Artifact GuideEU

EU General Product Safety Regulation Compliance

GPSR compliance starts with the Article 5 rule that economic operators may place or make available only safe consumer products on the EU market.

Use this page to map the practical obligations for risk assessment, technical documentation, economic operators, responsible persons, traceability, marketplace listings, accidents, recalls, and evidence.

Author
Sorena AI
Published
May 9, 2026
Updated
May 9, 2026
Sections
5

Structured answer sets in this page tree.

Primary sources
5

Cited legal and guidance references.

Publication metadata
Sorena AI
Published May 9, 2026
Updated May 9, 2026
Overview

Compliance under the EU General Product Safety Regulation is not a generic policy exercise. A product team needs evidence that the product is safe, the right EU actor is accountable, online listings show required safety and traceability information, accident and dangerous-product notifications can be made through the Safety Business Gateway, and recall notices can reach affected consumers without delay.

Section 1

Core GPSR compliance obligations

The baseline obligation is simple and demanding: economic operators may place or make available on the market only safe products. The assessment must look beyond a finished-product label and consider design, technical features, composition, packaging, assembly, installation, use, maintenance, foreseeable interaction with other products, presentation, warnings, consumer categories, food-like or child-appealing appearance, and product-specific cybersecurity or evolving functionality where those features can affect safety.

Manufacturers must turn that assessment into an internal risk analysis and technical documentation before placing a product on the market. The documentation must at least describe the product and the safety-relevant characteristics, and where risks require it, include risk analysis, mitigation decisions, test outcomes, and the standards or other safety elements applied.

  • Record the Article 5 safety conclusion for each consumer product, variant, material change, firmware or software change, package change, and market-entry decision.
  • Keep the manufacturer technical documentation current and available to market surveillance authorities for 10 years after the product is placed on the market.
  • For series production, document the procedure that keeps later units aligned with the assessed safe product, including supplier, component, production, and test-change controls.
  • Keep product identifiers visible and legible, or place them on packaging or accompanying documents when the product size or nature prevents product-level marking.
  • Provide manufacturer name, trade name or trademark, postal and electronic address, and required instructions and safety information in a language consumers can easily understand in the Member State of sale.
Section 2

Economic operators, responsible person, and traceability

GPSR compliance records should identify the manufacturer, importer, distributor, fulfilment or other economic-operator role involved in the supply chain and should not treat those roles as interchangeable. Economic operators need internal product-safety processes and must cooperate with market surveillance authorities on actions that eliminate or mitigate product risks.

A product covered by the GPSR cannot be placed on the Union market unless there is an economic operator established in the Union responsible for the Article 16 tasks. For products sold online or through other distance-sales channels, the offer must visibly show manufacturer contact information, the Union responsible person where the manufacturer is not established in the Union, product identification including picture and type or other identifier, and required warnings or safety information.

  • Maintain an operator map showing who supplied the product, component, part, or embedded software and who received the product downstream.
  • Be able to provide risk, complaint, accident, and corrective-measure information for 10 years after being supplied with or supplying the product.
  • Be able to provide traceability information for six years after being supplied with or supplying the product, part, component, or embedded software.
  • For the Union responsible person, keep documented checks of technical documentation and required manufacturer/product/safety-information markings where those checks are appropriate to the product risk.
  • For distance sales, make the required manufacturer, responsible-person, product identifier, picture, and warning information visible in the offer rather than leaving it only in back-office files.
Section 3

Online marketplace interfaces and safety workflows

Online marketplace providers have GPSR-specific interface and workflow duties. They must designate and register a single market-surveillance contact point in the Safety Gate Portal, provide a consumer product-safety contact point, maintain internal product-safety processes, and organise product listings so traders can provide required safety and traceability information that consumers can access on the listing.

Marketplace teams also need operational timers. They must act on market-surveillance orders to remove, disable, or warn on dangerous-product offers without undue delay and in any event within two working days. Product-safety notices received through the Digital Services Act notice mechanism must be processed without undue delay and in any event within three working days.

