The EU’s new safety regulation for products will come into force on 13 December, replacing the existing General Product Safety Directive and the Food Imitating Product Directive. 

The General Safety Product Regulation (GPSR) aims to enhance the safety of all consumer products in the EU market and creates specific obligations to ensure that businesses are responsible to ensure it. It applies to all non-food products and to all sales channels.

New aspects of the GSPR include the use of the precautionary principle, applied widely to all stakeholders for product safety; specific product safety obligations for both economic operators and providers of online marketplaces; additional product traceability requirements; longer list of aspects to be taken into account when assessing the safety of products, including for new technologies; obligatory accident reporting to authorities by businesses; stricter market surveillance rules; specific rules on how to handle product safety recalls, including a mandatory recall notice template; and the right to remedy for consumers. 

Online marketplaces will now need sellers to provide details such as the manufacturers name, brand, postal and email addresses, and to designate a person responsible for the product within the bloc. Platforms that fail to monitor, report, or remove illegal or unsafe products from their marketplaces face hefty fines. 

ASEAN retailers exporting to the EU or selling products on EU online marketplaces should take note of the revised GSPR and ensure compliance to it. For more information, feel free to contact ASEANcham-EU.