Market Surveillance are the activities carried out by public authorities to ensure that products comply with the requirements set out in the relevant legislation. These actions strengthen health, safety and other aspects of the public interest, like consumer protection and a level playing field for businesses.
Standardization and conformity assessment are important elements of the market surveillance of technical products.
The General Product Safety Directive (GPSD) EC 95/2001 gives general minimum requirements for market surveillance of non-food consumer products.
The new EC Regulation no. 765/2008 of 9 July 2008, part of the Goods Package/New Legal Framework, specifies market surveillance as one of the instruments for opening and regulating the Single European Market.
However, this harmonized legislation will be ineffective if the market surveillance activities are not coordinated on a European level.
The project 'Enhancing Market Surveillance through Best Practice (EMARS)' aims to ensure a basic level of expertise and practical experience in most of the market surveillance organizations of Member States within the European Economic Area. One of the main goals of this project is to achieve a more harmonized approach. The project is supported by the European Commission and the EFTA Secretariat provides the office space for the EMARS Secretariat.
EMARS is a project of the Product Safety Enforcement Forum of Europe (PROSAFE), an organization that brings together enforcement officers from throughout Europe who deal with the safety of consumer products.