Product recall under GPSR: what to do

When the duty starts

GPSR has to reach the product first. It covers consumer products, with whole categories taken out of it. A product carrying its own sector-specific EU law takes the duty to act from that law, because the GPSR articles on stopping the product and alerting the authorities do not apply to it (Art. 9(8)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 9, paragraph 8Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., Art. 11(8)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 11, paragraph 8Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., Art. 12(4)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 12, paragraph 4Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., switched off by Art. 2(1)(b)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 2, paragraph 1, point (b)Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). The accident notification, reaching buyers, the recall notice and the remedy still apply to it, as far as that law has no rule with the same objective (Art. 2(1)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 2, paragraph 1Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., first subparagraph; Art. 20Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 20Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., Art. 35Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 35Click opens the article on EUR-Lex. to Art. 37Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 37Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.; recital 8). The reach test and the excluded categories are on the GPSR guide; the same question worked through in prose: does GPSR apply to me.

A dangerous product is any product which is not a safe product (Art. 3(3)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 3, point 3Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). A safe product is one which, under normal or reasonably foreseeable conditions of use, including the actual duration of use, presents no risk or only the minimum risks compatible with its use, considered acceptable and consistent with a high level of protection of consumer health and safety (Art. 3(2)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 3, point 2Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.).

The trigger is not proof. Each role gets the same words: where the operator considers or has reason to believe, on the basis of the information in that operator’s possession, that a product is dangerous (Art. 9(8)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 9, paragraph 8Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., Art. 11(8)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 11, paragraph 8Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., Art. 12(4)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 12, paragraph 4Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). A pattern of complaints, a supplier’s warning or one credible injury report is information in your possession. 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 and 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 must then act immediately (Art. 9(8)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 9, paragraph 8Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., Art. 11(8)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 11, paragraph 8Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.).

Two words decide what you are doing. A recall is any measure aimed at achieving the return of a product that has already been made available to the consumer (Art. 3(25)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 3, point 25Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). A withdrawal is any measure aimed at preventing a product in the supply chain from being made available on the market (Art. 3(26)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 3, point 26Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). They are different measures and they usually run together: you withdraw what has not been sold and you recall what has.

What your role owes

Your duties follow your role, and your role follows what you do with the product, not what your company calls itself. Which of the four roles you hold is what GPSR requires of you, by role. Anyone who places a product on the market under their own name or trademark is deemed to be the manufacturer and carries the whole of 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.).

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 does not have to decide the case alone: the first thing Art. 12(4)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 12, paragraph 4Click opens the article on EUR-Lex. asks is that the manufacturer or importer be told. The duty to ensure the corrective measures are taken, and that the authorities hear about it, still sits on the distributor.

Who you notify, and where

One portal takes your filing, and it is not the public one. The Safety Business Gateway is the web portal the Commission maintains so that 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 and marketplaces can give market surveillance authorities and consumers the information required by Art. 9(8)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 9, paragraph 8Click opens the article on EUR-Lex. and (9), Art. 10(2)(c)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 10, paragraph 2, point (c)Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., Art. 11(2)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 11, paragraph 2Click opens the article on EUR-Lex. and (8), Art. 12(4)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 12, paragraph 4Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., Art. 20Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 20Click opens the article on EUR-Lex. and Art. 22Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 22Click opens the article on EUR-Lex. (Art. 27(1)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 27, paragraph 1Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). It is at webgate.ec.europa.eu/safety-business-gateway. Filing needs an EU Login account, and inside it you see only the notifications you submitted yourself. The Commission’s guidelines for its practical implementation (Art. 27(2)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 27, paragraph 2Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.) are Commission Notice C/2025/6238, published on 21 November 2025, which states: “To access the Safety Business Gateway, an EU login account (the Commission’s mandatory authentication service) is necessary.”

You notify the authorities of the EU countries in which the product has been made available on the market — not only your own (Art. 9(8)(c)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 9, paragraph 8, point (c)Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., Art. 11(8)(d)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 11, paragraph 8, point (d)Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., Art. 12(4)(c)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 12, paragraph 4, point (c)Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). Sold into eleven countries, you notify eleven authorities. Each EU country names its own market surveillance authority. You do not need their addresses to file: the Gateway form has a section where you choose the authorities that receive it, and the Commission lists the national contacts on the Safety Gate Portal. France adds a declaration of its own: a recall of products for final consumers is also declared on RappelConso, and the fine for not declaring is separate. That is on France product safety (DGCCRF). Italy adds no second declaration: the Codice del consumo names one channel to the authorities, the Safety Business Gateway. Its recall notice and the related consumer information must be in Italian (art. 104(3)), except for a product under EU harmonisation law, to which art. 104 does not apply (art. 102(4)). That is on Italy product safety (MIMIT). In Spain the Ministry points operators to the Safety Business Gateway; an older decree also tells producers and distributors to notify the regional authority at once (Real Decreto 1801/2003 art. 6), and the Ministry does not say whether that still applies next to the Gateway. That is on Spain product safety (Consumo).

