EU Safety Gate: what the rapid alert system is and where its public data lives

Safety Gate, also called RAPEX, is the rapid alert system the European Union has introduced for non-food products which pose a risk to consumers or professional users. According to the dataset page on data.europa.eu, summaries of the alerts are published on the Safety Gate website right after the Commission has validated them, and a weekly report goes up on that website every Friday.

What the system does

The data.europa.eu page describes what passes through the system: information is rapidly exchanged and published on measures taken to prevent or restrict the marketing or use of non-food, non-pharmaceutical or non-medical products or devices. Publication of those summaries is where the public record appears, since they are published immediately after having been validated by the Commission on the Safety Gate website.

Two more points come from the same page. The system is available in 25 languages: the EU official languages, Norwegian and Icelandic. And it is possible to make a personalised subscription to the weekly reports in one of those 25 available languages.

Where the public data lives

The dataset page lists its distributions by title and format:

• Search for alerts
• Weekly reports of alerts published on Safety Gate
• Safety Gate alerts statistics and annual reports
• Subscription to receive the weekly report by email
• Weekly Reports - XML format
• Weekly Reports - Excel Format

Only the titles and formats are listed here; the content behind each distribution was not opened.

The page also carries a disclaimer that United Kingdom data run until 31/12/2020.

Where Safety Gate fits

The European Commission's market surveillance page describes the wider framework that this alerting sits in. It says market surveillance ensures that non-food products on the EU market do not endanger European consumers and workers, and that it includes actions such as product withdrawals, recalls and the application of sanctions to stop the circulation of non-compliant products and/or bring them into compliance.

That page says Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 applies to more than 70 regulations and directives that harmonise at EU-level requirements on non-food products to protect consumers, health and safety, the environment and other public interests. It adds that Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 replaced the market surveillance provisions of Regulation (EC) No 765/2008 as of 16 July 2021.

Using the alerts when buying from China

If you import a product type from China, you can search the alerts for that product and read what risk and what measure each alert names. Keep the reading proportionate: an alert concerns a specific product, not a country or a supplier.

Sources

• Safety Gate (the EU rapid alert system – non-food), European Commission, Directorate-General for Justice and Consumers (data.europa.eu)
• Market surveillance, European Commission (DG GROW)

Checked 11 October 2026. This page is an unofficial summary and is not affiliated with the European Commission or any EU body; the official text governs.