Orgalime’s response to the Commission’s note on “Preliminary reflections on e-compliance”

Orgalime welcomes the European Commission’s intention to use new technologies for efficient and effective market surveillance and to ensure a secure and reliable framework for communicating with authorities.

New technologies may have the potential to remove administrative burdens, both for economic operators and market surveillance authorities, but their use should not change the paradigm of the New Legislative Framework.

Therefore, it is crucial to define better what is meant by 'e-compliance'.

In our view, e-compliance’s main goal should be to develop a facilitation service for providing documentary evidence to increase the efficiency of market surveillance controls, so that more resources become available for physical checks on products.

An e-compliance system could in no way replace physical checks and on-the-spot controls of products placed on the market or at the borders of the EU.

Conversely, it should not lead to the set-up of an EU-wide database which would include all technical documentation for all products placed on the single market. This would lead to considerable administrative burdens for manufacturers, particularly SMEs, instead of boosting their competitiveness.

We have sincere concerns related to some of the ideas put forward in the Commission’s note “preliminary reflections on e-compliance”.

Therefore, we request extensive consultation and analysis on this issue with a view to:

•  Keep the legal framework stable by avoiding to overturn current market surveillance procedures
• Minimise the burden of market surveillance both for economic operators and authorities. Therefore it should exclude the idea of pre-registration procedures
• Establish secure and efficient channels of communication for all actors involved.