and/or how it applied to them and then scrambling to comply if req'd, etc,etc...

[fergua3]

i don't think so.  First off, this effects virtually ALL products, not just toys.  Secondly, one of the stated main purposes of this new regulation is to block entry of online purchases that may not meet EU safety regulations.  In order to be admitted into the EU, there must be proof that the item does meet standards and that proof must come from the manufacturer, distributor, seller or an agent thereof.

I read this article once and didn't fully grasp the legaleze of it, but that is what i took away from it.  I am not able to read the article again as now it's making me register first.  Hopefully everyone can read it once before needing to register.

https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=c75bfa47-5dc3-4351-94c4-958dc63e8a85

It's very odd that we've heard nothing about this from Ebay.  As far as i can tell nothing shipped to the EU from outside is going to get in without an agent inside the EU vouching for its safey.

[femmefan1946]

tyler@ebay 

Could you bring this to the attention of the right team?

[marnotom!]

An announcement with a link to this help page was posted in April:

https://www.ebay.ca/help/selling/selling/CE-mark-EU?id=5225

[fergua3]

ok, so this is real and every bit as bad as i feared.  Looks like my days of selling to the EU have ended.

[pjcdn2005]

Do your products have the CE symbol on them?

[recped]

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@fergua3 wrote:

ok, so this is real and every bit as bad as i feared.  Looks like my days of selling to the EU have ended.

---

I think you may be misunderstanding the impast of these new rules.

Although I don't sell any products that carry the CE mark I'm always interested in anything that affects cross border trade. To that end I spent some time investigating these new policies.

My take on it is that if you are dealing in products from any of the major manufacturers there should be no issues as those companies will be in compliance.

If you sell products that do not carry the CE symbol then you are completely unaffected.

On the other hand if you are selling goods from small companies that do carry the CE symbol but have not established a formal presence in the EU there could be issues.

The primary target of these new rules is to block products with fake CE symbols and force companies that want to sell CE marked products to establish a presence within the EU.

These policies would be similar to those governing the use in North America of UL logos.

As an example, if you were selling toys produced by Mattel, there should be no issues since obviously Mattel will be in compliance and therefore any of their products would be legal to import into the EU regardless if they are shipped there by Mattel or a third-party seller.

[fergua3]

ok, i'm still not quite clear on this.  The only things i would be selling to the EU are Legos, loose (removed from package) star wars figures (made by Hasbro) and other action figures both packaged and loose by other big name manufacturers.

So you are saying those are all ok and i don't need to worry?   My confusion is how the EU is going to police this new policy.  I declare the above items as 'toy' on the customs forms.  Is the EU going to open every package to see if the item within is in compliance?  Obviously not, so how is this to be enforced?  Just random spot checks with everything else being allowed through like before?

[hlmacdon]

My reading would be as recped has already stated. If the product doesn't have a CE mark it should be uneffected. The intent here seems to be to crack down on fraudulent certifications as well as forcing large retailers and marketplaces to ensure their products carry the appropriate certification. It wouldn't be feasible to be inspecting every single package, it would likely be random or for what they consider to be commercial quantities (ie bulk). 

The driving force here is likely the large amount of product with fake certification being sold on marketplaces like ebay and amazon. Very common for UL markings to not be valid for example. This is a good step. I've seen for example outright dangerous product end up in Canadian distribution channels with fake UL/CUL markings. Too easy for bad actors to simply ship product with fake certs to Amazon or another 3PL. Glad to see the US CPSC sue Amazon recently for reasons related to this.

[mrdutch1001]

Well no matter, I don't have to worry about any of this for myself as I no longer sell on eBay and had sold very little to the UK, EU countries for several years now... and I no longer sell to those countries on my other selling venue either...

[recped]

If you don't sell on eBay anymore and don't sell to the EU at all why even post to this thread when you have nothing to say about the topic at hand?

[mrdutch1001]

I wondered if the regulation was similar to the USA CPSIA

and BTW, I am still an eBay member and can comment if I so choose...

if you don't like my comment, pay no attention to it ...move on...GEEZ!