Union Network Against Forced Labour Products
1. A Union Network Against Forced Labour Products (the Network) is hereby established.
2. The Network shall serve as a platform for structured coordination and cooperation between the competent authorities of the Member States and the Commission, and for streamlining the enforcement of this Regulation, within the Union, thereby making enforcement more effective and coherent.
3. The Network shall be composed of representatives from each Member State, representatives from the Commission and, where appropriate, representatives from customs authorities.
4. The Commission shall coordinate the work of the Network. A representative from the Commission shall chair the meetings of the Network.
5. The secretariat of the Network shall be provided by the Commission. The secretariat shall organise the meetings of the Network and provide it with technical and logistical support.
6. Members of the Network shall participate actively to ensure efficient coordination and cooperation, and to contribute to the uniform implementation of this Regulation.
7. The Network shall have the following tasks:
(a)
to facilitate the identification of common enforcement priorities in order to achieve the objective of this Regulation as set out in Article 1;
(b)
to facilitate the coordination of investigations;
(c)
to follow-up on the enforcement of decisions referred to in Article 20;
(d)
upon request from the Commission, to contribute to the development of guidelines referred to in Article 11;
(e)
to facilitate and coordinate the collection and exchange of information, expertise and best practices with regard to the implementation of this Regulation;
(f)
to contribute to uniform risk-based approaches and administrative practices for the implementation of this Regulation;
(g)
to promote best practices in the application of penalties provided for in Article 37;
(h)
to cooperate, as appropriate, with the relevant Commission services, Union bodies, offices and agencies and Member State authorities on the implementation of this Regulation,
(i)
to promote the cooperation, exchange of personnel and visiting programmes among competent authorities and customs authorities, as well as among those competent authorities and competent authorities of third countries and international organisations;
(j)
to facilitate the organisation of training and capacity building activities, regarding the implementation of this Regulation, for the Commission and Union delegations in third countries and competent authorities, customs authorities and other relevant authorities of Member States;
(k)
upon request from the Commission, to provide assistance to the Commission on the development of a coordinated approach to engagement and cooperation with third countries pursuant to Article 13;
(l)
to monitor situations of systemic use of forced labour;
(m)
to assist in the organisation of information and awareness-raising campaigns on this Regulation;
(n)
to promote and facilitate collaboration with regard to exploring possibilities for using new technologies for the enforcement of this Regulation and the traceability of products;
(o)
to collect data on remediation linked to the decisions and evaluation of their effectiveness.
8. Other relevant Member State authorities may attend meetings of the Network on an ad hoc basis. Experts and stakeholders, including representatives from trade unions and other workers’ organisations, civil society and human rights organisations, business organisations, international organisations, relevant authorities of third countries, the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, the European Labour Authority, the relevant Commission services, Union delegations and Union bodies, offices and agencies with expertise in the areas covered by this Regulation may be invited to attend meetings of the Network or to provide written contributions.
9. The Network shall meet at regular intervals and, where necessary, at the duly motivated request of the Commission or a Member State.
10. The Commission and the Member States shall ensure that the Network has the necessary resources to carry out the tasks referred to in paragraph 7, including sufficient budgetary resources.
11. The Network shall establish its rules of procedure.
Information and communication systems
1. For the purposes of Chapters I, III, IV and V of this Regulation, the Commission and competent authorities shall use the information and communication system referred to in Article 34 of Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 in accordance with the implementing act referred to in paragraph 7, point (a), of this Article. The Commission, competent authorities and customs authorities shall have access to that system for the purposes of this Regulation.
2. Decisions communicated pursuant to Article 26(3) shall be entered in the relevant customs risk management environment.
3. The Commission shall develop an interconnection to enable the automated communication of the decisions referred to in Article 26(3) from the information and communication system referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article to the environment referred to in paragraph 2 of this Article. That interconnection shall start operating no later than 2 years from the date of the adoption of the implementing act referred to in paragraph 7, point (b), of this Article.
