Market surveillance

In Germany, numerous products and different product categories fall under the Product Safety Act (Produktsicherheitsgesetz, ProdSG). With goods worth more than 3,000 billion euros being exported and imported each year, it is the largest individual market in Europe overall. Only effective market surveillance enables the authorities to ensure product users are protected against safety and health risks. At the same time the coordination of market surveillance at the European level strengthens fair competition on the EU’s internal market, therefore enhancing the competitiveness of all trustworthy businesses.

Supporting the federal states

BAuA is tasked by MüG and ProdSG with supporting the authorities of Germany’s federal states (Länder) responsible for market surveillance. It does so, among other things, by keeping them informed about the safety of consumer products and work equipment. Furthermore, BAuA actively contributes to the formulation of guidelines and standards as a way of further enhancing product safety. Market surveillance stakeholders and manufacturers, authorised representatives, importers, distributors, safety specialists, commercial buyers, and non-commercial purchasers (consumers) will find information on our website that is important for the safety of products sold in Germany.

Dangerous product alerts

BAuA publishes product recalls, product alerts, compulsory measures, and other information about dangerous individual products in its Dangerous Products in Germany (Gefährliche Produkte in Deutschland) database. The relevant data come from the Safety Gate, the EU rapid alert system for dangerous non-food products, for which BAuA is also Germany’s designated national Contact Point. This system allows information gathered by the EU Member States about dangerous or potentially dangerous consumer products to be exchanged at the European level.

Recall management

BAuA has published more than 2,300 unsafe product recalls since 2010. It is not only companies with dubious reputations or substandard products that have been affected, but also businesses that boast robust quality management policies.

The aim has always been - and will continue to be - to make sure dangerous products supplied to end consumers are returned, which means issuing recalls. All responsible manufacturers should take precautions for such an eventuality, putting in place appropriate, detailed recall plans and establishing recall management systems in case one of their products ever has to be recalled or withdrawn from the market.

Good recall management also makes it easier to cooperate with the authorities.

Statistics on product safety and common defects

BAuA evaluates information about defective products from a huge variety of sources every day. It reports regularly on its findings about product safety and places its statistical analyses at the disposal of Germany’s market surveillance authorities to help them optimise their surveillance strategies.