EU Safety Gate: 4671 product warnings in just one year

Fairy lights that catch fire on their own, fireworks that are too loud and ignite too low, airbags in BMWs that could kill users in the worst-case scenario: there is little that the EU's "Safety Gate" does not have to warn about. This is because warnings about potentially harmful products are collected from all member states. And there are more and more of them, as the report for the year 2025 presented on Thursday shows: 4671 warnings were distributed across Europe via the portal. "The record number shows that Europe's product safety framework is becoming stronger and more efficient and – most importantly – indispensable," says the responsible Justice and Consumer Protection Commissioner Michael McGrath. The Commissioner is concerned with the cooperation between the supervisory authorities of the member states, which is apparently improving – and must also improve.

Cosmetics with poison as a major factor

One example is Butylphenyl Methylpropional (BMHCA): The lily-of-the-valley aroma fragrance, also known as Lilial, is considered reproductive toxic, allergenic, and harmful to the fetus in pregnant women. For this reason, it has been banned in the EU since 2022, but it is repeatedly found in imported cosmetics. The Safety Gate Portal is therefore full of product warnings about this substance. Such non-compliant products are actually not allowed to be placed on the EU market and must be withdrawn from the market, similar to electrical equipment without real CE marking or children's toys that can be swallowed. 2006 of the notifications concerned products manufactured in China, 614 in Italy, 288 in Germany, and 257 produced in France.

Marketplace providers must cooperate

The inspection has become significantly more complex because products offered on trading platforms such as Shein, AliExpress, Amazon Marketplace, or Temu are often no longer delivered centrally in containers and then distributed within the EU. This is precisely what is to be further improved with the further implementation of the EU's Product Safety Directive: Online marketplaces must establish interfaces to the Safety Gate, and authorities can search for products centrally.

The number of discovered problem cases could therefore initially continue to skyrocket – because the number of unreported cases could thus be reduced. The reporting portal only covers a part of the problematic offers: pharmaceuticals, medical devices, food, and animal feed, for example, are not included. This means that food supplements, for instance, do not fall under the notifications in the portal. For food, German consumers should therefore also always consider taking a look at the portal lebensmittelwarnung.de, which is operated by the responsible authorities.

(mki)