The New European Product Safety Regulation (GSPR)

On December 13, 2024, the new General Product Safety Regulation (GSPR) came into force. This Regulation of the European Parliament and the Council is (EU) 2023/988 of May 10, 2023. It replaces the GSPD Directive 2001/95/EC and introduces a new significant phase in consumer protection in Europe, with the goal— as stated in the first article— of ensuring “a high level of consumer protection” in terms of health and safety.

The need for updated legislation arose from the necessity to adapt to new technological developments and the growing prevalence of online sales. The innovation is evident right from the nature of the act: a regulation was chosen instead of a directive, ensuring its direct applicability in all Member States, thus guaranteeing equality and uniformity in the application of the rules governing the safety of consumer goods placed or made available on the EU market. In this sense, the regulation places consumers at the center to ensure that they benefit from the same standards of quality and safety across the entire European territory.

The regulation applies to all products placed or made available on the market for which no specific sectoral provisions or safety requirements exist, whether they are sold online or offline. Several categories are excluded from its scope, such as medicines, food, service provision, and antiques.

The new legislation establishes the responsibility of economic operators to ensure that only safe products are placed on the market. The assessment of product safety must take into account various aspects involving every link in the supply chain. Some aspects, such as product characteristics like design, technical specifications, composition, and packaging, were already regulated. The real novelty, however, includes new factors that must be considered in a comprehensive safety assessment. These include the interaction of the product with other objects, especially in cases where interconnection is possible; labeling and information aimed at children and vulnerable consumer groups; the evaluation of the product’s appearance, especially when it might induce the consumer to use it differently; risk assessments related to cybersecurity; and any evolving, learning, and predictive functionalities of the product.

To carry out these safety checks, European economic operators are entrusted with various responsibilities regarding safety verifications throughout the supply chain. The obligations differ depending on the operator’s role, whether they are manufacturers, importers, or distributors. For all categories, operators must ensure that the goods placed on the market comply with the established standards. Manufacturers must verify that products are designed and manufactured in accordance with general safety obligations and must also ensure product traceability and communication channels with consumers, actively responding to any risk notifications.

Importers must verify that imported products comply with safety obligations and that manufacturers have also met their obligations. Distributors must verify and ensure that manufacturers and/or importers comply with the provisions of the regulation.

Additional obligations are established for marketplaces, meaning online product providers, which are required to actively cooperate with supervisory authorities on various tasks, including product information verification, continuous monitoring, and communication channels with consumers.

All operators must act diligently in preventive protection and in reporting any potential risks to safeguard consumers.

To ensure the aforementioned safety levels, GSPR also provides for the enhancement of the online platform Safety Gate, where the Commission and Member States can report and share information about products. Similarly, the introduction of a web portal, the Safety Business Gateway, allows economic operators to easily provide market surveillance authorities and consumers with information on potential risks posed by products on the market.

With this regulation, the European Union reaffirms its commitment to consumer protection and safety with increasingly higher standards.