Brussels, 22 July 2022: Classifieds Marketplaces Europe (CME) welcomes the approval by member states’ Deputy Permanent Representatives of the Czech Presidency’s compromise text on the General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR).
CME is pleased to see that the Council’s text excludes consumer-to-consumer (C2C) transactions from the definition of online marketplaces. As the GPSR seeks to protect consumers from dangerous products (from mostly non-EU countries) sold on e-commerce marketplaces, the definition of marketplaces rightly refers to commercial activities, namely transactions from business traders to consumers. This is in line with the recently adopted legislation on the Digital Services Act (DSA), as well as with the European Parliament’s position on the GPSR proposal. CME also welcomes keeping the two-day deadline to respond to orders from authorities and the obligation for orders to contain clear information in order to identify dangerous content.
However, CME remains concerned about the introduction of a stay-down requirement for dangerous content following orders from authorities. As most of the products offered for sale on our services are second-hand, we depend on the information provided by sellers. Identifying identical dangerous content related to dangerous products is thus very difficult.
Other worrying additions to the approved compromise text include:
- Shorter deadlines for removing content following the reception of a notice;
- The potential to consider online marketplaces as ‘economic operators’ on a case-by-case basis;
- The obligation for online marketplaces to publish recall notices on websites;
- Stringent information collection requirements for marketplaces;
- The obligation to inform traders about information communicated by consumers on accidents/safety issues and the obligation for marketplaces to notify the Safety Business Gateway of any incident without undue delay.
Carolin Wehrhahn, Chair of CME and Director of EU Public Affairs at Adevinta, says: “The exclusion of consumer-to-consumer transactions in both the Council’s and the Parliament’s texts is an important recognition of the specificities of the classifieds business model. However, we call on policymakers in the upcoming trilogue negotiations to carefully assess the negative impact of many of the obligations they have listed. Making the experience of using our second-hand platforms more difficult would negatively affect the EU’s digital and green objectives.”
Additional information:
Carolin Wehrhahn, CME chair, carolin.wehrhahn@adevinta.com
Classifieds Marketplaces Europe is a coalition of industry-leading EU-based tech companies operating online classifieds platforms in more than 17 European countries. Our aim is to empower citizens to strengthen the circular economy and local communities. By combining our resources, we are raising awareness about the specificities of the online classifieds’ sector and its positive contribution to key objectives of the EU digital and green agenda.
