2022.11.01
Market control – a necessity not only for fair competition between companies
Market surveillance contributes to the UN's global goal no. 12 on sustainable consumption and production. Its task is to ensure health, safety, and consumer protection. Swedac is responsible for coordination between the Swedish authorities that conduct market surveillance. Coordination is primarily carried out through the Market Surveillance Council, where APPLiA and other business stakeholders participate in reference groups.
Market surveillance can take the form of planned inspections of manufacturers, importers or retailers or as a response to reported accidents, complaints from the public or warnings from authorities in other countries. The responsible authority must take action against those operators whose products do not meet the legal requirements. Actions that may be taken include, for example, sales bans, withdrawal of products from the market, recalls or fines.
Within the market area of the APPLiA companies, it is primarily the Swedish Chemicals Agency, the Swedish Electrical Safety Authority, the Swedish Customs and the Swedish Consumer Agency that are concerned and active in exercising market control. This means that they must check that products on the market comply with applicable legislation and standards, and are labelled and tested in accordance with the regulations.
The responsible authority shall take action against those operators who do not meet the requirements, so that only safe products are sold on the market. When they find products that are not approved during inspections, the following measures are taken, for example: sales ban, withdrawal of products from the market, recall or fines.
The inspection usually takes place in the form of random samples after risk assessment, not least due to the rapid product development and the large number of products available on the market.
If you see products that lack correct labeling or otherwise probably should not be sold in Sweden, you can contact the authorities directly or us at APPLiA and we will take the matter further.
Read more about market surveillance at marketcontrol.se.
