Today, the European Commission unveiled its annual report on Safety Gate, the EUs rapid alert system for dangerous non-food products. The report provides an overview of dangerous products notified in 2024. Last year saw 4,137 alerts - the highest number since the system launched in 2003. This increase shows the growing effectiveness and trust in the Safety Gate system, as authorities use the platform more frequently to address potential consumer safety threats. The report also outlines follow-up actions by EU Member States, Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein to prevent consumer harm and halt the sale of hazardous products.
Main Findings
Cosmetics (36%) were the most reported products posing health risks, followed by toys (15%), electrical appliances (10%), motor vehicles (9%), and chemical products (6%). Chemical ingredients were the main risk factor in almost half of the alerts. Dangerous chemicals detected included cadmium, nickel, and lead in jewelry, allergenic fragrances in body oils, and synthetic chemicals in plastics, for example, in some clothing. 97% of notified cosmetics contained BMHCA, a banned synthetic fragrance that can harm the reproductive system and cause skin irritation.
Alerts in the Safety Gate system prompted robust responses from market surveillance authorities, with over 4,200 follow-up actions to stop the sale of these products or remove them from the market.
Next Steps
The Commission is working closely with national market surveillance authorities to prepare the first product safety sweep. A sweep is a series of checks on websites to identify breaches of EU consumer law in a particular sector. The aim of the product safety sweep is to check online marketplace products for compliance with the new General Product Safety Regulation to enhance the safety of products sold online.
Background
The Safety Gate Rapid Alert System allows national market surveillance authorities from the EU and European Economic Area (EEA) to report and act on dangerous non-food products, warning other authorities to take swift action. Safety Gate alerts cover risks to human health and safety, such as choking, strangulation, and damage to hearing or sight, as well as risks to the environment, energy resources, and property.
Following the entry into force of the General Product Safety Regulation in December 2024, a modernized future-proof framework is now in place to ensure the safety of products on the EU market. The Regulation clarifies that all products sold in the EU, online or offline, must be safe, regardless of origin. It ensures better rule enforcement, improves recall effectiveness for dangerous products, and obligates businesses to offer consumer remedies when recalling unsafe products, with a new tool for consumers to report safety issues, like the Consumer Safety Gateway.
With the e-Commerce Communication, presented in February 2025, the Commission proposed new joint actions to address issues from unsafe or illicit products entering the Single Market from third countries. The e-Commerce Communication foresees targeted measures in customs and trade, such as launching customs controls, consumer protection, and the Digital Services and Digital Markets Acts.
On April 10, 2025, the European Parliament and the Council reached a political agreement on the new toy safety rules. The new Regulation proposed by the Commission will ban harmful chemicals like PFAS, endocrine disruptors, and bisphenols in toys. All toys will have a Digital Product Passport to prevent unsafe toys sold online and offline from entering the EU. The Regulation sets stricter rules on online sales and gives inspectors greater powers to remove dangerous toys from the market. This ensures that imported toys are as safe for consumers as those manufactured in the EU.
Since 2022, the eSurveillance webcrawler application has supported national market surveillance authorities by detecting online offers of dangerous products reported in Safety Gate. Each day, the application scans the internet in all official EU/EEA languages to identify reported dangerous products offered for sale to European consumers. The detected offers are automatically shared with the Member States enforcement authorities, enabling them to quickly trace sellers and order the effective withdrawal of these listings. This contributes to harmonized enforcement actions and addresses challenges in monitoring the online sale of dangerous products. Over the past year, the eSurveillance webcrawler has processed nearly 4000 Safety Gate alerts, analyzed almost 1.6 million websites, and identified about 5300 web shops potentially offering reported products.
For More Information
2024 Annual Safety Gate Report and factsheet
Businesses obligations concerning product safety
General Product Safety Regulation
Consumer Safety Gateway and Safety Business Gateway