Europe Plans to Ban Goods Made with Forced Labor

The European Commission (EC) presented on September 14th its final proposal for a ban on forced labor products. The proposed model is based primarily on a system of investigations carried out by national authorities of all products placed on the EU market. National authorities will be empowered to withdraw products manufactured with forced labor from the EU market, including detaining any con-compliant product at customs.

The objective of the proposal is to prohibit economic operators from introducing, and placing on the EU market, products made with forced labor. The proposal makes it clear that the upcoming rules will not cover the withdrawal of products that have reached end-users. 

The system will be based on a preliminary risk-based approach carried out by competent authorities in which producers and traders, including in third countries, will be asked to provide all the information required to assess risks of forced labor.

Authorities will start detailed investigations on products for which there are well-founded suspicions that they have been made with forced labor. If authorities are unable to gather all the evidence due to lack of cooperation from a company or a non-EU country, they will be able to make the decision on the basis of the facts available. Competent authorities will analyze all actors involved in value chains but will pay more attention to operators close to where the risk of forced labor is likely to occur.

Any economic operator requested by the competent authority to provide information must respond within 15 days of receipt of the request. The competent authority then has 30 days to conclude whether there is a link to forced labor. If, following the risk assessment, the competent authorities determine that there is a risk of forced labor, they will order the withdrawal of the product from the market.

How Does this Compare to US Forced Labor regulation?

The EU legislation discusses forced labor on a global scale and not just a specific region or country. With the EU import ban, member states would have flexibility in implementation and enforcement. Regardless of local rules and regulations, US Forced Labor Regulation is applied on the federal level.

Also, US Forced Labor Regulation has a rebuttable presumption, which presumes forced labor, and not origin of materials. If companies can produce evidence that their product did not pass through at-risk regions, and/or that their product was not made using forced labor, the company can contest the detention, either on the grounds of applicability or admissibility.

The entry into force of the proposed EU regulation is currently estimated for 2024 – 2025 as the proposal still needs to go through the ordinary EU legislative procedure, which includes an adoption of the proposal by both the EC and the European Parliament.