FAQ item index

Search every question across sub-FAQs

Find the exact question, open the source answer card, and copy a direct link to the anchored sub-FAQ response.

Indexed coverage
37of37items
Across 9 modules • Updated May 9, 2026
Author
Sorena AI
Published
May 9, 2026
Updated
May 9, 2026
How are dangerous product risk levels assessed under the EU GPSR?

How are dangerous product risk levels assessed under the EU GPSR?

Start with the product and hazard, not with a spreadsheet score. Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2024/3173 says the Safety Gate risk assessment describes a harm scenario: how the hazard leads to harm, how severe the harm is, and how probable it is during the product's foreseeable lifetime.

The delegated criteria use four risk results for Safety Gate purposes: serious, high, medium, and low. Where several hazards or harm scenarios exist, each scenario should be assessed and the highest resulting level should drive the Article 26 notification analysis.

The GPSR also treats some serious-risk situations differently. A serious risk can be presumed where the delegated criteria are met, including when the product is linked to probable severe harm without adequate consumer precautions or information, when the economic operator or online marketplace indicates serious risk, or when the product has been subject to recall, withdrawal, or online-content removal based on voluntary measures.

  • Define the exact product, batch, model, software version, sales channel, and affected consumer group before assigning a risk level.
  • Write the shortest credible path from defect or dangerous situation to accident or adverse effect and then to harm.
  • Classify severity using the delegated levels for health and safety harm, then estimate probability for the scenario rather than for the product in the abstract.
  • Use the highest assessed harm scenario when deciding whether the case is serious, high, medium, or low for Safety Gate notification purposes.
  • Do not invent a company-only risk scale unless it maps back to the GPSR and Safety Gate evidence required for the case.
Citations
How are dangerous product risk levels assessed under the EU GPSR?

What changes when the risk is serious?

Serious risk matters because GPSR Article 26 uses Safety Gate for rapid exchange of information about corrective measures for dangerous products. The delegated Safety Gate rules classify serious-risk notifications separately from other-risk notifications and require the notification to include product identification, risk level, risk assessment, and the taken or envisaged corrective measures.

A serious-risk conclusion should therefore trigger two records at the same time: the consumer-safety action record and the notification evidence record. The first explains what will remove or reduce the risk; the second explains why the case is serious enough for Safety Gate handling and what information authorities need to identify the product and follow up.

  • Connect the serious-risk conclusion to a concrete corrective measure: withdrawal, recall, repair, replacement, warning, online-content removal, listing block, or another risk-reduction action supported by the facts.
  • Use the Safety Business Gateway when the GPSR requires the business to report dangerous products or accidents to Member State market surveillance authorities.
  • Expect selected Safety Gate information about dangerous products and corrective measures to be published on the public Safety Gate Portal.
  • Track updates, modifications, or withdrawals of corrective measures because Safety Gate notifications can require later updates.
Citations
Safety Business Gateway

Grounds the business-facing channel for reporting dangerous products and accidents, and explains that national authorities may use submitted information to create Safety Gate alerts.

How are dangerous product risk levels assessed under the EU GPSR?

How should recall, withdrawal, and corrective-measure evidence be written?

Do not describe the risk level separately from the action. The evidence should show why the product is dangerous, which consumers or end users can be harmed, whether the product is still in listings, stock, distribution, or consumer hands, and which corrective measure is proportionate to reduce or eliminate the risk.

For a recall, the GPSR requires consumer-facing information that is clear enough for consumers to identify the product, understand the hazard, and know what action to take. The recall notice must avoid wording that lowers risk perception, such as presenting the recall as merely voluntary or precautionary when the product safety recall must be taken seriously.

  • For withdrawal, record where remaining stock or listings are located, who must stop supply, and how the withdrawal prevents further consumer exposure.
  • For recall, record the affected consumers or channels, direct contact method where possible, recall notice text, remedy offered, return or disposal route, and monitoring results.
  • For online-content removal or listing blocks, record the URLs, trader details, product identifiers, marketplace action, and any follow-up communication with the authority.
  • For accident reporting, keep the product type and identification number, accident circumstances where known, health or safety outcome, and Safety Business Gateway submission evidence.
Citations
Safety Business Gateway

Grounds the operational link between business dangerous-product or accident submissions, authority use of those submissions, and possible Safety Gate publication.

How are dangerous product risk levels assessed under the EU GPSR?

What should teams avoid when answering this FAQ?

