In a joint statement published on September 17th, the European Environmental Bureau (EEB), together with 63 environmental and consumer protection NGOs, industry, retail and wholesale organisations call on EU policymakers to urgently address persistent regulatory loopholes in relation to e-commerce via online marketplaces.
A key issue, identified by Market Surveillance Authorities, industry stakeholders and civil society, is that online marketplaces are not currently recognised as economic operators under EU law. This exempts them from proactive legal due diligence responsibility to verify the compliance of products sold through their platforms. They only need to act if they are informed of a potential non-compliance.
Neither the Digital Services Act (DSA), the General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR), nor the Green Deal framework have effectively addressed this gap in the legislation. As a result, online marketplaces can facilitate the sale of non-compliant goods from non-EU sellers to EU consumers, with minimal accountability for the safety, legality, or environmental impact of those products. More recently, although the European Parliament in an own initiative report and the European Commission in a communication acknowledged the issue, both institutions fell short of making a clear call to address the existing legal gaps.
The statement aligns with the Zero Mercury Working Group campaign targeting the sale of illegal mercury-added skin-lightening products through online platforms. The statement co-signed last year included ZMWG data from the ZMWG latest reports: 60% (31 out of 55) of the skin lightening products purchased online from Belgium between 2018 and 2023 ranged between 1 ppm and 20.813 ppm of mercury content, based on a target list of potentially dangerous creams.
The full statement is available here. You can share EEB’s LinkedIn and BlueSky posts.
