The European Union's General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR) is a critical legal framework whose core mission is to establish unified and stringent safety standards for all consumer products entering the EU market. This regulation applies to a wide range of consumer goods but explicitly excludes categories already regulated by specific legislation, such as food, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and medical devices. Whether sold through traditional trade channels or online e-commerce platforms to EU consumers, all products must strictly comply with GPSR requirements.

GPSR aims to achieve several strategic objectives:

• Establish Higher Safety Standards: The regulation's primary task is to ensure the safety of non-food consumer products sold within the EU, fundamentally protecting consumer health and personal safety.

• Strengthen Supply Chain Traceability: By mandating businesses to provide more complete and transparent product origin and distribution information, regulatory authorities can more quickly locate and trace products with safety hazards, enabling efficient market intervention or recalls.

• Upgrade Consumer Rights Protection: The regulation requires detailed product information and compliance certification, giving consumers more comprehensive right to information, enabling them to make safe purchasing decisions based on reliable information.

• Fill Digital Regulatory Gaps: With the rise of e-commerce and new distribution models, GPSR aims to fill areas not covered by traditional regulation, ensuring product safety standards can adapt to rapidly changing market environments.

• Create a Fair Market Environment: By implementing unified safety and compliance standards, GPSR sets a fair competitive baseline for all market participants, effectively curbing unfair competition practices.

The new GPSR regulation was officially promulgated on May 23, 2023, and will be mandatory from December 13, 2024.

The regulation has an extremely broad coverage, mainly targeting consumer products not governed by other specific EU regulations (such as cosmetics regulations, medical device regulations, etc.). The applicable industries and product categories include but are not limited to:

• Electronic and Electrical Products: Such as household appliances, consumer electronics, and accessories.

• Children's Products and Toys: Setting extremely high safety thresholds for products used by children.

• Furniture and Home Products: Including furniture, interior decorations, and various daily necessities.

• Textiles and Clothing: Requiring clothing, bedding, etc., to be free of harmful substances.

• DIY, Gardening, and Automotive Consumer Products: Such as tools, equipment, child safety seats, and automotive accessories.

• Sports and Leisure Equipment: Various equipment used for sports and entertainment activities.

• Food Contact Materials: Such as cups, straws, food packaging, etc.

• Other Products Not Covered by Specific Regulations: Such as candles, aromatherapy, jewelry, glue, leather care products, etc.

It is worth noting that GPSR's regulatory scope is not limited to new products but also includes second-hand, repaired, and refurbished products.

GPSR has significantly upgraded the EU's existing safety requirements in multiple aspects, particularly emphasizing responsibilities at the front end of the product lifecycle.

• Deepened Risk Assessment: GPSR requires companies to conduct more comprehensive and detailed risk assessments, covering not only traditional risks but also proactively considering potential safety hazards arising from new technology applications.

• Strengthened Technical Documentation: The regulation's requirements for technical documentation have become more stringent and detailed. Companies must not only prove their product compliance but also record in detail the risk assessment process and safety measures taken.

• Front-loaded Safety Responsibility: GPSR emphasizes that manufacturers must deeply integrate safety functions at the product design stage, rather than merely meeting basic compliance standards.

• Upgraded Traceability: Implementing a more stringent full-chain traceability system, ensuring every link from production to consumption is clearly traceable, providing support for efficient market supervision and product recalls.

• Coordinated Market Supervision: Promoting more proactive cooperation between companies and market regulatory authorities, shifting from "passive response to problems" to "proactive risk prevention".

GPSR sets clear legal responsibilities for each participant in the supply chain (manufacturers, importers, distributors).

• Manufacturer Obligations:

As the primary responsible party for product safety, manufacturers must ensure product safety throughout the design and production process. This includes conducting thorough risk assessments, establishing and maintaining complete technical documentation, ensuring product traceability, and affixing compliance marks such as CE when necessary. After products enter the market, any safety incidents must be immediately reported to competent authorities and effective recall procedures must be initiated.

• Importer Obligations:

If the manufacturer is located outside the EU, the above responsibilities transfer to importers within the EU. Importers are responsible for strictly verifying that manufacturers have fulfilled all compliance procedures before placing products on the market and ensuring complete technical documentation. Additionally, importers must maintain compliance records, conduct sampling inspections of imported products, and bear responsibility for reporting safety issues.

• Distributor Obligations:

Before distributing products, distributors must conduct verification to ensure products bear necessary compliance marks (such as CE marks) and safety instructions. During distribution, they are responsible for monitoring product safety. Once problems are discovered or incident reports are received, they must promptly notify manufacturers or importers and relevant authorities, and actively assist in recall efforts.