Article / 3 Dec 2024

General Product Safety Regulation and exporting to the EU

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Gateley Legal

With new provisions under the EU General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR) coming into force on 13 December 2024, UK businesses that export into the EU must act now to ensure compliance and avoid significant fines. Here, we answer some common questions concerning the GPSR, and how businesses within its scope must prepare.

What is the General Product Safety Regulation?

UK businesses have operated for some time in accordance with the original GPSR which was introduced in 2005 in line with the General Product Safety Directive. This remains the key piece of legislation in the UK for general product safety regulation, outside of sector specific legislation, for example, for toys, cosmetics, medical products, etc. However, an updated GPSR was introduced for Member States within the EU on 12 June 2023, with new provisions set to come into force on 13 December 2024. In the EU it replaces both the General Product Safety Directive 2001 and the Food Imitating Product Directive 1987, providing a new regime that is better equipped to deal with challenges posed by new technologies, regulating also products entering from outside the EU, and online marketplaces.

To whom does the GPSR apply?

The GPSR applies to manufacturers whose products are exported to, and sold in, the EU. It also carries obligations for online marketplaces who target EU consumers, including websites that sell products as part of their functionality. Interestingly, businesses that make significant upgrades or updates to products, such as those that provide software updates, will also be considered manufacturers, and will therefore be subject to GPSR.

What are the new obligations for manufacturers?

Under the GPSR, manufacturers that export to the EU must:

  • Identify a ‘responsible person’ who will be based within the EU and who will serve as the main point of contact for supervisory authorities concerning any enforcement actions or compliance checks. The ‘responsible person’ and their contact information must be displayed clearly on the product or its packaging.
  • Conduct more detailed safety assessments of their products, taking into consideration the risks and impact of any applicable new or emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI) or the Internet of Things (IoT). These assessments must be documented and kept for ten years.
  • Provide key contact information for consumers on the product or its documentation. This should include the manufacturer’s name, registered trade mark and email, as well as details that help to clearly identify the make and model of the product. Any instructions or safety information must be easy to read and in the target consumer’s language.
  • Update complaint handling and product cons procedures by setting up clear communication channels for consumers to report issues, and logging these on an internal register. Manufacturers will also need to notify the EU Commission of any serious incidents via its new Safety Gate portal without undue delay. The GPSR provides further detail on the requirements for these procedures, including a template for recall notices.

What are the new obligations for online marketplaces?

Online marketplaces that sell into the EU face an unprecedented number of obligations concerning product safety, including:

  • Providing a single point of contact for both authorities and consumers on product safety matters. This information, including name and contact details, must be registered on Safety Gate.
  • Updating user interfaces to ensure traders and manufacturers can display all of the information required by the GPSR – including contact information, product batch and serial number, and safety information – within the product listing.
  • Comply with Member States regarding any illegal content that is hosted on the marketplace. Under the GPSR, Member State authorities will have the power to compel an online marketplace to remove, disable access to, or publish a warning next to, any products in breach of the GPSR within two days of receiving the enforcement notice.
  • Directly notify consumers of product recalls by publishing information clearly in a part of the website that is the most likely to reach affected consumers.
  • Establish mechanisms for handling consistently non-compliant traders. Where a trader repeatedly breaches the GPSR, online marketplaces will be expected to undertake proactive measures, such as suspending the trader from the platform.
  • Sharing information with the relevant authorities. Online marketplaces now have greater obligations to cooperate with authorities at both an EU and a national level, whether that is by sharing relevant information with law enforcement or allowing authorities access to relevant data on their platforms.

What are the consequences of non-compliance?

The GPSR allows individual Member States to set penalties for non-compliance, with no maximum penalty stipulated. This means that manufacturers and online marketplaces could face significant fines for non-compliance, in addition to the reputational damage caused by increased transparency and reporting obligations.

The GPSR has also been added to the EU Collective Redress Scheme, which means that consumers could potentially bring collective actions against manufacturers and online marketplaces for product safety failures.

If my business is in scope of the GPSR, what should I do next?

With the new provisions set to come into force on 13 December 2024, businesses must act now to ensure they are compliant. This includes carefully reviewing procedures concerning risk assessments, product labelling, complaints, and recalls, to ensure these will be fit for purpose under the GPSR.

Online marketplaces will also need to ensure their user interfaces and journeys can adequately accommodate the new requirements.

UK product safety review

At the same time as the introduction of the EU GPSR, the UK Government, via the Office for Product Safety and Standards, has been engaged in a detailed consultation and review of all aspects of the UK product safety regime to address issues such as the digitisation of the consumer market place, online sales and other technological advances. Many of the changes adopted by the EU are likely to be replicated in the UK, and most recently the Government has published its response to the consultation process and its “Next Steps” document. A separate article will be shortly available summarising the latest proposals under consideration.

Get in touch

Our product safety specialists within the Regulatory & Business Defence team can support your businesses in all aspects of product safety, and in particular when a product safety issue emerges. To find out more, please contact a member of the team below.