Recital 48

(48)Where the lead competent authority establishes that economic operators have violated the prohibition of products made with forced labour, it should without delay prohibit the placing and making available of such products on the Union market and their export from the Union, and require the economic operators that have been investigated to withdraw the products concerned already made available from the Union market and donate perishable products to charitable or public interest causes. In the case of non-perishable products, economic operators should recycle such products, and if that is not possible, they should have the product destroyed, rendered inoperable, or otherwise disposed of in accordance with national law in compliance with Union law, including Union law on waste management. Nevertheless, particular attention should be paid to preventing disruptions to supply chains of strategic or critical importance for the Union and, in this regard, to products, the disposal of which would alter the proper functioning of the internal market and of such supply chains. In those cases, by way of derogation from the obligation to impose an order to have the product concerned disposed of, the lead competent authority should, where appropriate, be able to order the product concerned to be withheld for a defined period, at the cost of the economic operators. When assessing the strategic or critical importance of a product for the Union, the lead competent authority should, in particular, take into account the list of sectors established in the Regulation (EU) 2024/1735 of the European Parliament and of the Council ¹⁶ and the Commission Recommendation (EU) 2023/2113 ¹⁷ as well as the products listed in the Regulation (EU) 2024/1252 of the European Parliament and of the Council ¹⁸ . When assessing whether a derogation from the obligation to impose an order of disposal is appropriate, the lead competent authority should bear in mind the likelihood of the economic operators concerned complying with the conditions for the review of the decision establishing a violation of the prohibition of products made with forced labour within the period defined by the lead competent authority. The period set by the lead competent authority would allow the economic operators concerned to demonstrate that they have eliminated forced labour with regard to the product concerned, by having brought it to an end within their supply chain. Changing a supply chain, in the sense of relying on different suppliers, cannot be considered as a method of eliminating forced labour regarding the product concerned by that decision, since it would result in a different product. If the economic operators concerned provide the evidence demonstrating that they have eliminated forced labour with regard to the product concerned, the lead competent authority should review its decision prohibiting the placing and making available of such products on the Union market, leading to its withdrawal, and therefore lift the withholding of the products concerned. If the economic operators concerned do not provide such evidence, they should comply with the order to dispose of the products concerned after the expiry of the period included in the decision prohibiting the placing and making available of such products on the Union market, which contains the order to withhold the products for a defined period.