Cyber Resilience Act, Preamble 111 to 120 (Final Text)
(111) In certain cases, a product with digital elements which complies with this Regulation can nonetheless present a significant cybersecurity risk or pose a risk to the health or safety of persons, to compliance with obligations under Union or national law intended to protect fundamental rights, to the availability, authenticity, integrity or confidentiality of services offered using an electronic information system by essential entities as referred to in Article 3(1) of Directive (EU) 2022/2555 or to other aspects of public interest protection. Therefore it is necessary to establish rules which ensure mitigation of those risks.
As a result, market surveillance authorities should take measures to require the economic operator to ensure that the product no longer presents that risk, or to recall or withdraw it, depending on the risk. As soon as a market surveillance authority restricts or forbids the free movement of a product with digital elements in such way, the Member State should notify without delay the Commission and the other Member States of the provisional measures, indicating the reasons and justification for the decision.
Where a market surveillance authority adopts such measures against products with digital elements presenting a risk, the Commission should enter into consultation with the Member States and the relevant economic operator or operators without delay and should evaluate the national measure.
On the basis of the results of this evaluation, the Commission should decide whether the national measure is justified or not. The Commission should address its decision to all Member States and immediately communicate it to them and the relevant economic operator or operators. If the measure is considered to be justified, the Commission should also consider whether to adopt proposals to revise the relevant Union law.
(112) For products with digital elements presenting a significant cybersecurity risk, and where there is reason to believe that they do not comply with this Regulation, or for products that comply with this Regulation, but that present other important risks, such as risks to the health or safety of persons, to compliance with obligations under Union or national law intended to protect fundamental rights or to the availability, authenticity, integrity or confidentiality of services offered using an electronic information system by essential entities as referred to in Article 3(1) of Directive (EU) 2022/2555, the Commission should be able to request ENISA to carry out an evaluation. Based on that evaluation, the Commission should be able to adopt, by means of implementing acts, corrective or restrictive measures at Union level, including requiring the products with digital elements concerned to be withdrawn from the market or recalled, within a reasonable period, commensurate with the nature of the risk.
The Commission should be able to have recourse to such intervention only in exceptional circumstances that justify an immediate intervention to preserve the proper functioning of the internal market, and only where no effective measures have been taken by market surveillance authorities to remedy the situation.
Such exceptional circumstances may be emergency situations where, for example, a non-compliant product with digital elements is widely made available by the manufacturer throughout several Member States, used also in key sectors by entities that fall within the scope of Directive (EU) 2022/2555 while containing known vulnerabilities that are being exploited by malicious actors and for which the manufacturer does not provide available patches. The Commission should be able to intervene in such emergency situations only for the duration of the exceptional circumstances and if non-compliance with this Regulation or the important risks presented persist.
(113) Where there are indications of non-compliance with this Regulation in several Member States, market surveillance authorities should be able to carry out joint activities with other authorities, with a view to verifying compliance and identifying cybersecurity risks of products with digital elements.
(114) Simultaneous coordinated control actions (sweeps) are specific enforcement actions by market surveillance authorities that can further enhance product security. Sweeps should, in particular, be conducted where market trends, consumer complaints or other indications suggest that certain categories of products with digital elements are often found to present cybersecurity risks. Furthermore, when determining the product categories to be subjected to sweeps, market surveillance authorities should also take into account circumstances relating to non-technical risk factors.
To that end, market surveillance authorities should be able to take into account the results of Union level coordinated security risk assessments of critical supply chains carried out in accordance with Article 22 of Directive (EU) 2022/2555, including circumstances relating to non-technical risk factors. ENISA should submit proposals for categories of products with digital elements for which sweeps could be organised to the market surveillance authorities, based, inter alia, on the notifications of vulnerabilities and incidents it receives.
(115) In light of its expertise and mandate, ENISA should be able to support the process for implementation of this Regulation. In particular, ENISA should be able to propose joint activities to be conducted by market surveillance authorities based on indications or information regarding potential non-compliance with this Regulation of products with digital elements across several Member States or identify categories of products for which sweeps should be organised.
In exceptional circumstances, ENISA should be able, at the request of the Commission, to conduct evaluations in respect of specific products with digital elements that present a significant cybersecurity risk, where an immediate intervention is required to preserve the proper functioning of the internal market.
(116) This Regulation confers certain tasks upon ENISA which require appropriate resources in terms of both expertise and human resources in order to enable ENISA to carry out those tasks effectively. The Commission will propose the necessary budgetary resources for ENISA’s establishment plan, in accordance with the procedure set out in Article 29 of Regulation (EU) 2019/881, when preparing the draft general budget of the Union. During that process, the Commission will consider ENISA’s overall resources to enable it to fulfil its tasks, including those conferred on ENISA pursuant to this Regulation.
(117) In order to ensure that the regulatory framework can be adapted where necessary, the power to adopt acts in accordance with Article 290 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) should be delegated to the Commission in respect of updating an annex to this Regulation listing the important products with digital elements.