Avoid making the answer look more precise than the source material. The grounded Safety Gate method supports severity, probability, serious/high/medium/low outcomes, highest-scenario handling, presumptions of serious risk, and notification evidence. It does not support an invented numeric company score, a universal matrix outside the delegated criteria, or national authority procedures not present in the grounding material.

Also avoid treating any certificate, standard, or supplier statement as conclusive by itself. It can support the risk decision only when it matches the product, hazard, affected market, and corrective measure being documented.

  • Do not call a product low risk until the harm scenario and probability evidence have been considered.
  • Do not downgrade risk because no accident has been reported if the hazard scenario, severity, and foreseeable use still support serious or high risk.
  • Do not bury a recall behind cautious wording that reduces consumer risk perception.
  • Do not cite Safety Gate unless the record identifies the dangerous product, risk, measure taken, and follow-up status being supported.
Citations
How does the GPSR apply to used or refurbished products?

When does the GPSR cover used or refurbished products?

The GPSR is not limited to new goods. It applies to products placed or made available on the EU market whether they are new, used, repaired, or reconditioned. A product can also be in scope if it was not originally intended for consumers but is likely, under reasonably foreseeable conditions, to be used by consumers.

For used-product channels, the practical first test is whether a trader is supplying a consumer product for distribution, consumption, or use on the Union market in the course of a commercial activity. Private, non-commercial fact patterns are not the same as a trader placing or making products available on the market.

  • Treat commercial resale, refurbishment, repair-for-resale, and reconditioning-for-resale as GPSR scope triggers unless a specific exclusion applies.
  • Check whether the item is intended for consumers or is reasonably likely to be used by consumers, even if it was originally a professional product.
  • Record whether the product is being supplied as safe to use now or only as an item that still needs repair or reconditioning before use.
Citations
How does the GPSR apply to used or refurbished products?

Which used-product exclusions matter most?

Two GPSR exclusions are especially important for used and refurbished-product pages. Antiques are excluded. Products that need repair or reconditioning before use are also outside this GPSR application rule when they are placed or made available on the market and are clearly marked as needing that repair or reconditioning before use.

Do not stretch those exclusions. A working refurbished item marketed for ordinary consumer use is different from an item explicitly sold as needing repair before use. A collectible claim should be supported by facts showing why consumers cannot reasonably expect state-of-the-art safety standards.

  • Use the repair-before-use exclusion only where the listing, label, and transaction make that condition clear before the consumer buys or uses the item.
  • Use the antiques exclusion only for products such as collectors' items or works of art where the GPSR definition of antiques fits the facts.
  • Do not describe a product as refurbished, tested, working, or ready to use while also relying on the repair-before-use carve-out.
Citations
How does the GPSR apply to used or refurbished products?

Who owns GPSR duties for resale, repair, or refurbishment?

The duty owner depends on the role in the supply chain. Manufacturers must ensure products meet the general safety requirement, carry out an internal risk analysis, and draw up technical documentation before placing products on the market. Importers, distributors, authorised representatives, fulfilment service providers, and other economic operators have role-specific duties.

A refurbisher or reseller can become the manufacturer for GPSR purposes if it places the product on the market under its own name or trademark. A person that substantially modifies a product is also treated as the manufacturer for the affected part, or for the whole product if the modification affects overall safety.

  • Map the transaction role before assigning duties: manufacturer, importer, distributor, authorised representative, fulfilment service provider, responsible person, marketplace provider, or another economic operator.
  • Escalate refurbished products where repair, replacement parts, firmware, batteries, guards, chargers, labels, warnings, or packaging change the original safety profile.
  • If the item is imported from outside the EU, check importer and responsible-person information before offering it online or supplying it to consumers.
Citations
How does the GPSR apply to used or refurbished products?

What safety evidence should support a refurbished-product decision?

For a product sold as safe to use, evidence should connect the condition of the specific item or batch to the GPSR safety conclusion. Manufacturer duties include internal risk analysis and technical documentation with the product description, essential safety characteristics, possible risks, solutions adopted to eliminate or mitigate those risks, test reports where relevant, and applied standards or other safety elements.

Used and refurbished products often need more condition-specific evidence than new stock. The file should show what was inspected, repaired, replaced, cleaned, updated, retested, relabelled, or repackaged, and whether instructions and warnings still match the product that will reach the consumer.

  • Keep intake and condition records, including missing guards, damaged parts, battery condition, software or firmware state, accessories, chargers, labels, and packaging.
  • Keep repair and reconditioning records that identify parts, suppliers, methods, tests, and any change from the original product configuration.
  • Keep traceability evidence: product identifiers, batches or serial numbers where available, manufacturer and importer details, responsible-person details where required, sale channel, and affected units.
  • Keep post-sale monitoring records for complaints, accidents, recalls, withdrawals, Safety Business Gateway notifications, and consumer safety warnings.
Citations
Safety Business Gateway

Commission gateway used by economic operators and online marketplace providers for GPSR dangerous-product and accident notifications.

