General Product Safety Regulation for Amazon Sellers
The GPSR reacts to the rise of marketplaces such as Amazon - a big chunk of the regulation is explicitly dedicated to online marketplaces. The basic principle reflects European precautionary philosophy that the seller is responsible for product safety (and the law makes sellers go through certain motions, see below), products are traceable and can easily be recalled should there be any issues (Amazon will be required to send an email to your customers if a regulator finds a safety issue) and are easy to inspect by national regulators.
- add your contact information (legal name or registered TM, address, email) to the product (preferred by GPSR) or packaging,
- if you are not the importer, add your importer’s contact information (same as above) to the product (preferred by GPSR) or packaging,
- if you are not based in the EU, add your EU responsible person’s contact information (legal name, address, email) anywhere (an insert is sufficient)
- draft use and safety instructions to be displayed on Amazon in case your product needs them (e.g. care/washing instructions),
- be able to trace your products (we provide suggestions below, though you may get away with not doing anything in this regard).
Since the regulation hasn’t entered into force yet, it’s not absolutely clear how Amazon will go about enforcing it, but it strongly resembles CE marking requirements, so we can look for inspiration there. If you have to comply with CE, you are most likely already compliant. For everyone else, ask yourself these questions:
e.g. You are selling pencils. It’s obvious how to use them. No need to tell people they are used for writing or that they should avoid poking out their eyes. If you sell pillows, however, you need to provide care instructions. If you sell tea, you should tell people how to brew it… food is not within the scope of this regulation, but just to make a point. Usually, you would do this anyway because you don’t want to get bad reviews as a result of the customer’s own incompetence.