The Safety Gate Rapid Alert System sits on the other side of that wall and takes nothing from you: the national authorities notify corrective measures taken by themselves or by economic operators through it, for dangerous products presenting a serious risk, within four working days of the measure being taken (Art. 26(1)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 26, paragraph 1Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., Art. 26(4)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 26, paragraph 4Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). Whether a risk is serious is the authorities’ call, made on a risk assessment (Art. 3(5)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 3, point 5Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). What you file at the Gateway is what can end up there, published. Which portal is which, and what becomes public, is the Safety Gate and the Safety Business Gateway.

Why an accident is a separate notification

A recall duty and an accident duty are two duties, and one does not discharge the other.

The manufacturer must ensure that an accident caused by a product placed or made available on the market is notified through the Safety Business Gateway, without undue delay from the moment it knows about the accident, to the competent authorities of the EU country where the accident occurred (Art. 20(1)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 20, paragraph 1Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). The notification carries the type and identification number of the product and the circumstances of the accident, if known; anything else relevant follows on request (Art. 20(1)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 20, paragraph 1Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.).

An accident is defined by its outcome: occurrences associated with the use of a product that resulted in a person’s death, or in serious adverse effects on that person’s health and safety, permanent or temporary, including injuries, other damage to the body, illnesses and chronic health effects (Art. 20(2)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 20, paragraph 2Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.).

Importers and distributors that know of such an accident must inform the manufacturer without undue delay; the manufacturer then files, or instructs the importer or one of the distributors to file (Art. 20(3)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 20, paragraph 3Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). Where the manufacturer is outside the EU, the responsible person who knows of the accident must ensure the notification is made (Art. 20(4)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 20, paragraph 4Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). Who that person can be is the EU Responsible Person.

How to reach the buyers

Direct contact is the default. In a product safety recall, or where information has to be brought to consumers to ensure safe use (a safety warning), economic operators must ensure that all affected consumers that can be identified are notified directly and without undue delay (Art. 35(1)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 35, paragraph 1Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). Customer personal data you already hold is to be used for exactly that: operators that collect their customers’ personal data shall make use of that information for recalls and safety warnings (Art. 35(1)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 35, paragraph 1Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.).

Where you run a product registration system or a loyalty programme that lets you identify what a customer bought, you must offer customers the option of giving separate contact details used only for safety purposes; that data is limited to the necessary minimum and used only to contact them about a recall or safety warning (Art. 35(2)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 35, paragraph 2Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.).

Where not all affected consumers can be contacted, you put out a clear and visible recall notice or safety warning through other appropriate channels, ensuring the widest possible reach — including, where available, your own website, social media channels, newsletters and retail outlets and, as appropriate, announcements in mass media and other communication channels. The information has to be accessible to persons with disabilities (Art. 35(4)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 35, paragraph 4Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.).

If the product was sold through a marketplace, the platform carries a parallel duty to notify the buyers it can identify and to publish the recall on its interface (Art. 22(12)(a)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 22, paragraph 12, point (a)Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). That is its duty and not a substitute for yours; what the marketplaces owe is what GPSR requires of marketplaces.

These are the elements, in the Regulation’s own words (Art. 36(2)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 36, paragraph 2Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.):

• (a) “a headline consisting of the words 'Product safety recall'”.
• (b) “a clear description of the recalled product, including: (i) picture, name and brand of the product; (ii) product identification numbers, such as batch or serial number, and, if applicable, graphical indication of where to find them on the product; and (iii) information on when, where and by whom the product was sold, if available”.
• (c) “a clear description of the hazard associated with the recalled product, avoiding any elements that may decrease consumers’ perception of risk, such as by using terms and expressions such as ‘voluntary’, ‘precautionary’, ‘discretionary’, ‘in rare situations’ or ‘in specific situations’ or by indicating that there have been no reported accidents”.
• (d) “a clear description of the action consumers should take, including an instruction to immediately stop using the recalled product”.
• (e) “a clear description of the remedies available to consumers in accordance with Article 37”.
• (f) “a free phone number or interactive online service, where consumers can get more information in relevant official language(s) of the Union”.
• (g) “encouragement to share the information about the recall with other persons, if appropriate”.

Point (c) takes away the comfortable words a press office reaches for: voluntary, precautionary, out of an abundance of caution, no incidents reported. The text names them as elements that decrease the perception of risk, and they are to be avoided (Art. 36(2)(c)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 36, paragraph 2, point (c)Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.).

