EU GPSR: The New Product Safety Rules for Importers

The EU General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR), Regulation (EU) 2023/988, has applied since 13 December 2024. If you import consumer products from China and sell them in the EU, your role changed that day. You are no longer a buyer. The regulation treats you as the economic operator responsible for product safety whenever the manufacturer sits outside the EU: verify test reports and technical documentation before goods ship, print your own name and address on the product, keep records for ten years, and report dangerous products through the EU's Safety Business Gateway.

This guide covers what the GPSR demands of importers of Chinese goods: what changed, what your duties are, and how to comply before a shipment leaves the factory. A sourcing agent like CN Ally earns its keep here, because most GPSR failures trace back to factory documentation gaps, cheapest to close before production finishes.

What is the EU GPSR, and what actually changed from the old GPSD?

The GPSR is Regulation (EU) 2023/988, published in the Official Journal on 23 May 2023 and applicable from 13 December 2024. It replaces Directive 2001/95/EC — the General Product Safety Directive (GPSD). The shift from directive to regulation matters: it applies directly and identically in every Member State, with no national transpositions to navigate.

The European Commission's own summary of the GPSR (EUR-Lex) frames it as a modernisation built for e-commerce and new technologies. For importers, the practical differences are substantial:

GPSD (Directive 2001/95/EC) · GPSR (Regulation (EU) 2023/988)

• Legal form: Directive, transposed differently in each Member State · Regulation, directly applicable and identical everywhere
• Online sales: Written before e-commerce; limited coverage · Explicitly covers products offered online and through distance sales targeting EU consumers
• EU economic operator: Not systematically required · Products need an EU-established economic operator responsible for them
• Importer labelling: General, vague duties · Importer must add its own name, postal and electronic address
• Alert systems: RAPEX rapid information system · Safety Gate (rapid alert for authorities) plus the Safety Business Gateway (notifications from operators)
• Online marketplaces: Barely addressed · Must designate a single point of contact, act on authority removal orders, and enable trader traceability
• Became applicable: Early 2000s · 13 December 2024

The two points that matter most for importers: the GPSR clearly covers products offered online or through distance sales targeting EU consumers, a blind spot under the old directive; and it complements rather than replaces sector-specific legislation, covering the risks harmonised rules leave open.

Who counts as an "importer" under the GPSR?

The definition is precise and worth quoting: an importer is any natural or legal person established within the Union who places a product from a third country on the Union market (Article 3).

Three consequences follow. First, buying finished goods from a supplier in another EU Member State does not make you an importer. The "third country" element is essential. Second, a company outside the EU cannot be an importer at all; a non-EU brand shipping directly to EU consumers needs an authorised representative established in the EU instead. Third, and most consequential for China sourcing: if you order goods manufactured to your design or sold under your own brand, you are probably not the importer. You are the manufacturer.

This private-label trap catches more companies than any other part of the GPSR. A manufacturer is defined as the person who manufactures a product, or has it designed or manufactured, and markets it under that person's name or trademark. Put your logo on a product made by a Chinese OEM factory and you inherit the manufacturer's full burden — risk analysis, technical documentation, traceability — whatever your supply contract says. Many importers who believe they hold the lighter role are, legally, manufacturers.

What must importers actually do? The Article 11 obligations

Article 11 of the GPSR gives importers a verification role: the manufacturer makes the product safe, and the importer proves it before the goods reach the market. Five duties follow.

1. Verify the product and its paperwork before placing it on the market. The importer must ensure the manufacturer carried out a risk analysis, drew up technical documentation, and met the labelling requirements. This is where Chinese sourcing most often fails: a certificate from an unaccredited lab is not a risk analysis, and a one-page test summary is not technical documentation. If you cannot confirm the paperwork describes the product you are actually importing, do not place it on the market.

2. Label the product as the importer. You must add your own company name, postal address and electronic address to the product or its packaging, in addition to — not instead of — the manufacturer's details. Importers usually discover this duty when customs or a marketplace asks whose name is on the carton.

