The European Union is holding online marketplaces accountable. And while Temu and Shein have been hogging the headlines, Brussels has quietly built a compliance framework that reaches every seller shipping into Europe, including the ones operating out of a garage in Ohio or a warehouse in Manchester.
The General Product Safety Regulation, known as the GPSR, came into full effect in December 2024. It replaces a 2001-era directive that, let’s be honest, was written before half of today’s ecommerce sellers were old enough to open a PayPal account.
What the GPSR Actually Does
The regulation is not a niche rulebook for toy manufacturers or pharmaceutical companies. It is a broad framework covering almost every consumer product that does not already fall under a stricter sector-specific rule, such as kitchen goods, sports equipment, home accessories, lifestyle items.
If you sell it to a European consumer, the GPSR has something to say about it.
The law applies regardless of where the seller is based. A merchant in Texas selling ceramic mugs on Etsy to customers in Germany is just as subject to the GPSR as a factory in Shenzhen shipping at scale.
The “Responsible Person” Requirement
Here is the part that is catching sellers off guard. The GPSR requires that every non-EU seller appoints an EU-based “Responsible Person” — a formal, legally recognised contact point inside the European Union who takes on accountability for product safety compliance.
This can be an importer, an authorised representative, a fulfilment provider, or another company willing to put their name on it. What it cannot be is nobody.
The Responsible Person’s name and contact details must appear on the product itself, the packaging, or the accompanying documentation. Burying it in a terms-and-conditions page is not going to cut it.
What Has to Appear on Your Listings
The GPSR does not stop at the label. Safety-related information must be visible on ecommerce listings before a customer completes a purchase, not tucked away in a box that arrives three weeks later.
Depending on the product category, listings may need to include the manufacturer’s name, the Responsible Person’s contact details, a batch or product identifier, intended use, safety warnings, and care instructions. This applies to listings on Amazon, eBay, Etsy, and any merchant-owned site serving EU customers.
Amazon has already rolled out a dedicated “Product Safety” section on its European storefronts. Sellers who have not yet populated it are already behind.
Marketplaces Are Now Compliance Police
Merchants are most likely to encounter the GPSR not through a letter from a regulator, but through their marketplace account. Platforms face their own fines and sanctions if they allow non-compliant listings to persist, which means they are now actively verifying seller information and requesting missing documentation.
In practice, missing EU representation or incomplete product information is resulting in delistings. The regulators may come later, the marketplace suspension comes first.
This enforcement shift sits inside a much larger regulatory push. The EU flagged 4,671 dangerous products in 2025, the majority of them cosmetics originating from China. Earlier this year, the European Commission opened formal proceedings against Shein over illegal product sales and addictive design patterns. Temu was found in breach of the Digital Services Act in July 2025 for failing to properly handle reports of illegal goods.
Neither platform is accused of being sloppy by accident. But their high-profile problems have given Brussels the political cover to tighten rules that now apply to everyone selling into Europe, including the sellers who have never heard of the GPSR and are currently wondering why their Amazon.de listings disappeared.
Traceability: The Part Nobody Wants to Do
Beyond labelling and representation, the GPSR introduces strengthened traceability requirements. Products must carry identifying information that allows authorities to trace items back through the supply chain and remove them quickly if a safety problem emerges.
Manufacturers are required to maintain technical files and safety documentation for up to 10 years. For sellers running dozens or hundreds of SKUs, this is a substantial record-keeping commitment that is easy to underestimate.
The €150 Loophole Is Closing Too
Separate from the GPSR but deeply connected to the same political moment: the EU’s €150 de minimis customs exemption — the rule that allowed low-value parcels to enter Europe duty-free — is being abolished in 2026.
That exemption had quietly fuelled the explosive growth of platforms like Temu, Shein, and AliExpress, with 5.8 billion low-value parcels entering the EU in 2025 alone. European ministers reached an agreement in November 2025 to close the loophole, and customs duties will now apply to all imports regardless of value.
For sellers who built their EU pricing models around duty-free entry, the timing is not coincidental. The GPSR and the customs reform are two parts of the same project.
What Sellers Should Do Now
The first step is establishing whether your products fall within the GPSR’s scope. Most non-food consumer goods do.
The second is appointing an EU-based Responsible Person and updating both labels and listings with the required contact information. Services that offer EU representation for GPSR purposes have become a small industry in themselves over the past 18 months.
The third is getting documentation in order, such as risk assessments, compliance records, traceability information, before a marketplace or a national authority asks for it rather than after.
GPSR compliance is now a fixed cost of selling into Europe, similar in nature to VAT registration. The sellers who treat it as optional are the ones who will find out, the hard way, that it is not.