Power to adopt acts in accordance with that Article should be delegated to the Commission to identify products with digital elements covered by other Union rules which achieve the same level of protection as this Regulation, specifying whether a limitation or exclusion from the scope of this Regulation would be necessary as well as the scope of that limitation, if applicable.
Power to adopt acts in accordance with that Article should also be delegated to the Commission in respect of the potential mandating of certification under a European cybersecurity certification scheme of the critical products with digital elements set out in an annex to this Regulation, as well as for updating the list of critical products with digital elements based on criticality criteria set out in this Regulation, and for specifying the European cybersecurity certification schemes adopted pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2019/881 that can be used to demonstrate conformity with the essential cybersecurity requirements or parts thereof as set out in an annex to this Regulation.
Power to adopt acts should also be delegated to the Commission to specify the minimum support period for specific product categories where the market surveillance data suggests inadequate support periods, as well as to specify the terms and conditions for applying the cybersecurity-related grounds in relation to delaying the dissemination of notifications of actively exploited vulnerabilities.
Furthermore, power to adopt acts should be delegated to the Commission to establish voluntary security attestation programmes for assessing the conformity of products with digital elements qualifying as free and open-source software with all or certain essential cybersecurity requirements or other obligations laid down in this Regulation, as well as to specify the minimum content of the EU declaration of conformity and to supplement the elements to be included in the technical documentation.
It is of particular importance that the Commission carry out appropriate consultations during its preparatory work, including at expert level, and that those consultations be conducted in accordance with the principles laid down in the Interinstitutional Agreement of 13 April 2016 on Better Law-Making.
In particular, to ensure equal participation in the preparation of delegated acts, the European Parliament and the Council receive all documents at the same time as Member States’ experts, and their experts systematically have access to meetings of Commission expert groups dealing with the preparation of delegated acts. The power to adopt delegated acts pursuant to this Regulation should be conferred on the Commission for a period of five years from 10 December 2024.
The Commission should draw up a report in respect of the delegation of power not later than nine months before the end of the five-year period. The delegation of power should be tacitly extended for periods of an identical duration, unless the European Parliament or the Council opposes such extension not later than three months before the end of each period.
(118) In order to ensure uniform conditions for the implementation of this Regulation, implementing powers should be conferred on the Commission to specify the technical description of the categories of important products with digital elements set out in an annex to this Regulation, specify the format and elements of the SBOM, specify further the format and procedure of the notifications of actively exploited vulnerabilities and severe incidents having an impact on the security of products with digital elements submitted by manufacturers, establish common specifications covering technical requirements that provide a means to comply with the essential cybersecurity requirements set out in an annex to this Regulation, lay down technical specifications for labels, pictograms or any other marks related to the security of the products with digital elements, their support period and mechanisms to promote their use and to increase public awareness about the security of products with digital elements, specify the simplified documentation form targeted at the needs of microenterprises and small enterprises, and decide on corrective or restrictive measures at Union level in exceptional circumstances which justify an immediate intervention to preserve the proper functioning of the internal market. Those powers should be exercised in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council.
(119) In order to ensure trusting and constructive cooperation of market surveillance authorities at Union and national level, all parties involved in the application of this Regulation should respect the confidentiality of information and data obtained in carrying out their tasks.
(120) In order to ensure effective enforcement of the obligations laid down in this Regulation, each market surveillance authority should have the power to impose or request the imposition of administrative fines. Maximum levels for administrative fines to be provided for in national law for non-compliance with the obligations laid down in this Regulation should therefore be established. When deciding on the amount of the administrative fine in each individual case, all relevant circumstances of the specific situation should be taken into account and, as a minimum, those explicitly established in this Regulation, including whether the manufacturer is a microenterprise or a small or medium-sized enterprise, including a start-up, and whether administrative fines have been already applied by the same or other market surveillance authorities to the same economic operator for a similar infringement.
Such circumstances could be either aggravating, in situations where the infringement by the same economic operator persists on the territory of Member States other than that where an administrative fine has already been applied, or mitigating, in ensuring that any other administrative fine considered by another market surveillance authority for the same economic operator or the same type of infringement should already take account, along with other relevant specific circumstances, of a penalty and the quantum thereof imposed in other Member States. In all such cases, the cumulative administrative fine that could be applied by market surveillance authorities of several Member States to the same economic operator for the same type of infringement should ensure the respect of the principle of proportionality.
Given that administrative fines do not apply to microenterprises or small enterprises for a failure to meet the 24-hour deadline for the early warning notification of actively exploited vulnerabilities or severe incidents having an impact on the security of the product with digital elements, nor to open-source software stewards for any infringement of this Regulation, and subject to the principle that penalties should be effective, proportionate and dissuasive, Member States should not impose other kinds of penalties with pecuniary character on those entities.
Cyber Resilience Act Final Text
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