3. Keep the technical documentation for ten years. You must hold a copy of the technical documentation for ten years after the product is placed on the market and make it available to market surveillance authorities on request.

4. Run a complaints process. Check the manufacturer's communication channels for consumer complaints; where necessary, set up your own. Complaints about product safety must actually be investigated.

5. Act and report when something goes wrong. If you have reason to believe a product presents a risk, inform the manufacturer and the market surveillance authorities through the Safety Business Gateway, take corrective action, and stop placing the product on the market while the doubt stands.

The EU responsible person: why Chinese-sourced imports put importers in the hot seat

Under the GPSR, a product may enter the EU market only if an economic operator established in the EU is responsible for its safety. Where the manufacturer is outside the EU — the normal case when you source from China — that operator is usually the importer. Your name and address go on the product, you hold the documentation, and you answer the authorities.

That responsibility cannot be delegated to the factory by contract. If the supplier disappears, the liability stays with you in the EU.

For harmonised products such as electronics, a similar economic-operator duty has applied since July 2021 under Regulation (EU) 2019/1020. The GPSR generalises it to all consumer products.

The practical consequence: the factory's compliance capability is your compliance capability. An independent factory audit that examines documentation systems — not just production lines — shows whether a supplier can support the duties the regulation places on your shoulders.

Technical documentation: what importers must hold for ten years

Importers do not write the technical documentation. The manufacturer does. But importers must obtain it, check that it is complete and coherent, and keep a copy for ten years. Treat a factory that cannot produce a proper file as a stop signal, not a detail to sort out after shipment.

A defensible file typically contains:

Document · What the importer should check

• Risk analysis: Covers intended use and foreseeable misuse
• Test reports: Match applicable standards and describe the actual product variant
• Product description and identification: Describes the exact SKU shipped, materials and factory
• Labelling evidence: Photos or artwork proofs showing both parties' details and batch identification
• Instructions and warnings: In each destination country's language, adequate for the risks
• Traceability records: Identification tying shipped goods back to the file

Two failure modes recur with Chinese suppliers: the golden sample, where test reports describe a prototype later re-engineered to cut costs, and the paper-only file, where a certificate exists with no testing behind it. Both are discoverable before shipment if someone compares the file against production reality at the factory. That comparison is one of the highest-value things an on-the-ground team can do, because a market surveillance authority will eventually make it too.

Labelling and traceability: what must physically appear on the product

Every consumer product under the GPSR must carry traceability information on the product or its packaging, plus safety information in the language of the destination Member State:

Element · Whose duty · Where it appears

• Manufacturer's name, registered trade name or trademark, plus postal and electronic address: Importer verifies presence (the underlying duty sits with the manufacturer) · On the product, packaging, or an accompanying document
• Importer's name, registered trade name or trademark, plus postal and electronic address: Importer adds it (Article 11) · On the product or its packaging
• Type, batch or serial number, or another identifier: Importer verifies · On the product, visible and legible
• Instructions and safety information: Importer checks adequacy and language · Accompanying the product, in the destination country's language

Digital information may be provided in addition — a QR code linking to a website with further details, for example — but it cannot replace the required physical labelling. The distance-sales rules add a further layer: online offers must clearly display the manufacturer or responsible person's details, product identification including a picture of the product, and the relevant warnings or safety information in a suitable language. If your marketplace or webshop listings do not show this today, that is a compliance gap, not a cosmetic one.

Safety Gate, the Safety Business Gateway, and accident reporting

Two systems, easily confused, with different jobs. Safety Gate is the EU's rapid alert system through which national authorities notify each other about dangerous products and the measures taken against them, the successor to the old RAPEX system. The Safety Business Gateway is the separate portal where economic operators, including importers, notify authorities about dangerous products and accidents. The European Commission's overview of the new product safety framework describes how the two fit together.

