International Product Safety Week 2016 will focus on protecting consumers in a digital world

Consumer safety professionals from around the world are in Brussels to discuss with the European Commission how to improve product safety for consumers on the occasion of the 2016 International Product Safety Week. This year participants will pay particular attention to improving consumer safety in a digital world, as 65 % of all European internet users now shop online. Commissioner Jourová delivered the opening speech this morning. She said: ” Products need to be safe when put on the market in the EU whether they are sold online or in traditional shops, and regardless of where they come from. (…) But action in the EU alone will not make the difference in our connected world. Because of global trade, increasingly also online, it is crucial that we step up our international cooperation, in particular with our biggest trading partners: The US and China.” Consumer safety experts from the European Commission will meet their Chinese counterparts from the General Administration of Quality Supervision (AQSIQ), as well as their American counterparts from the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to discuss how effective quality controls of exported goods can be guaranteed. Further events will focus on the safety of products sold online on boosting the impact of product safety alerts and on the EU’s product safety alert system (RAPEX). Market surveillance experts will get the chance to exchange best practices among their peers.