How does the GPSR apply to used or refurbished products?

What must online listings show for used or refurbished products?

The GPSR distance-sales rule applies when economic operators make products available online or through other distance sales. The offer must clearly and visibly show manufacturer contact information, responsible-person information where the manufacturer is not established in the Union, product identification including a picture and type or other identifier, and required warnings or safety information in an understandable language for the Member State where the product is made available.

Online marketplace providers must organise their interfaces so traders can provide that product safety and traceability information and consumers can access it from the product listing. Marketplace providers also have GPSR duties for product-safety contacts, internal processes, dangerous-product orders, notices, Safety Gate use, and cooperation with authorities and traders.

  • For ready-to-use refurbished items, show the safety-relevant condition honestly and include required warnings or instructions rather than burying them in images.
  • For products sold only for repair or reconditioning before use, make that status clear in the listing, title, description, labels, and checkout information.
  • Keep listing snapshots and marketplace submissions with the product evidence pack so the safety file matches what the consumer saw.
Citations
What GPSR information must appear in online Product Listings?

What GPSR information must appear in online Product Listings?

For consumer products made available online or through other distance sales, GPSR Article 19 requires the offer itself to clearly and visibly indicate four groups of information before purchase.

The listing needs the manufacturer's name, registered trade name or registered trade mark, plus postal and electronic contact address. If the manufacturer is not established in the EU, the listing also needs the name, postal address, and electronic address of the responsible person in the Union under GPSR Article 16 or Market Surveillance Regulation Article 4.

The offer must also identify the product, including a picture, the product type, and any other product identifier. Any warning or safety information required on the product, packaging, or accompanying document must appear in a language easily understood by consumers in the Member State where the product is made available.

  • Do not hide manufacturer or EU responsible-person details only in checkout, terms, invoices, or a post-purchase email.
  • Match listing identifiers to the product file: model, SKU, batch, serial, barcode, type designation, picture, and variant where those identifiers are used to distinguish products.
  • Copy warnings and safety information from the approved label, packaging, instructions, or accompanying safety document instead of paraphrasing them into marketing text.
  • Localize required warnings and safety information for the Member State where the online offer targets consumers.
Citations
What GPSR information must appear in online Product Listings?

Marketplace listing evidence to keep

The evidence file should prove what consumers and marketplace operators could see at the time the offer was live. That matters because GPSR and the Safety Gate notification rules use offer-level details, not only internal catalogue records.

For each EU-facing offer, keep a dated listing capture that shows the product page, seller or trader account, marketplace name if applicable, offer URL, listing or offer identifier, product photo, product type, model or SKU, manufacturer details, EU responsible-person details when required, and the displayed warnings or safety information.

  • Store listing captures at publication, material edit, marketplace migration, warning-language change, product variant launch, and delisting.
  • Retain the source record for manufacturer and responsible-person contact details so listing teams do not copy stale addresses.
  • When a dangerous-product issue is investigated, preserve the offer URL, unique offer identifier, and marketplace provider name because Safety Gate notification material can require those fields.
  • Link listing evidence to complaints, accidents, marketplace notices, takedown orders, recalls, and Safety Business Gateway submissions when those events occur.
Citations
What GPSR information must appear in online Product Listings?

Listing review checklist

Use the listing review as a release gate for every EU-facing consumer product offer. The reviewer should compare the live page against the approved product safety file, not only against a merchandising checklist.

  • Confirm the offer targets EU consumers, including dispatch area, language, currency, domain, marketplace settings, and other targeting signals.
  • Verify manufacturer name or trade mark, postal address, and electronic address are visible or easily accessible on the listing.
  • If the manufacturer is outside the EU, verify the EU responsible person's name, postal address, and electronic address are shown.
  • Check that the listing identifies the exact product variant with a picture, type, and any necessary model, batch, serial, SKU, barcode, or other identifier.
  • Compare warnings and safety information against the approved label, packaging, instructions, and applicable Union harmonisation law, then verify the consumer language for each targeted Member State.
  • Capture evidence of the published listing and log corrections before the offer goes live or is restored after a marketplace takedown.
Citations
What GPSR information must appear in online Product Listings?

