The European Union (EU) has brought into effect yet another sweeping regulation that may well affect businesses around the world. In the past five years, The EU has already rolled out a variety of regulatory frameworks with global implications, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the AI Act, and the Digital Services Act.
Beginning on December 13, 2024, the EU implemented the General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR), which regulates the safety of every product sold into the EU market which is not otherwise governed by a separate safety regime.
Whether a product is “safe” or not depends on the rules of the product class. Food and drug products are already regulated through other laws and are therefore exempt from the GPSR. Textiles and jewelry, for example, do not have a separate regulatory regime and therefore will be subject to the applicable safety rules of the Member States.
“Safety” in Europe is not limited to physical integrity (as one would expect in a products liability case in the US), but also encompasses mental and social well-being. The fines for violating the GPSR can be steep, and the EU has reserved for itself the right to ban non-EU businesses from doing business inside the territory altogether for violations.
A seller who is subject to the GPSR and who is importing goods into the EU must appoint a “responsible person” in the EU to act as a compliance agent there. The seller must also adhere to additional labeling guidelines, including identifying both the manufacturer and the importer of the product.
This new regulation may seem daunting to non-EU businesses, especially to smaller retailers who only occasionally sell products to buyers in the EU. The good news is in Article 4 of the GPSR.
Whether or not a seller in the US has “made a product available in the EU” will depend on whether the offer is “targeted at consumers in the Union,” meaning if the seller specifically “directs its activities” towards the EU.
The analysis of whether activities are “directed at” the EU will be based on such facts as what language the seller’s website uses, whether the seller offers payment options only available in a Member State of the EU, the currency the seller accepts, and whether the seller’s advertising copy specifically targets consumers in a particular Member State or in the EU broadly.
For example, if a clothing retailer’s webpage is in English, the prices are listed in US dollars, it offers Visa and Mastercard credit card and PayPal payment information, and it sells a handful of knit sweaters to a few buyers in France, that is almost certainly not a sale that will fall under the GPSR. Even if the seller’s advertising copy refers to a Member State (e.g., if it says that the sweaters are made from “the wool from German Alpacas”), this will likely still not be an issue.
However, if the seller were to offer both a German and an English translation on their webpage and list the price in Euros, that could be enough to trigger the GSPR. If the GSPR is triggered, then the sweater would have to be certified as complying with the applicable product safety regulations in Europe.
However, regardless of Article 4, platforms like Amazon and Etsy may require sellers to take certain actions to comply with the new regulation in order to stay listed on the platform. Currently, Amazon is requiring compliance only with respect to EU stores. Currently, Etsy is advising its sellers to contact legal counsel to determine whether the GPSR applies but is reserving the right to deactivate accounts about which it receives complaints from the relevant EU authorities.
For retailers in the US who ship or want to ship to Europe, legal counsel can offer counsel either in achieving compliance with the new General Product Safety Regulation or in avoiding the need for compliance.
If you have any further questions about the new General Product Safety Regulation, please contact Tara Aaron-Stelluto.
Tara Aaron-Stelluto