Brussels, 11 December 2023
Today, the European Commission announced the winners of the 2023 EU Product Safety Award. The Award encourages and honours innovative business initiatives and research that enhance consumer safety beyond legal requirements. The practices of six companies’ initiatives and four research projects were celebrated for their outstanding contribution to consumers’ safety.
This year’s edition invited submissions from SMEs and larger companies, as well as early-career and senior researchers. The competition for businesses focused on initiatives that enhance the safety of young people. Researchers from any discipline whose work contributes to improve product safety were also invited to apply.
The winners of the 2023 Product Safety Award are:
SMEs
- GOLD AWARD: PUKY (Germany), for its Eightshot mountain bike designed specifically with teenagers’ safety in mind;
- SILVER AWARD: Onanoff (the Netherlands), for its innovative StoryPhones, offering a healthier alternative entertainment to screens;
- BRONZE AWARD: TerrainQ Solutions (Germany), for its Cart Guard algorithm, allowing consumers to identify safe offers when shopping online.
Large companies
- GOLD AWARD: VARTA (Germany), for the extensive safety features of its power banks, taking account of foreseeable product misuse;
- SILVER AWARD: Essity (Sweden) for its period pants for teenage girls, effectively combining sustainability and safety;
- BRONZE AWARD: Mega (Greece) for its innovative EveryDay sanitary pads and original educational campaigns.
Early career researchers
- GOLD AWARD: Eduard Fosch-Villaronga and Hadassah Drukarch for their innovative research on diversity in robot design, testbed, and safety standardisation.
Senior researchers
- GOLD AWARD: Frederik Dikkers, Tjark Ebels, Frans Ooms and Marnix Wagemaker for their patented invention of self-extinguishing button batteries;
- SILVER AWARDS (ex-aequo): Max Fuchs, Amit Jadhav, Advaith Jaishankar, Caroline Cauffman and Gerasimos Spanakis as well as Andreas Stöckl, Anna Maschek, Robert Bauer and Johanna Trauner-Karner for their research on the detection of product safety issues based on consumers’ online reviews (see here and here)
Background
Every two years, the EU Product Safety Award promotes innovative business initiatives that go the extra mile for consumers, thus raising the level of protection across Europe. In 2023, for the third edition, the award also honoured researchers working on consumer product safety. The competition was open to companies and researchers from EU Members States as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. Small and large businesses and researchers from 12 different European countries submitted applications. Following a preliminary screening, a jury panel of policy and safety experts selected the finalists in each category. Shortlisted companies were then screened against internationally recognised corporate social responsibility criteria.
The award offers the winners widespread recognition and positions them as product safety champions. The winning companies may use the award logo in their promotional activities. Researchers will have the opportunity to present their work at the flagship International Product Safety Week.