§5.1 Market surveillance

Market surveillance authorities have to perform appropriate checks on the characteristics of products on an adequate scale (Article 11(3) of the Regulation). In deciding what checks to perform, on which types of product and on what scale, they have to follow a risk-based approach (Ibid.) designed to achieve the greatest impact on the market. After deciding what products to check, they may need to ask for compliance documentation. The economic operator referred to in Article 4 helps them obtain this information by facilitating their contact and cooperation with the manufacturer. Market surveillance authorities can contact the economic operator referred to in Article 4 directly even if it is located in another Member State (45). They should be specific about the type of documents they need and the products for which they need them. In the case of online or other distance sales where market surveillance authorities want to check compliance documentation without or before checking the product, they may not have the name and contact details of the economic operator referred to in Article 4. In such cases, they can contact the economic operator (as defined in Article 3 of the Regulation) offering the product for sale to ask for this (46). The economic operator referred to in Article 4 will serve as a contact to resolve questions or problems that go beyond documentation (Article 4(3)(d) of the Regulation). In such cases, the authorities should make it clear what they expect of it. The market surveillance authorities could contact the economic operator referred to in Article 4 on an issue that is relevant to the manufacturer whose product(s) are dealt with by it, but that does not specifically fall within the scope of Article 4, i.e. an issue that concerns legislation or products not covered by Article 4. Although Article 4 does not specifically provide for such requests, the economic operator referred to in Article 4 is encouraged to facilitate contacts between the authorities and manufacturers for these purposes.

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-09-07