The accident-reporting duty is the one importers underestimate most. If an accident related to your product causes death or serious adverse effects — injuries, other bodily damage, illness, chronic health effects — the GPSR requires notification through the Safety Business Gateway without undue delay from the moment you learn of it. The threshold is high, but once it is met, the route is fixed: the Business Gateway, to the competent national authority.

Online marketplaces carry their own parallel duties: a single point of contact for authorities and consumers, internal product-safety processes, and action on authority orders to remove dangerous products — guidance notes a maximum of two working days. For an importer selling through marketplaces, the implication is direct: a product flagged anywhere in the EU can disappear from every listing quickly, and reinstatement requires the documentation the GPSR already told you to keep.

What are the penalties for getting GPSR wrong?

The GPSR does not set EU-wide fine amounts. Instead, it requires every Member State to lay down penalties that are effective, proportionate and dissuasive, so actual sanctions vary by country. Consistent across the Union is the enforcement toolkit: authorities can demand documentation, order withdrawals, require recalls, and publicise the case through Safety Gate, where every other Member State sees it. A single notification can close sales channels across the entire EU at once.

For most importers, the commercial consequences arrive before any official fine. Marketplaces routinely suspend listings that lack responsible-person details or valid documentation, and customs can hold consignments. Those are business interruptions measured in weeks and lost seasons: treating GPSR compliance as paperwork to handle "if asked" is the most expensive reading of the regulation available.

A GPSR decision rule for importers sourcing from China

Use this three-question rule before you approve any shipment from China:

1. Can your supplier hand you a complete technical file today — risk analysis, test reports matched to the actual product, labelling proofs — rather than promising it "after the container ships"? If not, the factory is not GPSR-ready, and neither are you.
2. Is the EU operator's name and address already locked into the product artwork? Relabelling at a European warehouse is expensive, and a sticker on the outer carton does not fix a missing product label.
3. Who receives consumer complaints, and who investigates them? If the answer is nobody in particular, set up that channel now.

If the answer to any of the three is no, do not ship until it is yes. Every importer duty in the GPSR must be satisfied before the product is placed on the market, not reconstructed after a regulator asks.

This is the stage where having someone on the ground in China pays for itself: verifying that the factory's paperwork describes the product actually being built, not a golden sample from two years ago, and that labels go on the right products before the container seals. If you want that checked before your next order, write to hi@cnally.com, or look at our quality control and factory audit services.

Frequently asked questions

If I am already the EU importer, do I still need to appoint a separate EU responsible person?

No. Where the manufacturer is outside the EU, the importer is normally the EU economic operator the regulation requires. A separate appointment only becomes necessary when no EU-established operator exists anywhere in the chain: a non-EU brand selling directly to EU consumers through its own website, for example, must designate an authorised representative established in the EU.

Does the GPSR apply to stock placed on the market before 13 December 2024?

Products lawfully placed on the EU market before that date may continue to be made available. Anything placed on the market on or after 13 December 2024 must comply with the GPSR in full.

Does the GPSR replace CE marking or sector-specific directives?

No. Sector legislation such as the toy safety rules or the Low Voltage Directive keeps priority for the risks it covers; the GPSR fills the gaps and adds horizontal duties on traceability, documentation, complaints and online sales.

Can a QR code on the packaging replace the physical importer label?

No. The GPSR allows product and traceability information to be provided digitally in addition — for instance via a QR code linking to a website — but the required labelling must still appear physically on the product, its packaging or accompanying documents.

What happens if I sell a Chinese product under my own brand?

You are treated as the manufacturer, not the importer. All manufacturer obligations — risk analysis, technical documentation, traceability marking — fall on you, whatever your supply contract says. Get advice before you private-label, not after.

Do importers really have to handle consumer complaints?

Yes, in substance. Importers must check the manufacturer's communication channels, set up their own where necessary, and investigate complaints relating to product safety. It is one of the duties small importers most often discover too late, usually when an authority asks for the complaint register.