The Commission of the European Union (EU) has released statistics on notices of unsafe, non-food consumer products that have been processed through the EU’s rapid information system (RAPEX) for the year ending December 31, 2018.
According to the Commission’s report, 2257 notifications of products posing a serious risk to consumer health and safety were processed through the RAPEX system during 2018. This represents a nominal increase from 2017’s numbers when 2201 notifications were reported and are generally consistent with results from prior years.
Once again, toys represent the product category with the most notifications, with 31 percent of all notifications processed. Motor vehicles were in second place again this year, with 19 percent of notifications, followed by clothing, textiles and fashion items with 10 percent. Rounding out the top five categories of notifications were electrical appliances and equipment, which accounted for 8 percent of notifications processed, and cosmetic products, which accounted for 7 percent.
Regarding the country of origin identified in connection with products posing a serious safety risk, the Commission’s report omits explicit data regarding notifications involving individual countries other than those in the EU. However, the report does note that 53 percent of alerts issued in the EU were for dangerous products originating from China, Hong Kong or Taiwan. Only 24 percent of alerts were issued in connection with dangerous products originated from the EU Member States, with an additional 13 percent of alerts stemming from products from other identifiable countries.
View the EU Commission’s 2018 annual report on RAPEX statistics.
