What is GPSR and which products does it apply to?

The General Product Safety Regulation — officially Regulation (EU) 2023/988 — is the European Union's updated legal framework for consumer product safety. It came into force across all 27 EU Member States on 13 December 2024, replacing the General Product Safety Directive that had been in place since 2001. Unlike its predecessor, the GPSR is a directly applicable regulation: it does not need to be transposed into national law, which means the same rules apply uniformly from Portugal to Finland, from Ireland to Cyprus.

The GPSR covers the vast majority of non-food consumer products placed on the EU market, regardless of where they are manufactured or who is selling them. This includes electronics and electrical goods, toys, clothing and textiles, furniture and home décor, personal care products, sporting equipment, tools and hardware, pet products, jewellery, and countless other categories. Crucially, it applies to new, used, repaired, and refurbished products alike — there is no exemption for second-hand goods. It also applies to products sold online, through marketplaces such as Amazon, eBay, and Etsy, as well as through your own website.

The core obligation introduced by the GPSR is proactive safety: businesses can no longer simply wait for a product to cause harm before acting. Manufacturers, importers, and distributors must be able to demonstrate — through documented risk assessments and technical files — that their products are safe before placing them on the market. For online sellers, Article 19 adds further requirements to display safety information and manufacturer details on every product listing before the customer buys.

What the law says

Consequences of non-compliance