S.L. 419.6 Art. 1Citation. Interpretation. Applicability. Notification point.

The title of these regulations is the Notification Procedure Regulations. For the purposes of these regulations all the definitions of 2. the Act shall apply, and in addition: "competent authority" means any public authority or agency which prescribe any:

(a) technical regulations; and, or

(b) rules on information services:

Provided that the Authority may identify those local or regional councils which have to notify technical regulations and, when this is the case, the Authority shall submit a list of these local or regional councils to the European Commission; "draft standard" means a document containing the text of the technical specifications concerning a given subject, which is being considered for adoption in accordance with the national standards procedure, as that document stands after the preparatory work and as circulated for public comment or scrutiny; "draft technical regulation" means the text of a technical specification or other requirement or of a rule on services, including administrative provisions formulated with the aim of enacting it or of ultimately having it enacted as a technical regulation, the text being at a stage of preparation at which substantial amendments can still be made, and, in any case, prior to the submission of the text for signature by the Minister into whose portfolio the competent authority drawing up the text falls; "European standardization body" is a body referred to in Schedule I; "national standardization body" is a body referred to in Schedule II; "other requirements" means a requirement other than a technical specification, imposed on a product for the purpose of protecting, in particular, consumers or the environment, and which affects its life cycle after it has been placed on the market, such as conditions of use, recycling, reuse or disposal where such conditions can significantly influence the composition or nature of the product or its marketing; "product" means any industrially manufactured product and any agricultural product, including fish products; "rule on services" means a requirement of general nature relating to the taking-up and pursuit of service activities within the meaning of the definition of "service" in this regulation, in particular provisions concerning the service provider, the services and the recipient of services, excluding any rules which are not specifically aimed at the services defined in that point; "service" means any information society service, that is to say, any service normally provided for remuneration, at a distance, by electronic means and at the individual request of a recipient of services.

For the purposes of this definition:

(a) "at a distance" means that the service is provided without the parties being simultaneously present;

(b) "by electronic means" means that the service is sent initially and received at its destination by means of electronic equipment for the processing (including digital compression) and storage of data, and entirely transmitted, conveyed and received by wire, by radio, by optical means or by other electromagnetic means;

(c) "at the individual request of a recipient of services" means that the service is provided through the transmission of data on individual request.

An indicative list of services not covered by this definition is set out in Schedule III;

"standard" means a technical specification approved by a recognized standardization body for repeated or continuous application, with which compliance is not compulsory and which is one of the following:

(a) international standards: that is, a standard adopted by an international standardization organization and made available to the public;

(b) European standard: a standard adopted by a European standardization body and made available to the public;

(c) national standard: a standard adopted by a national standardization body and made available to the public; "standards programme", a work programme of a recognized standardization body listing the subjects on which standardization work is being carried out;

"technical regulation" means technical specifications and other requirements or rules on services, including the relevant administrative provisions, the observance of which is compulsory, de jure or de facto, in the case of marketing, provision of a service, establishment of a service operator or use in a Member State or a major part thereof, as well as laws, regulations or administrative provisions of Member States, except those provided for in regulation 10, prohibiting the manufacture, importation, marketing or use of a product or prohibiting the provision or use of a service, or establishment as a service provider. technical regulations include: De facto

(a) laws, regulations or administrative provisions of a Member State which refer either to technical specifications or to other requirements or to rules on services, or to professional codes or codes of practice which in turn refer to technical specifications or to other requirements or to rules on services, compliance with which confers a presumption of conformity with the obligations imposed by the aforementioned laws, regulations or administrative provisions;

(b) voluntary agreements to which a public authority is a contract party and which provide, in the general interest, for compliance with technical specifications or other requirements or rules on services, excluding public procurement tender specifications;

(c) technical specifications or other requirements or rules on services which are linked to fiscal or financial measures affecting the consumption of products or services by encouraging compliance with such technical specifications or other requirements or rulers on services; technical specification or other requirements or rules on services linked to national social security systems are not included; "technical specification", a specification contained in a document which lays down the characteristics required of a product such as levels of quality, performance, safety or dimensions, including the requirements applicable to the products as regards the name under which the product is sold, terminology, symbols, testing and test methods, packaging, marking or labelling and conformity assessment procedures;

"technical specification" shall also cover production methods and processes used in respect of agricultural products as referred to Article 38(1) to the Treaty, products intended for human and animal consumption, and medicinal products as defined in Article 1 of Directive 65165/EEC as well as production methods and processes relating to other products, where these have an effect on their characteristics.

(1) These regulations shall not apply to those measures 3. which Malta shall consider necessary under the Treaty for the protection of persons, in particular workers, when products are used, provided that such measures do not affect the products.

(2) These regulations shall not apply to:

(a) radio broadcasting;

(b) television broadcasting services covered by point (a) of Article 1 of Directive 89/522/ECC.

(3) These regulations shall not apply to rules relating to matters which are covered by Community legislation in the field of telecommunications services, as defined by Directive 90/387/EEC.

(4) These regulations shall also not apply to rules relating to matters which are covered by Community legislation in the field of financial services, as listed non-exhaustively in Schedule IV.

(5) With the exception of regulation 8(3), these regulations shall not apply to rules enacted by or for regulated markets within the meaning of Directive 93/22/EEC or by or for other markets or bodies carrying out clearing or settlement functions for those markets.

(6) For the purposes of subregulation (5):

(a) a rule shall be considered to be specifically aimed at information society services where, having regard to its statement of reasons and its operative part, the specific aim and object of all or some of its individual provision is to regulate such services in an explicit and targeted manner;

(b) a rule shall not be considered to be specifically aimed at information society services if it affects such services only in an implicit or incidental manner.

For the purposes of these regulations, the Malta Standards 4. Authority is hereby being designated as Malta’s "Notification Point" for technical standards, regulations and for rules on information society services.