www.psi-network.de PSI Journal 5/2012 PRODUCT SAFETY ACT INITIAL MEASURES FROM PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE In the long term, no industry will be able to get around this law; the requirement to label applies to all consumer products – and thus also to promotional products. However, there are options we can take to act in the short and medium term to ameliorate the situation and avoid the worst. Here is an interim assessment of the topic of Product Safety Act from the BWL, the German association of promotional products suppliers. According to the BWL, it is by all means advantageous for suppliers to exchange information with their distributors. Relevant details on the law, together with the specific measures suppliers can take, must be clearly communicated in advance. At this point, the trade has an opportunity to put forward any labelling wishes of its own. GENERAL REQUIREMENT TO LABEL The general requirement to label in accordance with the Product Safety Act has been in effect since 1 December 2011 and applies in principle to all consumer products, and thus to all promotional products, too. Every product must be labelled with the name and valid postal address of the manufacturer or whoever imports the product into the European economic area and makes it available here. Along with the name and address, a serial or type number is obligatory for clear identification. Instead of the supplier, the name and address of the promotional products consultant or the ad- vertiser itself can be used. They are thereby considered to be the manufacturer, in a manner of speaking, and as a consequence assume all liability risks for the product. In principle, all products must be labelled. EXCEPTIONS Only in exceptional cases – for instance, when there is too little space – is it permitted to label the package rather than the product. Stickers or hang tags containing the necessary data and firmly attached to the product should as a rule suffice to fulfil the labelling requirement. The provider should write up and file appropriate documentation for products which, in the view of those responsible, would be unreasonably expensive to label. To avoid fines, labelling pursuant to the Product Safety Act should be done by the importer at the latest. Recipients can refuse to accept products which are not labelled by referring to the Product Safety Act. The Product Safety Act also entails obligations for the authorities. They must inspect a specified number of random samples on the market. Thus they are required to perform an increased number of checks. In Germany, more than 100 government agencies are responsible for this work. This means that every provider should have run through their product range from A to Z to find all exceptions to the labelling requirement. However, this will only apply to a very few products, such as shopping trolley tokens. The promotional products trade can obtain further information from its BWL suppliers. Another good place to find information is the BWL Newsweek day on 3 May 2012 at The Squaire Conference Center next to the Frankfurt airport. < CONTACT BWL e.V. Tel +49 221 9541358 Fax +49 221 9553938 info@bwl-lieferanten.de www.bwl-lieferanten.de 45

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