GPSR exemptions: the closed list, and what is not on it

What is on the list, and what is not

Art. 2(2)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 2, paragraph 2Click opens the article on EUR-Lex. is a closed list of nine points. If what you sell is not one of the nine, that way out is not open to you, and describing it differently does not open it. Two points end the matter for good, one keeps old stock sellable, and the fourth answer below is not an exemption at all.

The whole reach test — the nine categories above, sector law, and the rule that an offer targeted at consumers in the Union counts wherever you sit (Art. 4Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 4Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.) — runs as a question tool on the GPSR guide.

Why antiques are outside, and antique is not an age

Antiques are the ninth point of the nine. Art. 2(2)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 2, paragraph 2Click opens the article on EUR-Lex. reads “This Regulation does not apply to: … (i) antiques.” Nothing is attached to that point: no condition, no procedure, no paperwork. If the product is an antique, the Regulation does not reach it.

The definition decides it, not the date on the object. antiquesArt. 3(28)products, such as collectors’ items or works of art, in relation to which consumers cannot reasonably expect that they fulfil state-of-the-art safety standardsClick the term for the full definition means “products, such as collectors’ items or works of art, in relation to which consumers cannot reasonably expect that they fulfil state-of-the-art safety standards” (Art. 3(28)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 3, point 28Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). The test is what a buyer can reasonably expect. A 1920s tin toy sold as a collector’s piece and a 1990s kettle sold to boil water are not in the same position, whatever either one’s age.

When a product is sold to be repaired or reconditioned first

The second route out sits in the scope article itself and carries two conditions that both have to hold. Art. 2(3)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 2, paragraph 3Click opens the article on EUR-Lex. says: “It does not apply to products to be repaired or reconditioned prior to being used where those products are placed or made available on the market and are clearly marked as such.”

The product has to be going to a buyer who will repair or recondition it before it is used, and it has to be clearly marked that way where it is offered. A listing that says nothing, or one that says “spares or repair” while the photographs show a working item ready to plug in, fails the second condition. Mark it, or the exception is not yours.

The other side of the same paragraph is inside GPSR. A product you have already repaired or refurbished and are now selling ready to use is covered, because the first sentence of Art. 2(3)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 2, paragraph 3Click opens the article on EUR-Lex. applies the Regulation to products “whether new, used, repaired or reconditioned”.

When stock was placed on the market before 13 December 2024

GPSR applies from 13 December 2024 (Art. 52Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 52Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.), and Directives 87/357/EEC and 2001/95/EC were repealed with effect from the same day (Art. 50(1)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 50, paragraph 1Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). Art. 51Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 51Click opens the article on EUR-Lex. is the bridge between the two regimes, and this is its whole text:

Member States shall not impede the making available on the market of products covered by Directive 2001/95/EC which are in conformity with that Directive and which were placed on the market before 13 December 2024.

It is narrower than it is usually reported. Two conditions: the product conformed to Directive 2001/95/EC, and it was placed on the marketArt. 3(7)the first making available of a product on the Union marketClick the term for the full definition before 13 December 2024. Placing on the market is the first making available of a product on the Union market (Art. 3(7)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 3, point 7Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.), and it happens once. Stock that was never supplied into the Union — sitting in a warehouse outside it, and never supplied to anyone in the Union — was not placed, and Art. 51Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 51Click opens the article on EUR-Lex. does not cover it.

The provision is also addressed to the countries, not to you: they shall not impede the making available of such products. It is transitional, not a permanent exemption for a category of goods, and it says nothing about anything you place on the market from 13 December 2024 onward.

Marketplaces put it in their own words. eBay names Art. 51Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 51Click opens the article on EUR-Lex. on its public Seller Center GPSR page, Etsy states the rule in its Seller Handbook, and Allegro gives its listing form a parameter for it. Amazon’s public GPSR pages do not mention it. Etsy goes by the date a listing went up; the law goes by the date the product was first placed on the market.

What each one says:

• eBay, Seller Center: “Article 51 of the GPSR states that EU nations shouldn’t ‘impede’ the sale of any product that was first supplied for distribution, consumption, or use on the EU market before December 13, 2024, provided that product is covered by and complies with the General Product Safety Directive (2001/95/EG).” eBay frames this as “To our understanding”, gives the same reading for second-hand items, and adds that you can add GPSR information to listings published before 13 December 2024 anyway.
• Etsy, Seller Handbook, “Product Safety Essentials”, dated 15 April 2025: “The GPSR does not apply to products listed before December 13, 2024.” Its FAQ article narrows that: “Products that were actually placed on the EEA/NI market before December 13, 2024, and complied with prior safety rules do not need to meet the new GPSR requirements even when renewed.” Etsy calls this its current interpretation and tells sellers to check the “Listed on” date in Shop Manager. Etsy’s Help Center GPSR pages do not mention it.
• Allegro, help page: “If you have placed the product you offer on the market before that date, you can select the Product introduced to the EU market before 13.12.2024 parameter in the listing form.”
• Amazon: neither its GPSR announcement in the public Seller Forums nor its compliance blog page mentions Art. 51Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 51Click opens the article on EUR-Lex. or stock placed before 13 December 2024. Amazon shows its Seller Central help hub only to signed-in sellers.

These are platform readings, not law, and they change without notice.

