Appendix I Definitions in this project

A website or an app

In this manual, “online platform” is a service using an online interface which allows buyers (consumers and professionals) to conclude contracts with traders (sellers) for the sale of products.

 

Marketplaces and social media are included in the definition.

 

An online platform can be equated with a mall where those who sell the products correspond to the traders. The online platform shall indicate who the trader is for each product. Unlike dropshipping traders, it is the individual seller who sets the price of the product.

A marketplace is a platform who intermediates products to consumers

- Classic web shop

- Dropshipping

Anyone that offers a product for sale online (i.e. places on the market). Online traders are responsible operators who either have their own inventory (classic web shop) or are dropshipping.

 

This term can also be equivalent with supplier, seller or web shop.

 

Note that a trader could be also selling in an online platform.

 

In DSA: “traders means any natural person, or any legal person irrespective of whether it is privately or publicly owned, who is acting, including through any person acting in his or her name or on his or her behalf, for purposes relating to his or her trade, business, craft or profession.”

The manufacturer, the authorized representative, the importer, the distributor, the fulfilment service provider or any other natural or legal person who is subject to obligations in relation to the manufacture of products, making them available on the market or putting them into service in accordance with the relevant Union harmonization legislation.

Not a legal term. Used generally when an economic operator subject to obligations is not determined. It is used to refer to the company (or private person) behind the online platform/trader

Any natural or legal person offering, in the course of commercial activity, at least two of the following services: warehousing, packaging, addressing and dispatching, without having ownership of the products involved, excluding postal services

Any natural or legal person who manufactures a product or has a product designed or manufactured and markets that product under its name or trademark.

Any natural or legal person established within the Union who places a product from a third country on the Union market.

Any natural or legal person in the supply chain, other than the manufacturer or the importer, who makes a product available on the market

The REACH definition of articles is: “an object which during production is given a special shape, surface or design which determines its function to a greater degree than does its chemical composition.” Examples are dolls, clothes, electrical products, home styling products, sports equipment, bags, jewellery, gifts etc.

Chemical substances and mixtures

Actors can check documentation, test reports, labelling, declaration of Conformity (DoC) and also do random chemical analyses

In this report, we use the word products as a collective term for all types of products investigated (chemical products and articles).

The Information and Communication System on Market Surveillance (ICSMS) is an IT platform to facilitate communication between market surveillance bodies in EU and EFTA countries. It quickly and efficiently shares information on non-compliant products, avoids duplication of work and speeds up the removal of unsafe products from the market.

Failure to comply with any requirement in legislation.

Any measure aimed at preventing a product in the supply chain from being made available on the market.