DigitalEurope urges EU member states to delete the ‘made in’ clause in the consumer product safety and market surveillance legislative package

DigitalEurope is disappointed that the European Parliament voted to include the flawed ‘Made In’ indication of origin clause in the Consumer Product Safety and Market Surveillance legislative package in a vote late Tuesday.

By DIGITALEUROPE

16 Apr 2014

The proposal adopted by the Parliament expands the ‘Made In’ labelling requirement to all non-food products.

The digital industry, as well as European consumers have expressed clear doubts about the “Made In” label, which they believe is unlikely to prevent non-compliant products reaching the EU market.

Traceability of products is already covered in other parts of the proposal. If a manufacturer or importer placed an unsafe or non-compliant product on the EU market it will be possible to identify them without the ‘Made In’ clause.

In addition, it is hard to pinpoint the exact country of origin of a complex digital product. The supply and manufacturing chain of today’s products is complex. It is common for products to be partially assembled in one country before being transferred to manufacturing sites in one or more other countries for completion.

“An indication of origin does not provide meaningful information to the end-consumer,” said John Higgins, Director General of DigitalEurope.

Instead of trying to identify a product’s origins the EU needs to step up market surveillance through enforcement of existing legislation and proper policing of the market place, Mr Higgins said.

European Consumer organisations ANEC and BEUC also rejected the ‘Made In’ label for non-food products for similar reasons.

The European Parliament’s own research services last week concluded that the European Commission had failed to conduct an impact assessment of the ‘Made In’ clause, which was added to the Commission’s proposed text in the last minute.

DigitalEurope urges EU member state governments to carry out to a proper impact assessment on the ‘Made In’ label. We are confident it will conclude that the label is a mistake and they will push to have the requirement removed from the legislative package.


For more information please contact:
Paul Meller, DigitalEurope’s Communications Director
+32 497 322 966 or paul.meller@DigitalEurope.org  

ABOUT DigitalEurope
DigitalEurope represents the digital technology industry in Europe. Our members include some of the world's largest IT, telecoms and consumer electronics companies and national associations from every part of Europe. DigitalEurope wants European businesses and citizens to benefit fully from digital technologies and for Europe to grow, attract and sustain the world's best digital technology companies.

DigitalEurope ensures industry participation in the development and implementation of EU policies. DigitalEurope’s members include 58 global corporations and 35 national trade associations from across Europe: in total, 10,000 companies employing two million people. For more about us go to http://www.DigitalEurope.org

THE MEMBERSHIP OF DigitalEurope
COMPANY MEMBERS:
Acer, Alcatel-Lucent, AMD, Apple, Bose, Brother, Canon, CA Technologies, Cassidian, Cisco, Dell, Epson, Ericsson, Fujitsu, Hitachi, HP, Huawei, IBM, Ingram Micro, Intel, Jabil, JVC Kenwood Group, Konica Minolta, Kyocera, Lenovo, Lexmark, LG, Loewe, Microsoft, Mitsubishi Electric, Motorola Mobility, Motorola Solutions, NEC, Nokia, Nokia Siemens Networks, Nvidia, Océ, Oki, Oracle, Panasonic, Philips, Pioneer, Qualcomm, Research In Motion-Blackberry, Ricoh International, Samsung, SAP, Schneider Electric IT Corporation, Sharp, Siemens, Sony, Swatch Group, Technicolor, Texas Instruments, Toshiba, TP Vision, Xerox, ZTE Corporation.
NATIONAL TRADE ASSOCIATIONS:
Belgium: AGORIA; Bulgaria: BAIT; Cyprus: CITEA; Denmark: DI ITEK, IT-BRANCHEN; Estonia: ITL; Finland: FFTI; France: Force Numérique, SIMAVELEC, Germany: BITKOM, ZVEI; Greece: SEPE; Hungary: IVSZ; Ireland: ICT IRELAND; Italy: ANITEC; Lithuania: INFOBALT; Netherlands: Nederland ICT, FIAR; Poland: KIGEIT, PIIT; Portugal: AGEFE; Romania: ANIS, APDETIC; Slovakia: ITAS; Slovenia: GZS; Spain: AMETIC, Sweden: Foreningen Teknikföretagen, IT&Telekomföretagen; United Kingdom: TechUk Belarus: INFOPARK; Norway: IKT NORGE; Switzerland: SWICO; Turkey: ECID, TESID, TÜBISAD; Ukraine: IT UKRAINE.