EU GPSR Online Marketplace Obligations

A provider of an online marketplace is treated as an intermediary service using an online interface that lets consumers conclude distance contracts with traders for product sales. If that model is in scope, the marketplace should not treat GPSR as only a seller documentation issue.

Article 22 requires two operational contact routes: one single point of contact for direct electronic communication with Member State market surveillance authorities on product-safety issues, and one single point of contact that enables consumers to communicate directly and rapidly about product-safety issues. The marketplace must also register with the Safety Gate Portal and provide the authority contact point information there.

The GPSR does not only require a mailbox. Marketplaces need a receiving and action process for authority orders about dangerous-product offers. Article 22 says providers must receive and process orders to remove content, disable access, or display an explicit warning, and act without undue delay and in any event within two working days from receiving the order.

Separate from authority orders, product-safety notices received under the Digital Services Act notice route must be processed without undue delay and in any event within three working days. The marketplace also has to use at least the Safety Gate Portal for product-safety due diligence and take regular Safety Gate information into account for voluntary detection, removal, disabling, or warning measures.

The marketplace interface must let traders provide the GPSR product-safety information that consumers need on each listing, and it must display or otherwise make that information easily accessible to consumers. This is a design and data-quality obligation, not just a terms-of-service clause.

At minimum, the listing flow needs fields for manufacturer name, registered trade name or trademark, postal and electronic contact address, EU responsible person information where the manufacturer is not established in the Union, product identification including a picture, product type and other identifier, and warnings or safety information in the language required for the Member State where the product is made available.

When a marketplace has actual knowledge of a product-safety recall or safety warning for products bought through its interface, it must directly notify affected consumers that can be identified and publish recall information on the online interface. Where not all affected consumers can be contacted directly, GPSR Articles 35 and 36 require a clear and visible recall notice or safety warning through appropriate channels.

Marketplace cooperation also covers dangerous products and accidents. Article 22 requires marketplaces to inform relevant traders and economic operators without delay about accident or safety information they receive, notify without undue delay through the Safety Business Gateway of certain accidents involving serious risk or actual consumer health or safety damage, and inform the manufacturer.