Common listing failures

Most listing failures happen when safety information is treated as back-office data instead of consumer-facing offer content. GPSR listing duties attach to the online offer, so the live page has to carry the relevant information clearly enough for a consumer to see it before purchase.

  • A generic "GPSR compliant" badge does not supersede manufacturer, responsible-person, identifier, warning, or safety-information fields.
  • A support-center page is weak evidence if the offer page does not display or make the Article 19 information easily accessible from the listing.
  • A marketplace listing should not reuse the wrong manufacturer's address, omit the EU responsible person for a non-EU manufacturer, or show warnings only in a language consumers in the targeted Member State cannot easily understand.
  • Listing teams should not delete or overwrite unsafe-product evidence after a takedown, recall, accident report, or Safety Business Gateway submission.
Citations
What must online marketplaces do when a GPSR product safety issue is reported?

What must online marketplaces do when a GPSR product safety issue is reported?

Treat the report as a product-safety case, not as a generic content complaint. Identify whether it is an authority order to remove, disable, or warn on a dangerous-product offer; a notice submitted under the marketplace notice mechanism; a Safety Gate Portal alert; or information showing the marketplace has actual knowledge of a dangerous product offered through its service.

For an authority order under GPSR Article 22(4), the marketplace must be able to receive and process the order, act without undue delay and within two working days from receipt, and tell the issuing market surveillance authority what effect was given to the order. Orders can also cover identical content for a prescribed period when the order identifies the information needed to find those offers and no independent safety assessment is required.

For product-safety notices received under Article 16 of the Digital Services Act, GPSR Article 22(8) gives a separate processing expectation: without undue delay and within three working days from receipt. That notice handling record should stay separate from an authority order record because the trigger, evidence threshold, and response clock are different.

  • Register in the Safety Gate Portal and keep the marketplace's product-safety authority contact current.
  • Maintain a consumer product-safety contact so consumers can communicate directly and rapidly about safety issues.
  • Preserve the listing URL, offer content, seller account, product identifiers, traceability details, notice text, authority order, timestamps, action taken, and authority response.
  • Use Safety Gate Portal information, including the interoperable interface where implemented, when applying voluntary measures to detect, identify, remove, or disable access to dangerous-product offers.
Citations
What must online marketplaces do when a GPSR product safety issue is reported?

How should the marketplace use Safety Gate and the Safety Business Gateway?

Safety Gate and the Safety Business Gateway serve different parts of the marketplace response. Safety Gate circulates authority alerts about dangerous non-food products, including the product, risk, and measures taken. The GPSR also requires marketplaces to take account of regular dangerous-product information received through the Safety Gate Portal when applying voluntary measures to detect, identify, remove, or disable dangerous-product offers.

The Safety Business Gateway is the route for businesses, including concerned online marketplace providers, to report dangerous products and accidents to Member State market surveillance authorities. Where the marketplace has actual knowledge of dangerous products offered through its interface, Article 22 requires it to inform the relevant Member States through the Safety Business Gateway with available risk, quantity, and corrective-measure details.

  • Check whether the reported product already appears in Safety Gate alerts or in information received through the Safety Gate Portal.
  • Record the Safety Gate product identifiers and traceability information used to match marketplace listings.
  • Submit dangerous-product or accident information through the Safety Business Gateway only when the marketplace is the concerned provider; third-party submissions are not the grounded route.
  • Keep the Safety Business Gateway submission details with the listing evidence and any consumer recall or safety-warning communications.
Citations
What must online marketplaces do when a GPSR product safety issue is reported?

What seller and operator evidence should the marketplace preserve?

The evidence file should let the marketplace explain why it removed, disabled, warned, reported, or left a listing live. GPSR Article 22 ties marketplace action to the concrete offer of a dangerous product, the authority order or notice received, Safety Gate information, and the cooperation needed to eliminate or mitigate risk.

Capture evidence before the listing changes. Screenshots alone are not enough if they omit product identifiers, trader details, quantities, affected Member States, timestamps, or the exact content that the order or notice identified.

  • Listing evidence: URL, offer ID, title, description, images, price, dispatch countries, languages, product identifiers, warning text, and safety information displayed to consumers.
  • Seller evidence: trader account ID, legal name where available, contact details, history of similar offers, prior warnings, suspension decisions, and messages sent under the takedown process.
  • Operator evidence: manufacturer, importer, responsible person, fulfilment-service provider, distributor, or other economic-operator information visible in the listing or supplied by the seller.
  • Risk evidence: authority order, third-party notice, Safety Gate alert data, complaint or accident report, risk description, corrective measure, and whether a recall or safety warning is involved.
  • Action evidence: removal, disabling, warning display, identical-content search parameters, consumer notifications, Safety Business Gateway submission, and confirmation sent to the authority.
Citations
What must online marketplaces do when a GPSR product safety issue is reported?

