The General Product Safety Regulation, proposed by the European Commission, establishes updated requirements for product safety, market surveillance, and online marketplace responsibilities. It complements existing EU product safety and digital legislation and strengthens enforcement tools against unsafe products, including those sold through online channels. A coherent regulatory approach across EU instruments is essential to ensure legal certainty for platforms, businesses, and consumers, particularly in light of interactions with horizontal legislation such as the Digital Services Act.
This is why we support the overall ambition of the GPSR to enhance consumer protection and modernise safety rules across the Single Market. At the same time, we believe it is essential that the implementation of the framework recognises the operational specificities of online classifieds marketplaces — particularly their intermediary role, their strong local dimension, and the predominance of consumer-to-consumer second-hand transactions where platforms neither own nor control the goods traded.
For this to be achieved, CME considers that policymakers should prioritise the following when finalising and implementing the Regulation:
- Clarify the definition of online marketplaces to ensure that C2C transactions are not included.
- Ensure that obligations account for the diversity of business models of marketplaces.
- Facilitate the circular economy transition by considering the specificities of second-hand goods
