Notice on Strengthening Control of Biocide Products

Dear AliExpress sellers,

The world is now at a critical stage of fighting against the novel coronavirus COVID-19. Biocide products are playing a positive and key role in curbing the spread of the virus, which results in huge public demand for biocide products. To address the rising demand for biocide products globally and provide high-quality and safe products for consumers, the platform will strengthen its control of the biocide products sold on AliExpress to the EU, UK, and US markets, starting in mid-October 2020. The specific requirements are as follows:

I. Scope

1.     In the US: Biocide products refer to hand sanitizers (including instant hand sanitizers, hand gels, etc.) and wipes subject to the regulation of the FDA that are used on skin and hands for sterilization and anti-bacterial purposes;

2.     In the EU and the UK: Biocide products refer to biocidal products subject to the Biocidal Product Regulation (BPR) [Regulation (EU) 528/2012] that are used for human hygiene purposes in private and public areas, such as hand sanitizers, instant hand gel and other disinfectants.

The eight sub-categories involved in initial control include:

• Home & Garden >> Household Merchandises >> Household Cleaning Chemicals >> All-Purpose Cleaner
• Home & Garden >> Household Merchandises >> Household Cleaning Tools & Accessories >> Disinfectant Wipes
• Home & Garden >> Household Merchandises >> Household Cleaning Tools & Accessories >> Paper Towels
• Beauty & Health >> Skin Care >> Hands & Nails >> Hand Soaps
• Beauty & Health >> Bath & Shower >> Soap
• Beauty & Health >> Sanitary Paper>> Wet Wipes
• Mother & Kids >> Baby Care >> Baby Care Tools>> Baby Wet Wipes
• Mother & Kids >> Baby Care >> Baby Skin Care >> Baby Hand Soaps

Note: When posting a product in any of the above sub-categories, the merchant shall first clarify the specific functions of the product and tick the checkboxes for the corresponding functional attributes, e.g., Kill Germs/Disinfection/Remove Germs/Antimicrobial/Bacteriostatic/Cleaning (multiple choice), according to the product's actual characteristics. Product functional attributes are expected to become available in mid-October 2020. As from the date of availability, merchants will be required to select functional attributes for their products before posting any products in the aforementioned sub-categories; otherwise, product posting will not be allowed. Selecting any functional attributes other than cleaning shall comply with the following control requirements.

II. Requirements

Upon launch of the product functional attributes, the platform will start to control newly published and edited biocide products from mid-October 2020. For biocide products for export to the EU and the UK, the merchants shall submit qualified label images in relevant foreign languages, and shall not claim their products have efficacy in treating or preventing specific pathogens. The platform will review and clear the inventory of goods starting from mid-November 2020. The goods that fail to pass the review will be banned from the UK market first. Please upload the label images in foreign languages in time. Specific requirements are as follows:

Products marketed in the EU and the UK must bear the label image in the local language (English for the UK), which contains at least the content of the active ingredients, instructions and warnings. For more information about the labeling for biocide products, refer to: https://www.hse.gov.uk/biocide/eu-bpr/packaging-labelling-requirements.htm.

The labels of biocide products are not allowed to indicate "low-risk", "non-toxic", "harmless", "natural", "environmental-friendly", "animal friendly" and other similar terms. In addition, the labels shall not contain statements about surgical and medical uses or efficacy in treating certain pathogen-related infections, for example killing escherichia coli, candida albicans, staphylococcus aureus, novel coronavirus, SAS virus, SARS-COV-2, etc.

Furthermore, the platform prohibits the sale of biocide products recalled by the US FDA and Health Canada. The merchants should pay close attention to the list of biocide products recalled by the FDA and Health Canada for any updates and avoid selling the recalled products:

• List of biocide products recalled by the US FDA
• List of biocide products recalled by Health Canada

III. Violations and punishments

1.      Commodities that fail to meet the above requirements will be banned from the US and/or UK markets on the platform.

2.      For commodities that are miscategorized and/or assigned incorrect functional attributes to evade controls, corresponding punishments will be imposed as follows:

For the first-time violation, the commodities will be pulled off the shelf with no points deducted. The commodities will be removed from the platform for the second-time violation. For a merchant who evades the controls maliciously more than once, its commodities will be removed from the platform with two points deducted.

3.     Merchants who sell recalled goods will have their commodities removed from the platform with two points deducted.

4.     For merchants who have submitted false label information or used others' label information as verified by investigation, their commodities will be removed from the platform with six points deducted.
 

Stores engaged in severe violations of the platform regulations will be penalized in accordance with the AliExpress Rules on Handling Severe Disruption of Platform Order:
Serious violation: 12 points/time, freezing the AliExpress account for seven days
Extremely Serious violation: 48 points/time, closing the AliExpress account

Thank you for your attention and support.

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For more information about the export regulations for biocide products, refer to:
https://sell.aliexpress.com/__pc/9uLHstnowA.htm

AliExpress

September 27, 2020