Why second-hand, used and vintage are inside

This is the answer most people arrive hoping to avoid. Art. 2(3)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 2, paragraph 3Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., first sentence: “This Regulation applies to products placed or made available on the market whether new, used, repaired or reconditioned.” Second-hand is not an exemption. Vintage, on its own, is not one either — only the antiques definition in Art. 3(28)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 3, point 28Click opens the article on EUR-Lex. does that work, and it does it on expectation, not on decade.

Two things narrow the reach without exempting anything.

A private sale is not a supply in the course of a commercial activity. Making available on the marketArt. 3(6)any supply of a product for distribution, consumption or use on the Union market in the course of a commercial activity, whether in return for payment or free of chargeClick the term for the full definition is a supply “in the course of a commercial activity” (Art. 3(6)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 3, point 6Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.), and the general safety requirement is addressed to economic operatorsArt. 3(13)the manufacturer, the authorised representative, the importer, the distributor, the fulfilment service provider or any other natural or legal person who is subject to obligations in relation to the manufacture of products or making them available on the market ...Click the term for the full definition (Art. 5Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 5Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., Art. 3(13)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 3, point 13Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). GPSR does not define commercial activity. The working line is this: you are a business seller if you list again and again, if the goods are new or bought and made to be sold on, or if you move any volume. Selling off a few of your own used things is an occasional private sale, and the general safety requirement is not addressed to you. The marketplace settles it before any authority does — it runs its own trader test and requires the GPSR fields from everyone it counts as a trader. The genuine edge case is the hobby seller who lists every week: at that rhythm you are treated as a business, so sell as one.

The second narrowing is substantial modification. Art. 13(2)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 13, paragraph 2Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.: a person other than the manufacturer who substantially modifies a product is treated as the manufacturer, for the part the modification affects, or for the whole product where the modification has an impact on its safety. Restoring a piece can cross that line. Under Art. 13(3)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 13, paragraph 3Click opens the article on EUR-Lex. a modification is substantial when it has an impact on the product’s safety and meets three criteria: it was not foreseen in the initial risk assessment, it changed or added a hazard or raised the risk, and no consumer made it, or had it made, for their own use. The same scope question, in prose rather than as a tool: does GPSR apply to me.

Why handmade is not an exemption

GPSR names no exemption for handmade, artisan, craft or small-batch goods. It is not in the closed list of Art. 2(2)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 2, paragraph 2Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., it is not in Art. 2(3)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 2, paragraph 3Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., and it is not in Art. 51Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 51Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.. No provision in the scope article or the definitions turns on how a product was made or on how many units exist.

The opposite is true. A manufacturerArt. 3(8)any natural or legal person who manufactures a product or has a product designed or manufactured, and markets that product under that person’s name or trademarkClick the term for the full definition is “any natural or legal person who manufactures a product or has a product designed or manufactured, and markets that product under that person’s name or trademark” (Art. 3(8)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 3, point 8Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). Making the thing with your own hands and selling it under your own shop name puts you inside that definition, and it is the heaviest of the four roles: Art. 9Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 9Click opens the article on EUR-Lex. carries the risk analysis, the technical documentation kept for ten years, the marking of your name and address, the instructions and the complaints channel. Which role you hold, and what it owes, is what GPSR requires of you, by role.

Size is not a way out either. GPSR sets no size, turnover or sales threshold: it reaches any supply “in the course of a commercial activity, whether in return for payment or free of charge” (Art. 3(6)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 3, point 6Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). A free item a business gives away, such as a promotional gift, counts too. Whether it reaches you at all is does GPSR apply to me.

What decides the job when no exemption applies

Then your goods are not exempt, and the rest of the scope test decides the size of the job. Sector law can still displace parts of GPSR for your product (Art. 2(1)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 2, paragraph 1Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.), and the offer has to be targeted at consumers in the Union for the Regulation to bite at all (Art. 4Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 4Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). Both run in the question tool on the GPSR guide.

What happens if it reaches you and you do nothing

GPSR sets no figure itself. Each country lays down the rules on penalties for infringements and takes the measures needed to implement them, and the Regulation requires only that those penalties be effective, proportionate and dissuasive (Art. 44Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 44Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). The amount is national, set where you sell.

For someone selling used or handmade goods the consequence that lands first is usually the channel’s. eBay’s Seller Center GPSR page says that without the required information “your listings may not be visible or purchasable to buyers in the EU and Northern Ireland”, and that visibility comes back once it is provided. That is marketplace policy, not law, and it changes without notice. What each country sets under Art. 44Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 44Click opens the article on EUR-Lex. is on GPSR fines.

What you can skip

What the law leaves open

• Where commercial activity begins for an occasional seller. Making available on the market needs a supply in the course of a commercial activity (Art. 3(6)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 3, point 6Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.), and GPSR does not define the phrase. Meanwhile, use the working line above: if you list again and again, sell new goods or goods bought to be sold on, or move any volume, sell as a business.
• How the manufacturer duties reach a reseller of used goods made by someone else. Art. 13(1)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 13, paragraph 1Click opens the article on EUR-Lex. makes you the manufacturer when you sell under your own name or trademark, and Art. 13(2)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 13, paragraph 2Click opens the article on EUR-Lex. when you substantially modify the product. Neither names ordinary resale of an unmodified second-hand item under someone else’s brand. Meanwhile, keep it unmodified and under the original brand, so neither test catches you, and meet the distributor checks in Art. 12Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 12Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.: the definitions leave that role to a seller who neither makes nor imports the product (Art. 3(11)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 3, point 11Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.).