There is no fixed number of days in the regulation for reporting a dangerous product via the Safety Business Gateway. The text speaks of reporting as soon as an economic operator knows or should reasonably know that a product poses a risk to him. What that means in practice for processing time does not depend on a counter starting somewhere, but on how quickly a company internally moves from signal to report. That is precisely where it usually gets stuck in practice, and that is the subject of this article.
The Safety Business Gateway is the portal through which manufacturers, importers and distributors inform the competent authorities in the EU Member States about a product that poses a risk to the consumer. Who must make that report and with what information varies depending on the role in the supply chain. A manufacturer typically has more technical information directly available than a distributor who only resells the product. For those unsure which role applies to their company, that is a first question to answer, for example by checking in a few questions which role you hold before you look further into reporting obligations.
What gets the clock running in practice
The formal obligation to report arises at the moment there is reasonable ground to assume that a product poses a risk. In practice, that moment often comes earlier than companies realize: a complaint, a recurring defect, a warning from a supplier or a publication on Safety Gate about a similar product can already be sufficient grounds. The delay usually does not occur when filling in the portal itself, but in the phase before: the signal is not recognized, it stays with the wrong person, or it is first discussed extensively internally before anyone takes the step.
A second bottleneck is documentation. A report via the Safety Business Gateway calls for a description of the product, the risk and the measures already taken. Anyone who does not have that information at hand because the technical documentation is scattered across emails, supplier contracts and loose files loses time at a moment when time should not be lost. A file per product that keeps risk analysis and documentation in one place saves especially search time in that phase, not the assessment itself.
Who within the company makes the report
A third delaying factor is organizational: in many SMEs it is not laid down who makes the report on behalf of the company when it comes to that. Does that responsibility lie with the quality manager, the director, or with whoever happens to receive the complaint? Without a defined route to who decides and reports, valuable time is lost on internal discussions about who presses the button. An internal compliance system in which complaints, signals and the associated handling are recorded makes that question not have to be asked repeatedly. More on what that looks like in practice can be found in the overview of obligations by subject.
What should not be delayed
The regulation deliberately makes no distinction for a phase of 'first investigate yourself whether it is correct' before reporting. This clashes with the intuition of many entrepreneurs, who prefer to have certainty first before making a notification that can have reputation consequences. The text itself, and the way supervisory authorities view it, is not a judgment we are making here; for an explanation of that boundary we refer you to the legal text on EUR-Lex or to a lawyer. What can be said is: the longer the internal consideration takes, the wider the gap between the moment of notification and the moment of reporting becomes, and that gap is precisely what supervision looks at.
Where the information on this page comes from and how it aligns with the legal text can be found via the explanation of our working method. This is also the place to see which part of a dossier is available for free consultation and which part comes with a subscription.
Do you want to know where your business stands in this chain before a notification ever becomes an issue? The free role check provides a first indication in a few minutes, without requiring an account.