Here is the response from the EU regarding the questions that we posed to our MEP regarding GPSR and the implementation by the EU and Amazon's policy with regard to it. In particular the references to 'responsible person' are very interesting.
It would appear that a general settling in period will be allowed and more time to get everything in order, particularly that products pre 13th December are covered by the previous legislation and not the new GPSR.
General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR)
1. Communication/outreach
The Commission informed me that, over the last one and a half years, it carried out several outreach activities to ensure that all stakeholders are prepared for the entry into application of the General Product Safety Regulation. This included outreach to business associations, discussions with Member States but also the organisation of large-scale events like the International Product Safety Week in October 2024.
Furthermore, the Commission specifically informed me that, in this context, on 20 February 2024 it met in Dublin with the Irish Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC), the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and with representatives of the 17 other Irish authorities responsible for specific Union harmonisation legislation to discuss specific implementation challenges. As a side meeting the Commission also assisted on the same day the Irish Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) and the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment on a meeting they organised with Irish business organisations and businesses that are established in Ireland (around 30 business representatives attended this meeting) to discuss specific business obligations under the GPSR. To the Commission’s understanding, the Department was regularly in exchange with Irish businesses.
The Commission has provided information for economic operators about the new GPSR on its website (here). The Commission has also informed me that it will launch an awareness raising campaign on the new obligations under the GPSR, targeting businesses, at the end of this year.
2. Technical clarifications as to the meaning of the GPSR
As a general matter, we cannot now challenge the policy choices made by the co-legislators after adoption of the legislation. The time for policy consideration and input into that process was during the legislative process, when all interested parties will have had opportunity to comment.
• How is a label with the responsible person details going to be attached to every product, which is a requirement of the legislation?
If there is not enough space on the product itself, the details of the responsible person can be provided on the product’s packaging, the parcel or in a separate document (Art. 16(3) GPSR). The details of manufacturers (Art. 9(6)) and importers (Art. 11(3)) can likewise be placed on the packaging or in a separate document, where there is not enough space on the product.
• GPSR... is supposed to protect consumers from products that might harm them that was previously covered by the CE mark that was the responsibility of the manufacturer. So why is the seller now responsible for adding the responsible person details and adding the label to the product?
The GPSR applies to non-harmonised products, i.e. products that are not covered by sector-specific EU legislation. The CE-mark is a way of conferring conformity for harmonised products. The rules introduced by the GPSR are a general safety net and are different to the rules applying to harmonised products, including rules as to the use of the CE-mark. This is also true of the obligations applying to economic operators.
Distributors are not responsible for adding the label with the details of the manufacturer and, where applicable, importer. They are responsible for checking that the manufacturer and/or importer have done so (Art. 12(1)).
Distributors are not responsible for adding the details of the responsible person. On the other hand, online retailers are obliged to display the contact details of the responsible person, when there is one (Art. 19(b)). The 18-month period between publication of the GPSR and its entry into application (see further the next bullet-point below) was intended, inter alia, to give online retails time to prepare for this requirement.
• It would seem to me that in ALL cases the responsible person should be the manufacturer and the manufacturer should label the products accordingly, but what about the 10's of millions of products that are already in the channel and have no labels?
Products placed on the market before 13 December 2024 can comply with the old regime (Art. 51). This provision allows those products to continue to circulate after the GPSR starts to apply. As regards completely new products, the text of the new GPSR was published in the Official Journal of the EU on 23 May 2023. This means that economic operators will have had just over 18 months to become familiar with, and prepare for, the changes that it introduces.
• What about the Amazon list of responsible persons that contains about 50 names, none of which match the manufacturers of my products?
The responsible person is not a manufacturer. A responsible person is appointed to fulfil certain tasks of the manufacturer when the manufacturer is not established in the EU. For that reason, any list of responsible persons will never match a list of manufacturers - the two are mutually exclusive.
As regards the Amazon list of responsible persons, I cannot independently verify this. This is presumably because this information is only available, within the Amazon website, to sellers.
• Why is the EU not asking the manufacturers of the products to ... add their details to the responsible person list.
As explained above, responsible persons and manufacturers are different under the GPSR.
3. Compliance/enforcement
The EU have stated that they will be undertaking test purchases from shops to enforce the legislation and issuing fines of up to €35k for non compliance, they are also intending to purchase from online entities and if the product has a responsible person registered, but there is no label on the product, then a fine will be imposed.
Penalties for infringement of the GPSR are a competence of Member States (Art. 44). They are competent to impose fines in case of non-compliance with GPSR obligations.
The Commission has a role in coordinating and steering the network of Member State authorities under the Consumer Safety Network (CSN, Art. 30 GPSR). The Commission can propose to the CSN joint actions (CASP - Coordinated Actions for the Safety of Products, Art. 31 GPSR) and product safety sweeps (Art. 32 GPSR). Sweeps are market-testing activities intended to check the safety of particular products or categories of products. They can cover products sold online.
