Bulgaria Submitted 14% of RAPEX Unsafe Product Alerts in 2012

Bulgaria and Hungary filed around one quarter of all signals for unsafe goods in the EU in 2012, according to statistics of RAPEX, the EU rapid alert system for all dangerous consumer products.

In 2012, Bulgaria submitted a total of 271 RAPEX notifications, outpaced only by Hungary with 294 signals.

All 27 EU Member States, together with Norway, Island, and Liechtenstein, which participate in the system, submitted a total of 2278 RAPEX notifications in 2012, up by 26% from 2011.

In 2012, a total of 2278 notifications on dangerous products posing risks to the health and safety of consumers were submitted through the RAPEX system by Member States, up by 26% from 2011.

Of the 2278 notifications, 1938 notifications concerned products which posed a serious risk to consumers, while the others referred to moderate risk or information only.

The most frequently notified products in 2012 were clothing, textiles and fashion items (668 notifications, 34 %), toys (366 notifications, 19 %), electrical appliances and equipment (205 notifications, 11 %), motor vehicles (149 notifications, 8 %), cosmetics (86 notifications, 4 %).

According to the RAPEX Report, the majority of dangerous products posing serious risks to the health and safety of consumers notified through RAPEX came from outside the EU – China and Turkey amongst others.

China (including Hong Kong) was indicated as a country of origin for 58% (1126 notifications) of notified products.

Dangerous products of European origin accounted for 330 notifications (17%), including 60 products of German origin (3%), 49 products of Italian origin (3%) and 45 products of Bulgarian origin (2%).

In comparison, in 2011 a total of 19% of all notifications involving serious risk originated from an EU country.

In 2012, the number of cases with an unidentified country of origin has increased to 11% (205 notifications) from 8% (128 notifications) in 2011.

RAPEX is aimed to ensuring that only safe products are placed on the European Single Market and at protecting consumers and public interests.

RAPEX allows Member States and the Commission to exchange information on dangerous products and communicate risks to consumers.

When a national authority identifies a risk from a product, it acts to eliminate it and informs the Commission. The Commission informs RAPEX Contact Points in all other EU Member States. They notify their authorities who check if the product is on their market and take action.

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