  • Build listing fields for manufacturer postal and electronic contact details, Union responsible-person details where needed, product picture, type or other identifier, and warnings or safety information.
  • Require trader self-certification that only GPSR-compliant products are offered and capture additional trader identification where applicable.
  • Use Safety Gate Portal information, and where relevant the interoperable interface, to detect, identify, remove, or disable offers for dangerous products.
  • Retain order receipt time, action time, affected URL or listing identifier, trader notice, consumer notice, and authority response evidence for every dangerous-product action.
  • Prepare cooperation records for recalls, accident information, removed offers, and access granted to market-surveillance tools.
Recommended next step

Review your EU GPSR compliance evidence

Turn GPSR safety assessments, technical documentation, operator roles, marketplace listing controls, accident reporting, recall workflows, and evidence records into a traceable compliance pack.

Section 4

Accident reporting, dangerous products, and recalls

When a manufacturer knows of an accident caused by a product it placed or made available on the market, the manufacturer must notify the competent authorities of the Member State where the accident occurred through the Safety Business Gateway without undue delay. The accident notification must include the product type and identification number and the accident circumstances where known; importers and distributors that know of an accident must inform the manufacturer without undue delay, and the Union responsible person must ensure notification where the manufacturer is not established in the Union.

If a manufacturer considers, or has reason to believe based on information in its possession, that its product is dangerous, it must immediately take corrective measures such as withdrawal or recall as appropriate, inform consumers, and inform market surveillance authorities through the Safety Business Gateway. Recall communication should be designed around direct contact first, then a clear and visible recall notice where not all affected consumers can be reached.

  • Define reportable accident intake around deaths and serious adverse effects on health and safety, including injuries, body damage, illnesses, and chronic health effects.
  • Keep an internal complaint, accident, recall, and corrective-measure register tied to product identifiers and safety-risk decisions.
  • For written recall notices, use the headline Product safety recall, identify the product with picture, name, brand, batch or serial number, describe the hazard without downplaying risk, instruct consumers to stop using the product immediately, and describe available remedies.
  • Offer recall remedies that are effective, cost-free, and timely, with at least two of repair, replacement, or adequate refund unless the GPSR exception for impossibility or disproportionate cost applies.
  • For online recall notices, make product-identification information available in machine-readable text when pictures contain essential information.
Section 5

Evidence file for a GPSR compliance review

A useful GPSR compliance file lets a reviewer reconstruct why the product was considered safe, who carried each legal role, how the listing or marketplace workflow displayed safety information, and how the business would report or correct a dangerous product. It should be product-specific and version-specific; a generic product-safety policy does not prove that a specific consumer product, listing, batch, software version, or recall campaign met the GPSR obligations.

The evidence file should also be ready for authority questions. Safety Gate notification rules point to the types of information authorities need: product identifiers, economic-operator and responsible-person data, supply-chain and traceability information, risk descriptions, test reports or risk assessments, corrective measures, accident or incident information, recall-notice URLs, and online-offer URLs or unique identifiers where the product was sold online.

  • Keep the internal risk analysis, technical documentation, standards or other safety elements applied, test reports, mitigation decisions, and partial-standard-application notes.
  • Keep product labelling and instruction evidence, including type, batch or serial number, manufacturer contact details, Union responsible-person details where needed, warnings, language checks, and consumer-facing safety information.
  • Keep supply-chain traceability records, including supplier and downstream operator records, component or embedded-software records, and six-year traceability retrieval evidence.
  • Keep marketplace and distance-sales evidence: listing screenshots or exports, URL and listing identifiers, trader self-certification, Safety Gate checks, takedown orders, notice-processing timestamps, and consumer notifications.
  • Keep Safety Business Gateway submissions, authority correspondence, accident records, dangerous-product corrective-measure records, recall notices, remedy decisions, and consumer-contact logs.
Primary sources

References and citations

webgate.ec.europa.eu
Referenced sections
  • Commission portal source for business notifications of dangerous products and accidents to Member State market surveillance authorities under the GPSR.
"report dangerous products and accidents"
eur-lex.europa.eu
Referenced sections
  • Primary GPSR text supporting the general safety requirement, manufacturer risk analysis, technical documentation, responsible person, distance-sales information, accident notification, online marketplace duties, consumer notice, recall, and remedy obligations.
"Economic operators shall place or make available on the market only safe products."
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