Brussels: The European Product Act missed its planned 6 October 2026 presentation, and a leaked draft now shows how far the Commission wants to go on online marketplaces, imports and enforcement. The office of industry chief Stéphane Séjourné told MLex on 29 September that the proposal will come “later this year”, together with changes to sector-specific laws. The delay leaves businesses studying a text that may still change.

The leaked draft would merge the New Legislative Framework and market surveillance rules into one regulation that applies directly in all member states, according to an analysis by law firm Osborne Clarke. It would replace Decision 768/2008, Regulation 765/2008 and Regulation (EU) 2019/1020, and it leaves food and feed outside its scope.

Online marketplaces carry the heaviest new duties in the European Product Act draft. They must check that a product has a valid digital product passport before listing it, and they must remove an unsafe listing within two working days of an order. If a product reaches buyers without an EU-based economic operator and the marketplace skipped its checks, the platform takes on the duties of an authorised representative.

The draft also gives the Commission direct powers. Where a third-country product poses a risk and no member state acts after a Commission notification, Brussels could order recalls, distribution bans and takedowns. Penalties would run from 1 percent to 6 percent of worldwide annual turnover, and CEP Research reported on 12 October that the draft also proposes a new surveillance fee on imports.

The scale of the problem explains why the European Product Act aims so high. The Parliament’s research service notes that low-value parcels rose from 1.4 billion in 2022 to 4.6 billion in 2024, and that the Safety Gate system logged 4,671 alerts on dangerous non-food products in 2025. Of the alerts on goods from outside the European Economic Area, 2,006 concerned products from China.

Enforcement capacity has not kept up, the same briefing on the European Product Act shows. A 2025 control action on toys and small electronics found 55 percent of products non-compliant and 84 percent of tested items dangerous. Customs checks fell to 82 per million imports in 2024 from 203 in 2022 as shipments multiplied.

Industry now needs to prepare for a digital shift under the European Product Act. The draft would require manufacturers to keep a digital product passport and technical documentation for 10 years, and it moves CE marking toward a digital format after a transition period. Marketplaces, importers and EU-based responsible persons would all need new systems, and the draft also mentions professional liability insurance for authorised representatives.

Parliament will keep up the pressure. Its Internal Market Committee holds a public hearing on the forthcoming European Product Act on 15 October, with online sales, circularity and market surveillance on the agenda. Until the Commission publishes its formal text, every figure in the leak remains provisional, so companies should treat the draft as a warning of direction and not as final law.