Official controls of food

offered in the Internet

EU actions and perspective

DG SANTE - Directorate General Health & Food Safety

Unit G3 – Official controls and eradication of diseases in animals

Filippo Abruzzo

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Article 36In the case of animals and goods offered

for sale by means of distance

communication, samples ordered from

operators by the competent authorities

without identifying themselves may be

used for the purposes of an official control

Elements introduced by the Official Control

Regulation (EU) 2017/625

Article 138(2)

Where the non-compliance is established, the competent authorities shall…

(i) order the cessation for an appropriate period of time of all or part of the activities of the concerned operator and, where relevant, of the Internet sites it operates or employs

Elements introduced by the Official Control

Regulation (EU) 2017/625

Elements introduced by the Official Control

Regulation (EU) 2017/625

Article 9(2)

Competent Authorities shall perform official controls on food fraud

on a risk basis

European Court of Justice ruling:

when is an online offer addressed to

consumers of a specific country?

- Web site in official language of this country

- - Price in currency of this country

- Delivery not excluded to this country

Enforcement related difficulties

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Better Training for Safer Foodwill be continued in 2018/19

Trainings for official control

staff on eCommerce

investigations

since 2014

all Member States and EFTA

Basic training:230 participants

trained

Advanced training:60 participants

trained

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Better Training for Safer Food

Courses in 2018/19

Basis training:

11-14 June 2018 in Madrid

8–11 October 2018 in Prague

4-7 March 2019 in Bratislava

Advanced training:

19-22 November 2018 in Bratislava

20-23 May 2019 in Prague

23-26 September 2019 in Madrid

EU actions on eCommerce control- Fact-finding missions in MS

Fact-finding missions on eCommerce control in

7 Member States by SANTE/F accomplished in 2017 (DK, DE, FR, IE, PT,

SE, UK)

Draft report on findings and best practices

Workshop with MS control staff on

findings and best practices 22-24 May

2018 in Grange

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Adaptation of iRASFF format to enhance

information on e-commerce related notifications- iRASFF version 1.8.0 release September 2017

• The General information box has two new fields: "eCommerce related"

and "Internet search performed".

• In the Sampling section, Sampling place has an additional option:

"online purchase".

• In the Operator section:

• Operator type has 2 additional options: "e-platform/e-

marketplace" and "e-trader" replacing "e-shop";

• Several new fields provide additional information: URL (always

visible), URL 2, Website Owner, Address of the Website Owner,

Email of the Website Owner, …

• Add file has an additional "screenshot" option useful in case of

volatile web sites.

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Contact points of eCommerce platforms and

social media for MS control authorities

• eBay

• for non-compliant offers: dedicated email addresses• for contact details of sellers: LEP and LERS

• Amazon

• for general questions and non-compliant offers: two dedicated email addresses

• Alibaba group

• for non-compliant offers: one dedicated email address

• Facebook

• for non-compliant offers: one dedicated email address to be reached by up to two email addresses per MS

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Contact points of credit card brands and

payment service providers

• PayPal

• for general inquiries or urgent investigations: dedicated email addresses and phone numbers

• for customer sensitive information:Safety Hub – PayPal Law Enforcement Tool contact

• Mastercard

• for data of sellers: Law Enforcement Referral Form (a. print and sign, b. electronic signature)

• VISA

• …

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Establish cooperation agreements with

third countries

Trilaterals talks between US-FDA, CN-AQSIQ and SANTE

on 11 to 13 April 2018:

• SANTE proposed a project of mutual administrative assistance and

cooperation between the three institutions for cross-border non-

compliance cases

• Three institutions act as single contact points

• Single contact points get in contact with the respective competent

authorities and request inquiry on the specific case

• Deadlines for feedback

• Criteria for closing a case:

─ Case solved

─ Trader not reachable

─ Competent authority refuses to take measures

Food supplements with medicinal claims on bone and joint diseases(Art. 7 of Regulation (EU) 1169/2011)

Four different non-authorised novel foods- Agmatine (4-aminobutyl) guanidine sulfate- Acacia rigidula- Epimedium grandiflorum - Hoodia gordonii

Commission Recommendation on the first

coordinated control plan on eFoodSearch in MS official language web sites which offer:

EU Coordinated Control Plan- time line and participation

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4 weeks control period (September 2017)

Reporting period until 17 November 2017

25 Member States plus NO and CH participated

EU Coordinated Control Plan- websites and non-compliances

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1077 web sites checked

351 food supplements with medicinal claim

428 non-compliant novel foods

779 offers of non-compliant products

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EU Coordinated Control Plan- traders' location

482 offers from national traders (65%)

142 offers from traders located in otherEU Member States (20%)

110 offers from third country traders (US, CN, 15%)

EU Coordinated Control Plan- notifications

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139 RASFF (EU and third countries)

154 EU internal Administrative Assistanceand Cooperation System (AAC)

450 Cases handled nationally

36 Cases without health concern fromthird countries

Cooperation on eCommerce related cases

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Cooperation within the EU:- RASFF

- Administrative Assistance and Cooperation

Cooperation with third countries:- RASFF (need to react)

- Agreements for mutual cooperation and support oninternational level

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Proposals for a second coordinated control plan on eCommerce

- WG eCommerce on 16 April 2018

• Animal Health and Welfare: cats and dogs

• Age, vaccination, fraud

• Food products of protected designations of origin and protected

geographical indications (PDO-PGI)

• Fraud

• Food supplements a) with claims on the rate or amount of weight

loss and b) containing prohibited pharmacologically active

substances

• Health, fraud

• Product searches on RASFF notifications

• Health, increased enforcement

1• eCommerce control is a new task for official food control

2• EU competent authorities are capable to perform eCommerce

control

3• European Commission supports authorities of EU Member

States with various actions

CONCLUSION

4• Focus of official control on national eTraders

5• Cooperation between EU Member States well established (RASFF

and AAC)

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• In comparison to other sectors: eCommerce control of food is advanced and should be further supported by CCPs 7

• EC expects mutual support of competent authorities at international level on eCommerce cases

CONCLUSION

Thank you for your attention

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