Strict EU rules: Safe shopping for consumers from now on!

Strict EU rules: Safe shopping for consumers from now on!

In a significant step towards greater consumer protection, new, stricter EU rules for commerce, both online and offline, came into force on December 13, 2024. These new rules, adopted by the European Parliament and EU states in spring 2023, aim to increase the safety of products and clearly define the responsibilities for companies. This became necessary after revelations about unsafe products, such as defective smoke detectors and hackable surveillance cameras from China, became public t-online.de reported.

Protection against unsafe products

As part of this new regulation, companies must now comply with strict documentation and proof requirements to ensure the safety of their products. Consumer advocates emphasize that the new rules are intended to better protect the health, safety and legal interests of European consumers, regardless of where they live or shop europarl.eu explained. One of the key changes includes the introduction of comprehensive risk management and stricter traceability measures, which are mandatory for all companies and online marketplaces.

The German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DIHK), on the other hand, expresses concerns about the enormous administrative effort that companies now have to undertake. “The operational effort required to implement the regulation is immense,” says Volker Treier from the DIHK. It remains to be seen how well the new regulations will work in practice and how companies will respond to them.