What are the main GPSR takedown mistakes to avoid?

The main mistake is mixing the clocks and channels. A market surveillance authority order, a third-party notice, a Safety Gate alert, and a Safety Business Gateway report are related, but they are not the same event and should not be documented as one generic ticket.

Do not invent national filing steps or fixed deadlines beyond the GPSR source text. Where the file does not contain an authority order or a notice received under the DSA notice channel, use the grounded standard of acting without undue delay and keep the reason for the chosen action in the case record.

  • Do not apply the two-working-day authority-order deadline to every consumer complaint or seller message.
  • Do not treat a Safety Gate alert as a complete match unless product identifiers and traceability details connect it to the marketplace offer.
  • Do not remove a listing without preserving the offer content and seller evidence needed for authority cooperation and repeat-offender review.
  • Do not leave consumers out of the workflow when the issue is a recall or safety warning and affected consumers can be identified.
  • Do not submit through the Safety Business Gateway as an unrelated third party; the grounded Commission page limits submissions to the concerned economic operators and marketplace providers.
Citations
What should a GPSR recall notice include?

What must the consumer recall notice say?

Start with the consumer outcome, not the internal compliance history. A GPSR recall notice should let a consumer decide in seconds whether they own the affected product, why continued use is unsafe, what to do next, what remedy is available, and how to get help.

The EU model notice published under Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/1435 uses the structure '[company name] recalls [product]' and then separates product identification, danger, consumer action, remedies, and contact details. If product photos contain essential identification information, the same information should also appear as machine-readable text for online notices.

  • Identify the product with name, brand, batch or serial number, and where those identifiers appear on the product.
  • Add available sale details: where, when, and by whom the affected product was sold.
  • Explain the hazard and why the product is dangerous in direct language; avoid terms that reduce perceived risk, such as voluntary, precautionary, discretionary, rare, or no reported accidents.
  • Tell consumers to stop using the recalled product immediately and give the next step, such as return to the point of sale, booking a collection, or arranging a repair.
  • Describe the consumer remedies: repair, replacement, or refund, and state any additional incentive such as a voucher or discount.
  • Provide an interactive online service, email route, or free phone number where consumers can get information in the relevant official language or languages.
Citations
What should a GPSR recall notice include?

How should the notice reach consumers?

The GPSR starts with direct notification: economic operators and online marketplaces should notify all identifiable affected consumers directly and without undue delay, using customer data they already hold for recalls and safety warnings.

When not all affected consumers can be contacted directly, the notice must be clear and visible through other appropriate channels with the widest possible reach. Grounded examples include the company website, social media channels, newsletters, retail outlets, and, where appropriate, mass media or other communication channels. Information must be accessible to persons with disabilities.

  • Use direct email, account, product-registration, marketplace, or loyalty-programme contact data where the affected consumer can be identified.
  • Publish the same core recall message on channels consumers are likely to see, instead of hiding it in a support article or legal notice.
  • Keep the wording, product identifiers, remedy, and contact route consistent across the company recall page, marketplace notices, customer support scripts, and authority-facing records.
  • If an online marketplace has actual knowledge of the recall, align its consumer notice and product listing actions with the GPSR marketplace duties.
Citations
What should a GPSR recall notice include?

What corrective action and remedy evidence should sit behind the notice?

The public notice should be short enough for consumers, but the recall record behind it should show why the message, remedy, and action are complete. Keep the product risk assessment, test or visual inspection evidence, affected-product identifiers, quantity and market scope, action owner, action status, and consumer remedy rationale with the final notice text.

For a recall from consumers, distinguish recall from withdrawal. The Safety Business Gateway manual repeats the GPSR distinction: recall aims at the return of a product already made available to the consumer, while withdrawal aims to prevent a product in the supply chain from being made available on the market.

  • Retain the exact final notice copy and every translated or channel-specific version that reached consumers.
  • Keep screenshots or exports from website, marketplace, email, social, retail, and support-channel publications.
  • Record each corrective action separately when more than one action is taken, such as withdrawal from the market plus recall from end users.
  • Keep the action type, scope, duration, result, and company responsible for the action with the Safety Business Gateway or authority file.
  • Document the remedy offered, including why fewer than two remedy options were used if repair, replacement, and refund were not all available.
Citations
Page 1 of 2
Previous12Next