EU Market Access: GPSR Compliant from Launch

The EU GPSR (Regulation 2023/988) came into force on 13 December 2024, replacing the older General Product Safety Directive (GPSD) that had governed EU product safety for over two decades. The new regulation significantly expands obligations for online sellers, introduces mandatory authorized representative requirements for non-EU businesses, and creates direct accountability for online marketplaces that facilitate sales of non-compliant products. GPSR applies to all consumer products sold in the EU market - covering physical goods that are not already subject to sector-specific EU safety legislation such as toys (EN 71), electrical equipment (Low Voltage Directive), or medical devices. Products that blend categories (e.g., smart consumer electronics, wellness devices, novelty items) may be simultaneously subject to GPSR and sector-specific legislation. We assess your specific product against all applicable EU regulatory frameworks to determine the precise compliance pathway required.

GPSR requires non-EU manufacturers and importers to designate an EU-based Authorized Representative for their products. This is one of the most significant new obligations introduced by GPSR. It did not exist under the old General Product Safety Directive. The Authorized Representative must be established in the EU and must be named on product labeling or documentation, making them the point of contact for EU market surveillance authorities. The Authorized Representative bears responsibility for ensuring the product's technical documentation is complete, the product conforms to applicable safety requirements, and that market surveillance authorities can access all required information. We provide EU Authorized Representative services for non-EU brands selling consumer products in the EU market. Our EU-registered entity assumes the Authorized Representative designation, fulfilling the obligation while providing you with an EU contact address for marketplace documentation requirements. Our service includes maintaining product technical documentation, responding to market surveillance authority inquiries, and managing RAPEX recall notification procedures if safety issues arise.

GPSR requires every product placed on the EU market to be genuinely safe and to have documented evidence supporting that conclusion. The product safety assessment must evaluate the product's characteristics, its interaction with foreseeable users (including vulnerable groups such as children and elderly people), and the risks associated with reasonably foreseeable misuse. This is not a box-ticking exercise. EU market surveillance authorities and online marketplaces are increasing their scrutiny of safety documentation quality. Our technical documentation service prepares risk assessments, safety analyses, and test report packages that demonstrate genuine product safety evaluation rather than template-generated compliance theatre. We coordinate with accredited EU laboratories to obtain test reports where physical testing is required, and we prepare safety assessment narratives that accurately reflect the product's risk profile and the evidence basis for the safety conclusion.

GPSR compliance is not a one-time certification. It requires ongoing monitoring of product safety, responsiveness to market surveillance findings, and proactive engagement with product safety signals that emerge through customer complaints, adverse event reports, or RAPEX alerts. The RAPEX rapid alert system notifies EU member state authorities of dangerous products and triggers coordinated enforcement across the EU. A product flagged in RAPEX faces simultaneous enforcement action in multiple EU countries, creating severe revenue and reputational consequences. Our ongoing GPSR compliance service monitors RAPEX alerts for product categories relevant to your catalog, manages customer complaint intake systems that identify potential safety signals, and maintains your product technical documentation to reflect the current product specification. When safety issues are identified, we coordinate corrective action procedures including product modifications, consumer notifications, and where necessary, voluntary recalls - managing the process to minimize harm while demonstrating the proactive compliance posture that regulators respond to favorably.