GPSR Explained for Small Businesses

What’s more festive than to chat about than the new GPSR regulations coming into force December 13^th.  I mean…. Happy Christmas right?

If you are new the channel having found me via a search for GPSR, hi!, I’m Jenna and on my channel I formulate skincare and cosmetics, help small businesses and guide skincare makers through the cosmetic regulations.

I’ll start off by saying that if you don’t sell to Northern Ireland or the EU and don’t intend to, then you don’t need to worry.

Equally, if you already sell cosmetics to Northern Ireland and the EU then you should already be following the regulations, so again, this won’t really apply unless you sell other types of products.

So let’s get on with what GPSR is and what you need to do as a small business…

I’m not going to lie, if this had come into force when I ran my previous business it would have crippled it.  Not just from a financial point of view, but from an admin one.

As cosmetic makers we know from the current cosmetic regulations, admin ends up being half if not two thirds of what you do.  The good news here, is that as cosmetic makers, nothing really changes for you.  You already do what’s required under CPSRs, your PIF, GMP, Batch numbers, labelling and all the admin you already do. 

Most of you won’t sell to the EU because of the expense of needing a responsible person.   Some of you will. 

The bad news is, now the regulations extend to ALL products and it’s called GPSR.

GPSR stands for General Product Safety Regulation.

As usual, a regulation is introduced, it’s not fully formed, it’s open to a lot of interpretation and no-one is to be found who can give you a straight answer as to what you actually do need to do and what’s covered.

By my understanding (and I’ll leave all the reference links I found in the description), and to quote the Europa website:

It applies to new, used, repaired or reconditioned products:

available for distribution, consumption or use in the EU (‘placed or made available on the market’), whether for free or against payment, which are not covered by other specific EU product safety legislation,

subject to existing specific EU safety requirements regarding the risks and aspects that are not already covered therein;

applies to products offered to consumers in the EU via all sales channels;

Products excluded are:

medicinal products for human or veterinary use,

food and feed,

living plants and animals, genetically modified organisms and microorganisms in contained use,

animal-derived and by-products,

plant protection products,

transport equipment operated by a service provider,

aircraft whose design, production, maintenance and operation pose a low safety risk,

antiques,

products clearly marked to be repaired or reconditioned prior to use.

At this moment I’m not sure about digital goods.  I found reference to it on Folksy, but can’t see where in the documents they got that information.  I’m trying to find out if it’s a case of digital meaning that market platforms like ebay, etsy and amazon need to ensure their sellers comply and put things in place to gather the necessary information, or if things like ebooks, PDFs etc are included.  It’s a grey area as Etsy say they aren’t included, but Folsy say they are.

I contacted some solicitors and asked and they all replied with Yes, digital products are included as far as they interpreted the regulation, so for now, I have to assume that they are. 

This means that in the next day or two I’ll not be able to sell my templates, calculators and ebooks to EU based customers.  I’m very sorry, but the reason for that will become apparent in a minute. If you are in the EU or Northern Ireland, then go grab what you want now!

So, what do you need to do?

For cosmetics, continue as normal, we already do an excessive amount of admin, so we get to continue with that, yay!

If you sell other products then you need to comply with the following:

Note this is only if you live outside of the UK and sell to an EU country including Northern Ireland who for the purposes of trade are classed as EU.

Yes, this means if you are based in the USA or Australia for example, you need to do this too if you want to sell to the EU.

If you live in the UK and don’t sell to EU countries, then you don’t need to worry, as of Dec 2024 it’s only an EU regulation.  However, we’ll keep an eye on it, as hopefully the UK won’t do similar.

Ok, so you will need to:

• Ensure that your products are safe for use as intended, essentially do a risk assessment.
• Display relevant safety information, correctly label including detailed instructions for use, and add compliance marks such as the CE marking for toys. This needs doing on product labels and on product listsing on your website.  Customers need to be able to see this information prior to purchase.  Third party websites such as etsy, ebay, folksy and amazon will likely have sections to fill out when listing your items. If you have Shopify, I’ve noticed that if you search GPSR apps, there are apps that will help you with this for your store and add a section at the bottom of each product listing for the required information.
• You need an EU based Responsible person. This is the big one, and costs money which is why many businesses now won’t ship to the EU.  Right now, I cannot recommend any for products other than cosmetics, as this is all very new, so be careful and vet the ones you see pop up, as I’m sure many scammers will see this as a money making opportunity.
• The responsible person needs all the product information, safety information and their contact details must be on the label.
• Retain technical data sheets and any other documentation for the products for 10 years after they have been placed on the EU market.
• You (and your Responsible person) will need to liase with market authorities if any issues arise.

The responsible person is the main issue,  as if cosmetics are anything to go by, this is an expense that most small businesses can’t justify.  It’s rightly an expense, as it’s a big responsibility, so please don’t put that on a friend or family member without them understanding what’s involved.

Not to mention that this amount of admin is ludicrous for certain products.

As usual with regulations, nothing is 100% clear and there is a lot of ambiguity of certain product niches.  Do you need all this admin for a piece of artwork for example?

At least if you already sell cosmetics, you will be familiar with all this and maybe if you have an RP in an EU country already, they would extend their services to all products, but if you don’t want the hassle, then sadly, our market just got smaller… again.

For the information I read, please see the below links and search for further information from the selling platforms you are on, as this info will be evolving no doubt, so if there are any significant updates, I’ll let you know.

Let me know your thoughts below, as I feel like the world has gone mad at the moment.

See you tomorrow for labmas day 5! And like I said, if you are in the EU or Northern Ireland and you need any of my templates etc, go get them now!

Links

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32023R0988

https://blog.folksy.com/2024/11/26/gpsr-guide-for-artists-and-makers-on-folksy

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/EN/legal-content/summary/general-product-safety-regulation-2023.html