Art. 36(3)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 36, paragraph 3Click opens the article on EUR-Lex. has the Commission set out a template for the recall notice by implementing act, in a format that lets operators create a notice easily, including in accessible formats for persons with disabilities. It did so in Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/1435 of 24 May 2024, published in the Official Journal on 27 May 2024, with a corrigendum of 24 July 2024. Its Article 1 reads: “This Regulation establishes the template for a recall notice in accordance with Article 36Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationThe whole regulationClick opens the law on the EU Publications Office. of Regulation (EU) 2023/988Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationThe whole regulationClick opens the law on the EU Publications Office.. The template is set out in the Annex.”

What remedy you owe

Where a recall is started by an economic operator or ordered by a national competent authority, the operator responsible for the recall must offer the consumer an effective, cost-free and timely remedy (Art. 37(1)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 37, paragraph 1Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.).

The operator must offer the consumer the choice between at least two of the following (Art. 37(2)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 37, paragraph 2Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.):

• repair of the recalled product;
• replacement of the recalled product with a safe one of the same type and at least the same value and quality; or
• an adequate refund of the value of the recalled product, at least equal to the price the consumer paid.

One remedy alone is allowed only by exception: where the other remedies would be impossible, or would impose costs on the operator that are disproportionate compared to the proposed remedy, taking all circumstances into account, including whether the alternative could be provided without significant inconvenience to the consumer (Art. 37(2)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 37, paragraph 2Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.).

Four rules sit around that choice.

• The consumer is always entitled to a refund where you have not completed the repair or replacement within a reasonable time and without significant inconvenience (Art. 37(2)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 37, paragraph 2Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.).
• Repair by the consumer counts as an effective remedy only where it can be carried out easily and safely by the consumer and where the recall notice envisages it; then you supply the instructions, the replacement parts at no cost to them, or the software updates (Art. 37(3)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 37, paragraph 3Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.).
• Disposal by the consumer may only be part of the action asked of them under Art. 36(2)(d)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 36, paragraph 2, point (d)Click opens the article on EUR-Lex. where it can be done easily and safely, and it leaves their right to a refund or replacement untouched (Art. 37(4)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 37, paragraph 4Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.).
• The remedy must not entail significant inconvenience. The consumer does not bear the cost of shipping or otherwise returning the product, and for products that are not portable by their nature you arrange collection (Art. 37(5)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 37, paragraph 5Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.).

These duties are without prejudice to the consumer’s rights under Directive (EU) 2019/770 and Directive (EU) 2019/771 (Art. 37(1)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 37, paragraph 1Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., Art. 37(3)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 37, paragraph 3Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). A consumer who finds the remedy offered unsatisfactory can complain to the competent authority, and each EU country has to give them that route (Art. 33(4)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 33, paragraph 4Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.).

What to do with stock you still hold, and stock in the chain

Unsold stock is handled by withdrawal, defined as any measure aimed at preventing a product in the supply chain from being made available on the market (Art. 3(26)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 3, point 26Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). Withdrawal is named as one of the corrective measures each role must take or ensure (Art. 9(8)(a)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 9, paragraph 8, point (a)Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., Art. 11(8)(b)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 11, paragraph 8, point (b)Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., Art. 12(4)(b)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 12, paragraph 4, point (b)Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). Separately, an importer who believes a product is dangerous must not place it on the market until it has been brought into conformity (Art. 11(2)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 11, paragraph 2Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.), and a distributor must not make such a product available (Art. 12(3)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 12, paragraph 3Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.).

The legal position for stranded stock is short: it may not go to consumers, and it stays out of the market unless the product is brought into conformity. Bringing the product into conformity is itself one of the corrective measures the Regulation names (Art. 9(8)(a)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 9, paragraph 8, point (a)Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.), so reworked stock is not automatically dead stock.

What to physically do with the goods is not in this Regulation. Regulation (EU) 2023/988Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationThe whole regulationClick opens the law on the EU Publications Office. has no article requiring destruction, prescribing disposal, or allowing export of a withdrawn product to a non-EU market. Consumer disposal is addressed once, and only as something that may be asked of the consumer where it is easy and safe (Art. 37(4)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 37, paragraph 4Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). Anything beyond that comes from waste law, customs law or national law.

What happens if you do nothing

The Regulation sets no figure of its own. Each EU country lays down the rules on penalties for infringements and takes the measures necessary to implement them; the Regulation asks only that they be effective, proportionate and dissuasive (Art. 44Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 44Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). What each country actually sets is GPSR fines, country by country.

Two other things follow from the text. Market surveillance authorities can order a marketplace to remove the offer of a dangerous product, disable access to it or display an explicit warning, and the marketplace must act within two working days of receiving the order (Art. 22(4)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 22, paragraph 4Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). And information held by authorities on measures taken against products presenting risks to consumer health and safety is in general made available to the public, including the product identification, the nature of the risk and the measures taken (Art. 33(1)Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationArticle 33, paragraph 1Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.).

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