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1. This Regulation applies to goods of any type, including agricultural products within the meaning of the second subparagraph of Article 38(1) TFEU, and to administrative decisions that have been taken or are to be taken by a competent authority of a Member State of destination in relation to any such goods that are lawfully marketed in another Member State, where the administrative decision meets the following criteria:

(a) the basis for the administrative decision is a national technical rule applicable in the Member State of destination; and (b) the direct or indirect effect of the administrative decision is to restrict or deny market access in the Member State of destination. Administrative decision includes any administrative step that is based on a national technical rule and that has the same or substantially the same legal effect as the effect referred to in point (b).

2. For the purposes of this Regulation, a ‘national technical rule’ is any provision of a law, regulation or other administrative provision of a Member State which has the following characteristics:

(a) it covers goods or aspects of goods that are not the subject of harmonisation at Union level;

(b) it either prohibits the making available of goods, or goods of a given type, on the market in that Member State, or it makes compliance with the provision compulsory, de facto or de jure, whenever goods, or goods of a given type, are made available on that market; and (c) it does at least one of the following:

(i) it lays down the characteristics required of goods or of goods of a given type, such as their levels of quality, performance or safety, or their dimensions, including the requirements applicable to those goods as regards the names under which they are sold, terminology, symbols, testing and test methods, packaging, marking or labelling and conformity assessment procedures;

(ii) for the purpose of protecting consumers or the environment, it imposes other requirements on goods or goods of a given type that affect the life-cycle of the goods after they have been made available on the market in that Member State, such as conditions of use, recycling, reuse or disposal, where such conditions can significantly influence either the composition or nature of those goods, or the making available of them on the market in that Member State.

3. Point (c)(i) of paragraph 2 of this Article also covers production methods and processes used in respect of agricultural products as referred to in the second subparagraph of Article 38(1) TFEU, and in respect of products intended for human or animal consumption, as well as production methods and processes relating to other products, where these have an effect on their characteristics.

4. A prior authorisation procedure does not itself constitute a national technical rule for the purposes of this Regulation, but a decision to refuse prior authorisation based on a national technical rule shall be considered to be an administrative decision to which this Regulation applies, if that decision fulfils the other requirements of the first subparagraph of paragraph 1.

5. This Regulation does not apply to:

(a) decisions of a judicial nature taken by national courts or tribunals;

(b) decisions of a judicial nature taken by law enforcement authorities in the course of the investigation or prosecution of a criminal offence as regards the terminology, symbols or any material reference to unconstitutional or criminal organisations or offences of a racist, discriminatory or xenophobic nature.

6. Articles 5 and 6 shall not affect the application of the following provisions:

(a) points (b) to (f) of Article 8(1) and Article 8(3) of Directive 2001/95/EC;

(b) point (a) of Article 50(3) and Article 54 of Regulation (EC) No 178/2002;

(c) Article 90 of Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013; and (d) Article 138 of Regulation (EU) 2017/625.

7. This Regulation does not affect the obligation under Directive (EU) 2015/1535 to notify draft national technical regulations to the Commission and the Member States prior to their adoption.