2022.09.27
Expanded legal support for product control
On July 25 this year, legislative changes came into force in the areas of ecodesign and energy labelling in Sweden, as a result of the EU's new Market Surveillance Regulation (EU) 2019/1020. The changes mean, among other things, that the Energy Authority can, with legal support, carry out unannounced on-site inspections of an economic operator.
More control of the Ecodesign Act and the Energy Labelling Regulation
The amendments have been applied in the Ecodesign Act (2008:112) and in the Acts (2018:550) and (2018:551) with supplementary provisions to the EU Energy Labelling Regulation and the EU Tyre Labelling Regulation, respectively. The amendments are essentially the same in all three acts and concern giving the Swedish Energy Agency, as the market surveillance authority in the area, powers regarding market surveillance that follow from the EU Market Surveillance Regulation.
The Energy Agency gets more muscle
The changes mean that the Swedish Energy Agency now has explicit legal support to carry out unannounced on-site inspections at an economic operator and physically check a product with regard to ecodesign, energy labelling and safety risks.
The Energy Authority may also, if deemed necessary to achieve the purpose of the inspection, procure product samples under a concealed identity (so-called mystery shopping). As a last resort and to rule out a serious risk, the Energy Authority is also given the authority to have content on a seller's website removed or access to it restricted.
These control measures aim to ensure that buyers of products from different countries of origin can feel more confident that they meet the standards required by European product liability and to prevent less careful importers from selling products that do not meet the requirements.
Source: The Energy Agency
Compiled by Kent Oderud
