/Also available in Spanish.
Since 13 December 2024, a marketplace like Amazon can pull your listing — or customs can hold your goods — over one thing: not complying with the GPSR. If you import to sell in the EU, this regulation applies to you even if your product carries no CE marking.
What the GPSR is, and since when it binds you
The GPSR is Regulation (EU) 2023/988 on general product safety. It has applied since 13 December 2024 and replaces the old Directive 2001/95/EC. It covers consumer products, with or without CE marking, and pays particular attention to online sales.
What trips importers up: the EU responsible person
This is what blocks most files. Article 16 of the GPSR (read with Article 4 of Regulation (EU) 2019/1020) requires an economic operator established in the EU who is responsible for the product. If your manufacturer is outside the EU (China, the UK, the US…), you cannot place the product on the market — or sell it at a distance — unless an EU importer or an EU-established responsible person is identified. Their details must appear on the product or its packaging.
What it requires in practice
- An identified EU responsible person (you as importer, or a designated party).
- Technical documentation and Declaration of Conformity kept and available to authorities.
- A risk analysis of the product, even without CE marking.
- Traceability: product identification (type, batch) and the operators in the chain.
- Manufacturer and importer details on the product or packaging, plus safety instructions and warnings in the country’s language.
- Accident notification via the Safety Business Gateway and cooperation with Safety Gate alerts.
Marketplaces already ask for it
Amazon and other platforms have required, since December 2024, the EU responsible person’s details and the product safety information. Without them, they remove or block the listing. It is how most importers discover the GPSR: once their listing is already down.
How we solve it
We do not stop at telling you what is missing. We build the whole file — risk analysis, Declaration of Conformity, technical documentation and traceability — and set up the EU responsible person. A qualified technician reviews and signs it: if an authority or a marketplace stops you, we answer, not a disclaimer that leaves the liability with you. Twenty years and hundreds of approved dossiers.
Not sure whether your product complies? Talk to our team through our contact page and start with an Express Advisory: in 48-72 h we tell you whether it is legal in the EU and what it needs.
Frequently asked questions
Does CE marking exempt me from the GPSR? No. The GPSR applies to consumer products whether or not they carry CE marking; only what a specific sectoral safety rule already covers falls outside it. In practice, most imported consumer goods are in scope.
Who can be the EU responsible person? An importer established in the EU, an EU-based manufacturer, a designated authorised representative, or a fulfilment service provider established in the EU. What matters is that one exists and that its details appear on the product.
I only sell online — am I off the hook? The opposite. The GPSR strengthens distance-selling obligations: without a responsible person and the published safety information, you cannot offer the product in the EU.