Shipping to Europe? Time to Implement GPSR

New regulations for all business shipping to Europe, GPSR (General Product Safety Regulation), come into force on the 13th Dec 2024. Less well known than GDPR, GPSR has the potential to be just as disruptive. Maybe more so.

General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR): What You Need To Know

What is the General Product Safety Regulation?

The General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR) aims to ensure a high level of consumer protection across the European Union. It outlines obligations for merchants, manufacturers, and other stakeholders. For online merchants, this means providing specific product information starting December 13, 2024.

Previously, product safety was governed by Directive 2001/95/EC. Since the GPSR is a regulation, it does not require transposition into national law to take effect. As a result, it has slipped beneath many people’s radar. Published in May 2023, the GPSR will become enforceable after an 18-month transition period … that’s next week!

GPSR imposes a range of obligations on merchants. While there is a lot of confusion and grey areas, the potential for disruption is huge. If you haven’t acted already, you need to do so now.

Like GDPR before it, uptake and enforcement may be slow and patchy. The legislation fails adequately to cover or clarify several areas, including:

• Software
• Second hand goods

But, in theory, any EU customs should refuse entry to any non-GPSR compliant parcel. This affects Northern Ireland too – even to ship to parts of the UK you must still be GPSR compliant!

Implementing these requirements may involve significant administrative effort for businesses. Prepare your online shop now to comply with the EU regulation.

Who Does the General Product Safety Regulation Affect?

The GPSR applies to various stakeholders in the EU supply chain, including manufacturers, importers, distributors, and online merchants. Regardless of whether they manufacture their products. or not, online merchants will feel the impact.

Merchants selling products under their own name or brand are considered manufacturers under the GPSR. The same applies if a merchant modifies a product in a way that requires reassessment of its safety.

What are the GPSR requirements for online merchants and others?

All stakeholders must ensure and verify that only safe products, properly certified and labeled, arrive on the market. The GPSR introduces specific requirements, including information disclosure and risk assessment.

Obligations for Online Vendors

As an online merchant (an economic operator in distance selling), you must now label your products. Relevant product information must be clear and easily accessible in the listings, including:

• The name, registered trade name, or trademark of the manufacturer, along with a postal address and electronic contact details.
• If the manufacturer is located outside the EU, the name, postal address, and electronic contact details of the responsible person within the EU.
• Information to identify the product, including images, product type, and identifiers.
• Any warning or safety instructions affixed to the product or packaging or included in accompanying documents. These must comply with the GPSR or applicable harmonisation regulations and be written in the appropriate language(s) for the market.

If this sounds like a lot of work, it is. Little Fire Digital can help you integrate solutions which will lighten the load.

These adjustments are mandatory only for products placed on the market starting December 13, 2024. General merchant obligations also apply.

Obligations for merchants, manufacturers, and all stakeholders

• Merchants: Ensure product compliance with regulations, store and transport goods safely, avoid selling unsafe items, take corrective actions, and notify other stakeholders of emerging risks.
• Manufacturers: Conduct risk assessments for all products, maintain technical documentation for 10 years, and keep it up to date.
• High-risk products: For products likely to pose serious risks, the Commission may establish a traceability system to identify products, their components, and the stakeholders involved.

Manufacturers must report accidents caused by their products. Merchants or importers aware of an incident must notify the manufacturer.

E-commerce business owners also face new obligations. Consult a legal expert to ensure your business complies with GPSR requirements.

Assessment Criteria, Recalls and Penalties

The GPSR risk assessment criteria include the product itself, packaging, use in conjunction with other items, and potential consumers.

If a product is unsafe and vendors initiate a product safety recall, the vendor must offer affected customers two out of three remedies:

• repair
• replacement
• a reasonable refund

Individual member states each have their own penalties for non-compliance.

Which Products are Covered by the General Product Safety Regulation?

The GPSR focuses on consumer protection and applies to products placed on the EU market from December 13, 2024, that could end up in consumers’ hands, regardless of whether they are for B2C or B2B use.

This includes items supplied for free, as well as used and repaired goods, but excludes damaged products sold as such (if clearly labelled).

Some products are already governed by EU-wide directives, such as toys. Where the GPSR addresses aspects not covered by these directives, the regulation applies. Products subject to harmonization regulations are exempt from the GPSR.

The GPSR also lists exclusions, such as pharmaceuticals, food and feed, plant protection products, and antiques.

The structure of the legislation and the fact that one will need an EU-based advocate for your compliance will mean that small manufacturers, including ETSY vendors and similar will find it very hard to be compliant. Selling to the EU may be impossible.

How to Implement the GPSR Requirements for Online Retailers?

Uptake for e-commerce software solutions have been relatively sluggish.

• Applications exist to simplify compliance in Shopify and Magento.
• WooCommerce is a long way behind the curve. Repeated searches for solutions have not revealed an app which can simplify things. WooCommerce allows you to store significant additional data against any given project but for a large catalogue, this will take time.

If you do not wish to risk your overseas parcels coming straight back to you, you may wish to amend your shipping rules so that shipping to the EU and Northern Ireland is not permitted from your site.

• We can automate and ease on-site information.
• We can work with your shipping solution to ease compliance.

Little Fire Digital can help, contact us.

Find Out More

• UK Department for Business and Trade article
• European Commission article and PDF Data Sheet