What is the Government’s advice on GPSR?
The government advises that the General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR) applies to all consumer products which are to be placed on the EU or Northern Irish markets. The manufacturer must make sure that all goods meet the safety requirements outlined in the regulation and conduct an internal risk assessment that is then written up into a document.
Manufacturers must make sure that products are easily identifiable by consumers by including a batch or serial number where possible. If not, the information should be on the packaging of the product. Products should, where needed, contain instructions for use in languages that consumers can understand. This means that translations of instructions from English to the necessary EU language are needed.
All manufacturers must make sure that consumers can contact them if they want to. This means that your product or its packaging must include:
Your company's name, registered trade name or registered trademark
A contact point such as a webpage
Economic operator (also known as a “Point of access”, or "Authorised representative")
To continue to sell your goods into the EU and Northern Ireland, having made sure that you meet the safety regulations outlined within GPSR, your business must find an economic operator. This operator must be based in the EU or Northern Ireland and is responsible for confirming that your goods meet the standards they need to.
These economic operators, also known as a “point of access” or "authorised representative", ensure that your business is contactable if your product causes damage or injury. This legislation was designed to stop countries like China flooding the European market with goods that might be unsafe without any way of identifying the original supplier, or checking what standards the goods meet (such as a CE Mark).
The EU economic operator must check that your product's documentation is in line with GPSR and then store that documentation for a period of ten years from the date the product is placed on the market. This is so that the EU can quickly and easily check the conformity documentation, if necessary, ‘in house’ rather than seeking to secure the documentation directly from your business.
The economic operator for your business can be:
An EU or NI based manufacturer of your goods
An EU or NI based importer of your goods
An authorised individual who legally lives in the EU or NI
A company who provides: warehousing, packaging, addressing, dispatching
What other resources are available?
The current set of current government advice: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/general-product-safety-regulations-northern-ireland/eu-regulation-2023988-on-general-product-safety-detailed-guidance
The current set of guidance from the European Union: https://trade.ec.europa.eu/access-to-markets/en/news/eus-general-product-safety-regulation-gpsr-new-era-consumer-protection
For guidance from Made in Britain, a non-profit organisation helping businesses with trade marking issues: https://www.madeinbritain.org/news/complying-with-the-eu-general-product-safety-regulation-gpsr-nov-24
For more general guidance regarding international trade and exporting for your business view the Federation of Small Business: https://www.fsb.org.uk/knowledge/fsb-infohub/fsb-trade-advisory-hub.html
What can I do?
If you are feeling overwhelmed and are unsure what to do, it is important to contact your sector’s trade body for more personalised advice and information. If you have EU or NI businesses that import your goods, then it may well be worth asking them if they are prepared to become your EU economic operator.
This article first appeared on Best for Britain