GPSR requirements: what your role owes

Everything below assumes GPSR reaches the product. Nine categories are outside the Regulation altogether and sector law switches off parts of it for products under Union harmonisation legislation (Art. 2(1)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 2, paragraph 1Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., Art. 2(2)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 2, paragraph 2Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.); the reach test and the full list of exclusions are on the GPSR guide.

The Regulation names and defines each role:

• 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 makes a product, or has one designed or made for it, and sells it under its own name or trademark (Art. 3(8)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 3, point 8Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). Having it made for you counts.
• An importerArt. 3(10)any natural or legal person established within the Union who places a product from a third country on the Union marketClick the term for the full definition is a person or company based in the EU that puts a product from a third country on the EU market (Art. 3(10)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 3, point 10Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). A business outside the EU cannot be the importer of its own goods, however much it ships.
• A distributorArt. 3(11)any natural or legal person in the supply chain, other than the manufacturer or the importer, who makes a product available on the marketClick the term for the full definition is anyone else in the supply chain, other than the manufacturer or the importer, who makes a product available on the market (Art. 3(11)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 3, point 11Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). It is the leftover role: not the maker, not the importer, still selling.
• A fulfilment service providerArt. 3(12)any natural or legal person offering, in the course of commercial activity, at least two of the following services: warehousing, packaging, addressing and dispatching, without having ownership of the products involved ...Click the term for the full definition offers, as a business, at least two of warehousing, packaging, addressing and dispatching, without owning the products (Art. 3(12)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 3, point 12Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). Postal services, parcel delivery and freight transport are carved out of that definition (Art. 3(12)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 3, point 12Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.).

All four are 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, along with the authorised representative and anyone else the Regulation puts duties on (Art. 3(13)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 3, point 13Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.).

You can hold two roles at once, and often do. A business that makes a product and sells it direct is the manufacturer only (Art. 3(8)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 3, point 8Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.): it is not also a distributor, because Art. 3(11)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 3, point 11Click opens the article on EUR-Lex. shuts the manufacturer and the importer out of that role. A business that brings a product into the EU and then sells it on is the importer (Art. 3(10)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 3, point 10Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.) for that product. A business that imports one product and makes another holds a different role for each, and each duty list runs on its own terms.

Two definitions decide when a duty starts. 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 any supply for distribution, consumption or use on the EU market in the course of business, paid or free (Art. 3(6)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 3, point 6Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). Placing on the marketArt. 3(7)the first making available of a product on the Union marketClick the term for the full definition is the first such supply (Art. 3(7)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 3, point 7Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). Several manufacturer duties bite at that first moment, not at every later sale (Art. 9(1)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 9, paragraph 1Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., Art. 9(2)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 9, paragraph 2Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.).

How your own brand makes you the manufacturer

Put your brand on stock from a factory and you are the manufacturer. Not a reseller, not a distributor. A person who places a product on the market under that person’s own name or trademark is deemed to be the manufacturer and carries the duties of a manufacturer set out in Article 9Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 9Click opens the article on EUR-Lex. (Art. 13(1)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 13, paragraph 1Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). The whole of Article 9Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 9Click opens the article on EUR-Lex. is then yours to discharge.

Changing the product does the same thing by another route. Anyone other than the manufacturer who substantially modifies a product is deemed the manufacturer, for the part of the product the change affects, or for the entire product where the change has an impact on its safety (Art. 13(2)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 13, paragraph 2Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). A change counts as substantial where it affects the safety of the product and all three of these are true: it changes the product in a way the first risk assessment did not foresee; the nature of the hazard has changed, a new hazard has been created or the level of risk has gone up; and the change was not made by consumers themselves or on their behalf for their own use (Art. 13(3)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 13, paragraph 3Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). A repaint or a swapped fastener is not a substantial modification; fitting a battery or a heating element to a product that had none is. A change between those two turns on what the product’s first risk assessment already foresaw.

Art. 13(1)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 13, paragraph 1Click opens the article on EUR-Lex. catches one thing only: placing on the market under your own name or trademark. It does not, by itself, sweep in every private-label or exclusive-supply deal. The test is whose name or trademark the product goes out under.

What each role owes

One duty sits above all of them and belongs to no role in particular. A product covered by GPSR may not be placed on the market unless an economic operator based in the EU is responsible for the tasks in Art. 4(3)Regulation (EU) 2019/1020, Market Surveillance RegulationArticle 4, paragraph 3Click opens the article on EUR-Lex. of Regulation (EU) 2019/1020Regulation (EU) 2019/1020, Market Surveillance RegulationThe whole regulationClick opens the law on the EU Publications Office. for that product (Art. 16(1)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 16, paragraph 1Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.), and that operator’s name and postal and electronic address go on the product, its packaging, the parcel or a paper that travels with it (Art. 16(3)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 16, paragraph 3Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). It is a condition on the product, not a standing order to hire somebody: who can hold it, and what it costs, is the EU Responsible Person. For a product with its own EU law, Art. 16Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 16Click opens the article on EUR-Lex. does not apply (Art. 2(1)(b)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 2, paragraph 1, point (b)Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.), and Regulation (EU) 2019/1020Regulation (EU) 2019/1020, Market Surveillance RegulationThe whole regulationClick opens the law on the EU Publications Office. asks for the same EU company where that law is on its list (Art. 4(1)Regulation (EU) 2019/1020, Market Surveillance RegulationArticle 4, paragraph 1Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., Art. 4(5)Regulation (EU) 2019/1020, Market Surveillance RegulationArticle 4, paragraph 5Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.).

Each step belongs to a page that takes it in full.

What happens if it reaches you and you do nothing

GPSR sets no figure itself. Each EU country lays down the rules on penalties for infringements and takes the measures needed to implement them, and the Regulation requires only that they be effective, proportionate and dissuasive (Art. 44Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 44Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). The number that could reach you is national, and it is set where you sell. For a product with its own EU law, Art. 44Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 44Click opens the article on EUR-Lex. sits in a chapter Art. 2(1)(b)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 2, paragraph 1, point (b)Click opens the article on EUR-Lex. switches off; where its penalties come from instead is on GPSR fines.

What arrives first is usually the channel, not a regulator. Each marketplace states its own consequence in its own words.

• Amazon, in an announcement posted by a staff account on 24 April 2024 in its public Seller Forums: “Non-compliant listings risk removal and ineligibility for flash sales.” Amazon shows its own GPSR help-hub article only to signed-in sellers.
• eBay, on its Seller Center GPSR page: if you do not comply “your listings may not be visible or purchasable to buyers in the EU and Northern Ireland”, and visibility comes back once the required information is provided.
• Etsy, on its help page: an opt-out - “You can opt out of selling your products to GPSR countries. Once you opt out, buyers in EEA States and Northern Ireland won’t be able to purchase items from your shop.” Its Seller Handbook adds what follows a complaint from an authority: “Should Etsy receive notification from an authority that your product is non-compliant, we’ll take appropriate action, which may include removing your listing and/or suspending your account.”

Those three lines are marketplace policy, not law, and they change without notice. What each country sets under Art. 44Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 44Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., and what a delisting actually costs, is on GPSR fines.

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