Division 3.3.1 Economic operators

Economic operators are not directly involved in the submission of notifications in the RAPEX application.

However, in case of a product posing a risk, economic operators shall immediately inform the competent authorities in all Member States where the product was made available. The conditions and details for providing such information are laid down in Annex I to the GPSD.

Such information will be dealt with by the Member State where the notifying producer/distributor is established (‘Main Member State’).

The transmission of information on products posing a risk can be submitted by economic operators through the ‘Product Safety Business Alert Gateway’, a tool available on the RAPEX website (see Part II Chapter 5.3.2). Economic operators should include a detailed description of the risk of the product and can make use of the ‘RAG tool’ available for this purpose (see Part I Chapter 5.3).

Risk assessments carried out by economic operators are not binding on Member State authorities who are responsible for carrying out their own risk assessment. It is therefore possible for an authority of a Member State to come to a different conclusion regarding the risk assessment provided in an alert submitted via the ‘Business Gateway’.