New market surveillance tasks for the Finnish Safety and Chemicals Agency

The Government proposes to amend the Act on the Market Surveillance of Certain Products. The proposal is related to the national implementation of the EU’s new Market Surveillance Regulation and the Regulation on mutual recognition.

The necessary provisions for organising official duties would be added to the Act on the Market Surveillance of Certain Products. In the future, the Finnish Safety and Chemicals Agency (Tukes) would act as a contact point for market surveillance and as a Product Contact Point and would be responsible for market surveillance tasks of textile and footwear markings.

The proposal will be discussed in conjunction with the Government’s proposal for the 2021 budget.

National contact point to coordinate cooperation between authorities

The EU’s Market Surveillance Regulation aims to reduce the number of non-compliant products in the internal market, enhance market surveillance and improve the functioning of the internal market. Another objective is to create equal competitive conditions for all economic operators. The Regulation will apply to the surveillance of 70 different EU product regulations.

The Regulation entered into force in July 2019. Its application will mainly begin in July 2021, but in part already on 1 January 2021. National supplementary regulation is needed to support the EU Regulation. Among other things, a national contact point must be established in each Member State. The Government proposes that Tukes be the contact point for market surveillance in Finland.

The tasks of the contact point would be horizontal and would relate to the coordination of cooperation between market surveillance authorities and Customs, and the representation of Finnish authorities in EU cooperation related to market surveillance.

A new cooperation group on market surveillance would be established within the contact point to support it in carrying out its tasks. The contact point and the cooperation group would start operations on 1 January 2021.

The implementation of the Market Surveillance Regulation also requires further national supplementary regulation, which is intended to be presented at a later stage.

Transfer of tasks to Tukes from the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment and the Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority

From 16 July 2021, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment would transfer the tasks of the Product Contact Point to Tukes, and the Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority (KKV) would transfer the market surveillance tasks of textile and footwear markings to Tukes.

Provisions on the Product Contact Point and its tasks are laid down at EU level in the Regulation on mutual recognition, the Market Surveillance Regulation and the Regulation on establishing a single digital gateway. The Product Contact Point provides information regarding product requirements in Finland, among other things.

The tasks transferred from the KKV concern the surveillance of materials used in footwear, and surveillance of materials and composition of equivalent fibres used in textiles to assess their compliance with requirements.

Inquiries:

Pauliina Kanerva, Senior Ministerial Adviser, Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment, tel. + 358 295 060 160