How do I report an unsafe product via the Safety Business Gateway?

Who reports what via the Safety Business Gateway

You report an accident or an unsafe product via the Safety Business Gateway, the central reporting point of the European Commission that works for all twenty-seven member states at the same time. This is not a national desk per country: one report in that system reaches the competent authority according to your country. For the Netherlands that is the NVWA, for Belgium the Economic Inspection of the FOD Economy, for Germany the market surveillance authority of the relevant federal state via the coordination of the BAuA. So you do not have to find out separately for each country which authority you should contact — the Gateway handles that referral.

Who reports depends on the role in the supply chain, and that role is not always what a business operator thinks. A webshop that sells a purchased product under its own name or brand is considered a manufacturer — even if nothing else has been changed on the product than a logo on it. For that role, reporting is part of a set of obligations that also includes the risk analysis and technical documentation. A true distributor who resells products of another brand without having been made responsible for them does not carry that broader set of obligations — but the signalling function towards the competent authority remains a shared matter in the supply chain of manufacturer, importer, authorised representative and fulfilment service provider. Anyone in doubt about their own role should establish that first before the question 'how do I report this' becomes relevant.

Where the reporting obligation comes from

The obligation to report accidents and unsafe products is set out in Article 20 of Regulation (EU) 2023/988, and the Safety Business Gateway is the system that the European Commission has designated as the established entry point for economic operators.