Moldova will strengthen control over the quality of products sold and expand the list of non-food products subject to technical regulations in accordance with EU law.
In particular, this is envisaged by the draft Law on Market Surveillance and Product Compliance, which the Parliament of Moldova adopted in the second reading to implement EU norms in this area. As Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Economic Development and Digitalization Dumitru Alaiba noted earlier, this very important bill is aimed at protecting consumer rights and national legislation in the field of market surveillance will be brought into line with EU legislation. The document will help improve the functioning of the market and strengthen supervision over it. The new law will ensure that only qualified products that meet the established requirements and provide an increased level of protection of public interests, such as health and safety at work, consumer protection, protection of the environment and public safety and any other public interests protected by the relevant legislation. The bill provides tools to ensure the compliance of manufactured non-food products, including in online commerce, expands the list of economic agents (manufacturer, importer, authorized representative) responsible for putting products on the market. In addition, the document also provides for the expansion of market surveillance from 27 to 55 product areas/categories (commodity categories). According to the bill, the State Inspectorate for Supervision of Non-Food Products and Consumer Rights Protection will be defined as a single liaison office that will facilitate administrative assistance and cooperation between market surveillance authorities. There is envisaged a framework for cooperation with economic operators; implementation of a national information and communication system for market surveillance in order to collect, process and store information on all market surveillance activities. In particular, in order to receive more effective assistance and cooperation with economic agents, will be developed a national digital portal that will facilitate online access to information, administrative procedures and support services for citizens and economic agents of Moldova. The portal will provide access to the Your Europe (Europa ta) platform operated by the European Commission. The document also establishes that a national market surveillance program will be drawn up every 8 years.//22.06.2023 — InfoMarket.