4. Requests and notifications between competent authorities and customs authorities pursuant to Chapter V, Section II, as well as the ensuing messages shall be exchanged via the information and communication system referred to in paragraph 1.
5. An interconnection between the information and communication system referred to in paragraph 1 and the EU Single Window Environment for Customs shall be established in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2022/2399 for the purposes of exchanging requests and notifications between customs and competent authorities pursuant to Chapter V, Section II of this Regulation. That interconnection shall be established at the latest within 4 years from the date of adoption of the implementing act referred to in paragraph 7, point (a). The requests, notifications and ensuing messages referred to in paragraph 4 shall be exchanged through that interconnection as soon as it is operational.
6. The Commission may extract, from the surveillance system referred to in Article 56(1) of Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/2447, information on products entering or leaving the Union market related to the implementation of this Regulation and transmit it to the information and communication system referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article.
7. The Commission may adopt implementing acts to specify the procedural rules and the details of the implementation arrangements for this Article, including:
(a)
the functionalities, data elements and data processing, as well as the rules on the processing of personal data, confidentiality and controllership of the information and communication system referred to in paragraph 1;
(b)
the functionalities, data elements and data processing, as well as the rules on the processing of personal data, confidentiality and controllership for the interconnection referred to in paragraph 3;
(c)
the data to be transmitted, as well as the rules on its confidentiality and controllership, in accordance with paragraph 6.
Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 35(2).
Database of forced labour risk areas or products
1. The Commission shall establish a database, with the assistance of external expertise if needed. This database shall provide indicative, non-exhaustive, evidence-based, verifiable and regularly updated information on forced labour risks in specific geographic areas or with respect to specific products or product groups, including with regard to forced labour imposed by state authorities. The database shall prioritise the identification of widespread and severe forced labour risks.
2. The database referred to in paragraph 1 shall be based on independent and verifiable information from international organisations, in particular the ILO and the UN, or institutional, research or academic organisations.
The database shall not publicly disclose information that names economic operators directly.
The database shall indicate specific economic sectors in specific geographic areas for which there is reliable and verifiable evidence that forced labour imposed by state authorities exists.
3. The Commission shall ensure that the database is easily accessible, including for persons with disabilities, and made publicly available, in all official languages of the institutions of the Union, by 14 June 2026.
Single information submission point
1. The Commission shall set up a dedicated centralised mechanism for the submission of information (single information submission point). The single information submission point shall be available in all official languages of the institutions of the Union. It shall be user-friendly and made available free of charge.
2. Information on alleged violations of Article 3 shall be submitted via the single information submission point by any natural or legal person or any association that does not have a legal personality. Submissions of information shall contain information on the economic operators or products concerned, provide the reasons and evidence substantiating the alleged violations, and where possible, supporting documents. The Commission may adopt implementing acts to specify the procedural rules, templates and details in relation to those submissions of information. Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 35(2).
3. The Commission shall discard any submissions of information to the single information submission point that are manifestly incomplete, unfounded or made in bad faith and distribute the retained submissions of information for assessment by the lead competent authority according to the method for the allocation of investigations set out in Article 15.
4. The lead competent authority in charge of the assessment referred to in paragraph 3 shall acknowledge receipt of the submission of information, diligently and impartially assess the information and inform the natural or legal person or association concerned of the outcome of the assessment of its submission of information as soon as possible.
5. The lead competent authority may ask the person or association referred to in paragraph 2 to provide additional information.
6. In cases where there is a significant lapse of time between the submission of information to the single information submission point and a decision to proceed with an investigation pursuant to Chapter III, the lead competent authority shall, to the extent possible, consult the person or association submitting the information to verify whether the situation has, to the best of their knowledge, changed significantly.
7. Directive (EU) 2019/1937 shall apply to the reporting of breaches of this Regulation and the protection of persons reporting such breaches.
Support measures for SMEs
The Commission shall develop accompanying measures to support the efforts of economic operators and their business partners in the same supply chain, in particular SMEs. Where appropriate, information on those measures shall be made available through the Forced Labour Single Portal referred to in Article 12.
