Which supervisor checks product safety at webshops?

NVWA conducts supervision, together with ACM at marketplaces

In the Netherlands, the Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) supervises product safety for online shops and other sellers of non-food consumer products. When sales take place via an online marketplace, the NVWA works together with the Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM). In practice, a seller often notices the marketplace before the supervisory authority itself: a marketplace must remove a dangerous product within two working days of notification, and passes this requirement on to the sellers offering products on it.

Which obligations a seller has that the NVWA can supervise depends on their role in the supply chain. Anyone selling products under their own name or brand is considered a manufacturer under the regulation — including an online shop that only has its own logo placed on a purchased product, and anyone who substantially modifies a product. A manufacturer is subject to the heaviest obligations, including risk analysis and technical documentation. A distributor who resells products unchanged under another's brand does not have those manufacturer obligations. However, for everyone selling to Dutch consumers, warnings and safety instructions must appear in Dutch on the product page; English or German alone is insufficient, and a QR code to the information is not enough.

This is set out in Article 22 of the regulation

That supervision of online marketplaces is a shared responsibility follows from Article 22 of Regulation (EU) 2023/988, which regulates the obligations of online marketplaces towards market surveillance authorities. Which authority in the Netherlands fulfils this role and how that supervision works in practice is explained on the product safety page of the NVWA and on the website of the ACM. The same regulation applies directly and identically throughout the rest of the European Union, although supervision there lies with the national authority of that country.