Responsible Persons under the General Product Safety Regulation

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The General Product Safety Regulation requires that products that fall under its scope should have a responsible person who is based in the European Union.

This essentially means that an entity must be present within the EU that can be contacted by market surveillance authorities in case of compliance checks. This also impacts companies based outside the EU, that are selling to consumers located in the EU.

In this guide, we address common questions associated with the requirements for responsible persons under the General Product Safety Regulation.

What is a Responsible Person in the context of the GPSR?

Under the General Product Safety Regulation, which covers many consumer products, there must be a responsible person associated with each product sold.

Article 16 of the regulation refers to the Market Surveillance Regulation (EU) 2019/1020:

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1. A product covered by this Regulation shall not be placed on the market unless there is an economic operator established in the Union who is responsible for the tasks set out in Article 4(3) of Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 in respect to that product. Article 4(2) and (3) of that Regulation shall apply to products covered by this Regulation. […]

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Article 4(2) of the Market Surveillance Regulation, even if it does not directly mention the term “responsible person”, provides that such economic operators can only be the:

• EU Manufacturer
• EU Importer
• EU Authorised representative
• EU Fulfilment service provider

This means that if you are not based in the EU, you cannot act as the responsible person for your products. Thus, if you intend to sell directly to EU consumers, you must find an authorised representative.

What are the responsibilities of the Responsible Person?

The responsible person must perform certain tasks, such as the following:

a. Regularly checking that the product complies with the technical documentation

b. Ensuring that the product comes with instructions and safety information (if applicable)

c. Ensuring that the product comes with the required traceability information

d. Record-keeping requirements

e. Cooperating with market surveillance authorities

Who can act as a responsible person?

The responsible person can only be an:

a. EU manufacturer – a business that has a product manufactured and sells it under their name or trademark

b. EU importer – a business that imports products from third countries into the EU

c. EU authorised representative – an individual or a business that receives written instructions from the manufacturer to act on its behalf for certain tasks

d. EU fulfilment service provider – a business that offers at least two of the following services:

• Warehousing
• Packaging
• Addressing
• Dispatching

Can a non-EU company be a responsible person?

As discussed in the previous section, a responsible person must be based in the EU. Thus, only EU companies can act as responsible persons under the General Product Safety Regulation.

How can a non-EU company appoint a responsible person?

If you are located outside of the EU and intend to sell directly to consumers in the EU (i.e. B2C), you need to appoint an authorised representative as the responsible person for your products. You can find a list of such companies in this guide.

Which products are covered by the responsible person requirement?

The General Product Safety Regulation covers most consumer products, including the following:

• Treadmills
• Soothers for babies and young children
• Baby carriers
• Floating leisure articles for use on and in the water
• Roller skates

However, there are some product categories that the regulation does not cover:

• Medicinal products for human or veterinary use
• Food
• Feed
• Living plants and animals
• Animal by-products and derived products
• Plant protection products
• Equipment provided in the context of a transport service
• Certain aircrafts
• Antiques

You can find more details in Article 2 of the regulation.

Do UK companies selling to the EU need a responsible person?

After Brexit, the UK is not a part of the EU anymore. This means that if your business is based in the UK (and not in the EU) and you want to sell your products B2C in the EU, you would have to appoint an authorised representative to act as the responsible person for your products.

Do Amazon sellers need a responsible person to comply with GPSR?

In general, Amazon requires compliance with EU and national regulations. Thus, if you intend to sell directly to consumers in the EU, you must comply with the General Product Safety Regulation and its requirements affecting the responsible person.

We recently found an announcement post on Seller Central Europe that states that Amazon sellers must comply with General Product Safety Regulation requirements, including the following:

a. It’s mandatory to have a Responsible Person established within the EU for your non-food products.

b. Ensure that you label your products with the Responsible Person’s contact information in one of the EU’s official languages.