Competent authorities shall designate contact points to provide information to SMEs regarding matters related to the application of this Regulation. Those contact points may also provide assistance to SMEs on those matters.
Member States’ competent authorities may also organise training sessions for economic operators on forced labour risk indicators and on how to engage in dialogue with those competent authorities throughout an investigation.
Guidelines
The Commission, in consultation with relevant stakeholders, shall make available, by 14 June 2026, and regularly update, guidelines which shall include the following:
(a)
guidance for economic operators on due diligence in relation to forced labour, including forced child labour, which shall take into account applicable Union and national law, setting out due diligence requirements with respect to forced labour, guidelines and recommendations from international organisations, as well as the size and economic resources of economic operators, different types of suppliers along the supply chain, and different sectors;
(b)
guidance for economic operators on best practices for bringing to an end and remediating different types of forced labour;
(c)
guidance for competent authorities on the practical implementation of this Regulation, in particular Articles 8, 17 and 18, including benchmarks for assisting competent authorities in their risk-based assessments in the context of investigations and guidelines on the applicable standard of evidence;
(d)
guidance for customs authorities and economic operators on the practical implementation of Article 27 and, where appropriate, any other provision laid down in Chapter V, Section II;
(e)
information on the risk indicators of forced labour, including how to identify such indicators, which shall be based on independent and verifiable information, including reports from international organisations, in particular the ILO, civil society, business organisations and trade unions, and on experience from implementing Union law setting out due diligence requirements regarding forced labour;
(f)
guidance for economic operators on due diligence in relation to forced labour imposed by state authorities;
(g)
guidance for economic operators and product suppliers on how to engage in dialogue with competent authorities pursuant to Chapter III, in particular on the type of information to be submitted;
(h)
guidance on how to submit information pursuant to Article 9;
(i)
guidance for Member States on the method for calculating financial penalties and the applicable thresholds;
(j)
further information to facilitate the competent authorities’ implementation of and the economic operator’s compliance with this Regulation.
The guidance referred to in points (a), (b) and (f), shall focus in particular on assisting SMEs to comply with this Regulation.
The guidelines referred to in the first paragraph shall be consistent with guidelines provided in accordance with other relevant Union law.
Forced Labour Single Portal
The Commission shall establish and regularly update a single website (Forced Labour Single Portal), making available to the public, in the same place and in all the official languages of the institutions of the Union, the following items:
(a)
the names, addresses and contact details of the competent authorities;
(b)
the guidelines;
(c)
the database;
(d)
a list of publicly available information sources of relevance for the implementation of this Regulation, including sources which make disaggregated data available on the impact and victims of forced labour, such as gender-disaggregated data or data about forced child labour, allowing age and gender-specific trends to be identified;
(e)
the single information submission point;
(f)
any decision to ban a product;
(g)
any withdrawal of a ban;
(h)
the result of reviews.
International Cooperation
1. In order to facilitate the effective implementation and enforcement of this Regulation, the Commission shall, as appropriate, cooperate and exchange information with the authorities of third countries, international organisations, civil society representatives, trade unions, business organisations and other relevant stakeholders.
2. International cooperation with the authorities of third countries shall take place in a structured way, for example in the context of existing dialogues with third countries, such as human rights and political dialogues, dialogues on the implementation of the trade and sustainable development commitments of trade agreements or the Generalised Scheme of Preferences, and Union development cooperation initiatives. If necessary, specific dialogues may be created on an ad hoc basis. International cooperation may involve exchanges of information on forced labour risk areas or products, of best practices for bringing forced labour to an end, and of information on decisions to ban products, including their reasons and evidence, in particular with third countries that have similar legislation in place.
3. For the purposes of paragraph 2, the Commission and Member States may consider the development of cooperation initiatives and accompanying measures to support the efforts of economic operators, in particular SMEs, as well as civil society organisations, social partners and third countries to tackle forced labour and its root causes.
Source: EUR-Lex (Publications Office of the EU), © European Union, reuse permitted under Commission Decision 2011/833/EU.
