@ett1954 wrote:
Switzerland has not yet legislated to introduce the new rules, but as a member of the EEA it is required to maintain close alignment with EU regulations and is planning to revise its legislation to conform.
The responsible Swiss authority, is currently analysing the GPSR to revise the Swiss Product Safety Act accordingly.
I hate to correct you but Switzerland is not a member of the EEA. It is a member of EFTA along with Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway; the latter three are members of the EEA. There is no free movement of goods between Switzerland and the EU so the usual customs procedures and VAT rules apply to goods that cross the Swiss/EU border.
Like Britain Switzerland recognises EU product safety standards with their national product safety regulations being based on those of the EU. The Swiss were a bit miffed about the GPSR because it left Switzerland in the same position with it's fellow EFTA members as Northern Ireland found itself in with Great Britain. Also, due to Switzerland's geography the Swiss export quite a lot of goods to the EU; their exports to the EU are now subject to the GPSR rules the same as any non-EEA member state's are.
Switzerland aren't introducing the GPSR; they're introducing their own similar implementation like the UK will be doing with the Product Safety and Metrology Act. Like the PSMA this appears to be a retaliatory move. All three implementations will have similar requirements but they will be particular to each territory they apply to.
@ett1954 wrote:
I believe EU countries are currently focused on products that present the highest risk; electricals, children's toys, etc.
The weird thing is eBay are clearly not enforcing the GPSR rules by default despite what the regulations state regarding the responsibilities of online marketplaces. In an incognito window with the search filter set to business sellers, item location set to somewhere in Britain and the delivery postcode set to a Belfast one I can find lots of toys and electricals available that have no GPSR information provided. My gut feeling is that whatever enforcement is being carried out is being done by the EU's Safety Gate reporting system. Something dave@ebay said in this post reinforces that feeling:
"In the case of missing GPSR information for a specific listing, we may put the listing in question on hold, or restrict its visibility in the EU and/or Northern Ireland. However, there should not be GPSR-related action at an account level unless a relevant amount of listings are reported or a seller repeatedly violates requirements after suitable warnings."
Give me ambiguity or give me something else.
