GREECE Law and Practice Contributed by: Dimitris Emvalomenos, Bahas, Gramatidis & Partners
assembly and, where applicable, for installa - tion and maintenance; • the effect on other products, where it is rea - sonably foreseeable that it will be used with other products; • the presentation of the product, the labelling, any warnings and instructions for its use and disposal and any other indication or informa - tion regarding the product; and • the categories of consumers at risk when using the product, children and the elderly, in particular. The manufacturers may be informed about the risks of a product by any appropriate means; they may discover that the product is not safe following their own inspections and tests or based on initiatives by consumers, insurance companies, distributors, or government bodies. In all cases, the manufacturers must notify the regulatory authority as soon as a risk has been established. The notified regulatory authority may request additional information, and the submission of relative documents or measures to be taken by the manufacturer or distributor. Under the legal regime of GPSD, European Com - mission Decision 2004/905/EC of 14 December 2004 had set out the guidelines for notification by manufacturers and distributors of dangerous consumer products to the competent authori - ties of member states (Article 5 (3) of the GPSD). The above decision was repealed by the Euro - pean Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2024/1761 of 21 June 2024, with effect from 13 December 2024. GPSR imposes obligations to all economic oper - ators, namely – and apart from the manufactur - ers – to authorised representatives, importers,
distributors and other persons as a case may be, for the constant monitoring of the products’ safety and immediate actions where a danger - ous product is noticed (Articles 9–16). In case of accidents related to safety of products, the eco - nomic operators must act “without undue delay” (Articles 20 and 35–37). Special obligations are imposed on economic operators in case of distance sales (Article 19) and on providers of online marketplaces (Article 22). The European Commission’s “Safety Business Gateway” to report dangerous products to the member state authorities (see Safety Business Gateway ; formerly known as the GPSD Business Application), enables businesses to report dan - gerous products and accidents to the market surveillance authorities of the member states and such reporting is compulsory under the GPSR (Article 27). National authorities may use the information submitted on the Safety Business Gateway to create an alert in the Safety Gate Rapid Alert System (see 1.2 Regulatory Authorities for Product Safety ). A summary of that information is then also published on the Safety Gate public portal. The submission of notifications through the Safety Business Gateway is only reserved for the economic operators and providers of online marketplaces concerned by the notified product, thus not by third parties. In case a dangerous product is already sold, economic operators must take the necessary measures, including its recall, if necessary, while providers of online marketplaces must notify all affected consumers of the product safety recall and publish information on such recalls on their online interfaces.
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