From 13th December 2024 updates to the General Product Safety Regulation come into force in the EU. Anyone selling product in the EU or Northern Ireland must comply with the new rules that encompass having a “Responsible Person” to represent you on safety related matters through labelling and traceability requirements.
Both ecommerce and direct sales are affected.
Direct Sales
The General Product Safety Directive update will affect UK manufacturers that export to the EU and Northern Ireland, with new rules covering most non-food consumer products, such as clothing, furniture and home accessories.
The new regulations outline the obligations of online marketplaces, update the requirement for a responsible person based in the EU and update labelling requirements.
The General Product Safety Regulations 2005 will continue to apply in Great Britain for the time being, but the UK government is in the process of updating the legislation.
The legislation will align market surveillance rules for non-harmonised products with existing rules for harmonised products. Harmonised products are those that carry the ‘CE’ mark and are covered by other legislation and directives, such as the Toy Safety Directive or the Medical Devices Directive.
Non-harmonised products that are covered under the new GPSR include consumer goods, such as clothes, shoes, furniture and home accessories, which account for one third of non-food products on the EU market.GPSR does not cover medicinal products, food, feed, animal by-products or services. Antiques are also excluded from the scope of the regulation.
A UK manufacturer or distributor that exports products to the EU or Northern Ireland must appoint an EU-established ‘Responsible Person’, who is responsible for placing the products on the EU market.
A Responsible Person can be a manufacturer or brand, importer, authorised representative appointed in writing by the manufacturer, or a fulfilment service provider, if there is no manufacturer, importer or authorised representative in the supply chain.
The responsible person is required to collect the products’ declarations of conformity or performance and ensure this documentation is available from the manufacturer in a language understood by the relevant authority. They must cooperate with the market surveillance authorities and ensure the manufacturer takes any necessary actions as a result of non-compliance issues with the product.
They must also include the Responsible Person’s contact information, including the postal address and email on the product, its packaging, the parcel or an accompanying document, so that consumers can raise any product safety concerns with the local contact.
What are the manufacturers’ obligations to ensure safety under the regulations?
Manufacturers are required to:
– Carry out a risk analysis of every product they place on the EU market
– Draw up technical documentation before placing products on the market
– Provide information to the importer of the products to support the import customs process, before customs allow the goods to be placed on the EU market
– Label the product, packaging or accompanying documents in accordance with the regulations
– Keep all economic operators (EOs) – importers, distributors, authorised representative, Responsible Person and fulfilment service provider – up-to-date with any safety issues or recalls
– Investigate any complaints, issue a recall notice and create an internal register to store personal data related to any complaints for no longer than five years
– Make communication changes for complaints, including accessibility needs for people with disabilities, publicly available.
What will be required under product testing?
Manufacturers are responsible for carrying out testing to analyse the risks related to their products and adopt solutions to eliminate or mitigate such risks. Any outcome reports related to tests conducted by the manufacturer, or another party on their behalf, must be included in the technical documentation.
The technical documentation must contain a general description of the product and essential characteristics relevant to assess its safety. This documentation must be placed at the disposal of the market surveillance authorities for a period of 10 years after the product has been placed on the EU market.
Where any product- or sector-specific EU standards, or health and safety requirements are applied, these must be referred to in the documentation. As it is a legal requirement, traders may require assistance from product liability and safety lawyers to ensure they comply with the law.
The product must be accompanied by clear instructions and safety information in a language that can be easily understood by consumers, determined by the member state into which you are exporting the product. If the product is sold in multiple EU member states, this information must be written in the language of each member state.
What information must be included on product labels?
Manufacturers must ensure the label includes the type, batch or serial number to enable the identification of the product. It must also include the manufacturer’s name, registered trade name/mark, postal address and email.
If the size of the product does not allow such a label, this information can be included on packaging or the accompanying documents.
What documents and procedures must I adhere to in order to show traceability?
On request by the market surveillance authorities, you will need to be able to tell them;
Who supplied the product, part or component
Who manufactured the product, part or component
Who bought the product etc.
This information must be retained for six years
Sales via an online marketplace (OMP)
There are new requirements for traders who are selling their goods online, either through their own website or through an online marketplace. All online marketplace providers have signed a product safety pledge, which provides a voluntary commitment on product safety of those goods sold online.
All the product safety requirements regarding the Responsible Person, labelling, documentation and product traceability need to be met, but there are extra requirements to be met when selling online:
The name and contact details of the Responsible Person (EU-based) and the manufacturer (UK-based) must be displayed for each product in online listings
A product picture and any other identifying information must be displayed on the online listings
Warning and safety information in the language of the country of sale must be displayed on online listings
Product information must be displayed alongside the product listing – this must be available online and offline
Providers of online marketplaces have an obligation to register on the Safety Business Gateway and identify a single contact point. They must also have internal processes in place for product safety.
If traders are selling through online marketplace providers, they need to establish which kind of seller they are. Are the orders to be fulfilled by the seller, via their own warehouse, or by the online marketplace provider via their fulfilment centre? Even if selling through a UK online marketplace such as Amazon there will be a requirement to meet the new EU GPSR regulations, as the goods may be supplied to Northern Ireland.
The online supplier must establish which of the roles they fulfil within the supply chain and ensure they comply with the relevant regulations. If they are the importer, distributor and authorised representative, they will need to fulfil the requirements for all three roles.
Effective as of March 31st, 2024, Amazon relinquished the obligation of serving as the Responsible Person (RsP), necessitating that all sellers appoint an RsP for their product lines.
Additionally, by December 13th, 2024, a new layer of requirements, aligned with the amended EU General Product Safety Directive, will be established, mandating sellers to remain compliant with GPSR rules and prove their status to Online Marketplace Platforms (OMPs) by appointing a RsP.
Failure to demonstrate GPSR compliance may result in potential delisting of goods from OMPs.
Brand owners:
– Your products must satisfy all existing requirements and the corresponding documents (such as the technical documentation and test reports, and a declaration of conformity, as applicable) must be drawn up.
– You must provide the declaration of conformity (or declaration of performance), if applicable, to your Responsible Person and be able to provide the technical documentation upon request.
– You must also appoint a Responsible Person for your products. As a brand owner, you have flexibility in who you can appoint as the Responsible Person:
– Finally, you must display mandatory warnings and safety information on the product detail pages of your products. This could be an image, a product manual or any other document that contains the required information.
Resellers
If you’re a reseller of products that are in scope of the GPSR, you must:
– Verify the compliance of your products with existing legislation
– Provide your Responsible Person information to Amazon
– Provide your manufacturer information to Amazon
– Display a product picture
– Display mandatory warnings and safety information