FAQ’s on the General Product Safety Directive and Regulations.

The General Product Safety Directive (GPSD), soon to become the General Product Safety Regulations (GPSR) in the EU and the General Product Safety Regulations in the UK have the same approach and similar requirements and they require a ‘manufacturer’s representative’ or an ‘importer’ to represent products.

You can find them here:

General Product Safety Directive for the EU 

General Product Safety Regulations for the UK

In GPSD article 2(e) / GPSR Reg.2, the producer is defined as

• the manufacturer of the product, when he is established in the EU, 
• any other person presenting himself as the manufacturer by affixing to the product his name, trade mark or other distinctive mark, 
• or the person who reconditions the product;
• the manufacturer’s representative, when the manufacturer is not established in the Community;
• or, if there is no representative established in the Community, the importer of the product;
• other professionals in the supply chain, insofar as their activities may affect the safety properties of a product; 

In GPSD article 3 and 5 / GPSR Reg.5 and 7, requires the producer to:

• make sure the product is safe
• provide consumers with the relevant safety information 
• adopt appropriate measures enabling them to be informed of risks which these products might pose, 
• take proportionate action including warning consumers, withdrawing or recalling the product. 

These measures enabling the producer to be informed of risks must include, for example, 

• indicating the identity and details of the producer, product and batch reference on the product or its packaging, unless it is justified, not to give such indication, 
• sample testing, investigating, keeping a register of complaints and keeping distributors informed of such monitoring. 

The EU GPS directive defines the producer so that the only products without a producer in the EU are those sold direct to end users by a non-EU manufacturer, for example purchased online. 

EU distributors and retailers bringing in non-EU products are considered to be the importer. If they fulfil the obligations of the producer, the non-EU manufacturer does not need to appoint an AR.

The UK GPS regulations apply the same principles to Great Britain.

The need for products to have a producer does not depend on how hazardous the product is.

The GPS directive and Regulations require the producer to adopt measures commensurate with the characteristics of the products which they supply. This means that the measures must be proportional to the risk. If a product presents no hazards, then no measures need to be applied. This does not mean that a producer is not needed, it just means they don’t need to adopt any measures. The producer still needs to represent the product to the authorities to explain why there are no hazards and no safety measures.