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Goods were detained by the EU Customs due to wrong label affixed on the product by seller

EU product safety regulations require that products with the CE mark need to have an EU responsible person as the point of contact for product compliance (hereinafter referred to as “European Representative”). After July 16, 2021, it is illegal to sell CE-marking products in the EU without the EU responsible person!

We believe that most sellers have already understood the EU regulatory policy and appointed the EU representative, but in the actual implementing process, many sellers still have various problems due to improper operation. Recently, several sellers reported that the goods were directly detained at the customs due to improper labeling of products.

The seller’s improper labeling operation caused the goods to be detained

Based on the information updates that we have received lately from several sellers, there is a commonality in recent customs inspections. In addition to inspecting the DoC (Declaration of Compliance) of products, the EU custom also inspects whether the seller’s label conforms to the regulation.

We concluded the following mistakes in terms of product labeling of several sellers and would like to share label compliance advice. 

Some sellers did not display the product brand, product name, and model.  Or the importer’s company name and address were not displayed on the product label. As a result, the goods have been detained by EU customs. The relevant notification letter has been sent to the seller by the EU custom. It is necessary for the seller to contact customs immediately and pay a fine.

Judging from the current situation, the European Union has stepped up its efforts to investigate and deal with sellers’ product compliance issues.

According to the new EU Product Safety Regulation, starting from July 16, 2021, when products with the CE mark are sold to the EU, an “Economic Operator” (EU representative) will be required in the EU.

Normally, products that require CE certification need to have the European Representative; in addition, products that receive mandatory mail from the e-commerce platform also need to specify the European Representative.

What else needs to be done after EU representative is designated?

After appointing the European representative, you still need to do two things:

  1. Upload the EU responsible person’s information to the relevant e-commerce platform
  2. Label your qualified products

Check our next article for details.