GPSR (Regulation 2023/988) for online shops: what changed on 13 December 2024 and what to publish today

The General Product Safety Regulation is the most consequential consumer-safety reform in the EU since 2001. It replaced Directive 2001/95/EC on 13 December 2024 and applies to every consumer product placed on the EU market, regardless of the channel. For online sellers the practical effect is that a product listing now carries the same information obligations as a physical retail shelf label.

Article 4: every product needs an EU responsible person

Article 4 requires that a consumer product can only be placed on the EU market if an economic operator established in the Union is responsible for the product. The responsible person can be the manufacturer (when established in the EU), the importer, the authorised representative, or a fulfilment service provider. The responsible person's name and contact details must appear on the product itself or on its packaging, and on the product page where the product is sold online.

For a non-EU manufacturer selling through a non-EU storefront into the EU, the supply chain has to designate the responsible person before the first sale. The trader's own contact in a third country does not satisfy Article 4.

Article 19: what a product listing must display

Article 19 lists the categories of information the listing must surface. They include: the name, trademark, and contact details of the responsible person under Article 4; the product's identification (type, batch, or serial number where available); any warnings or safety information in the consumer's language; and any necessary instructions for the safe use of the product. The information must be on the offer page itself. A buried link to a downstream PDF does not satisfy Article 19.

Article 22: extra duties for online marketplaces

If your storefront hosts third-party sellers, you fall within the definition of an online marketplace under the Digital Services Act, and Article 22 of the GPSR layers additional duties on top of the DSA. Marketplaces must designate a single point of contact for authorities, accept reports of unsafe products through that contact, and take down listings of products subject to a public recall within 2 working days of becoming aware of the recall.

Where Shopify and WooCommerce stores most often miss

Three patterns recur. First, product templates that do not include a dedicated field for the Article 4 responsible person. The detail ends up in a free-text description, often only in English, and authorities flag the listing for missing information. Second, warnings displayed only as an image on the packaging photo. The Czech decision above explicitly rejects this as a substitute for text-based, machine-readable information on the listing. Third, missing or stale recall handling on marketplaces, where take-down within 2 working days is procedurally challenging without an automated link to the EU's RAPEX / Safety Gate feed.

What to audit this week

Pick five live product listings. For each, confirm the Article 4 responsible person appears in text on the listing itself, in the language of the buyer. Confirm any warnings appear as text, not just baked into the packaging photo. If your storefront is a marketplace, confirm the single point of contact under Article 22 is named on a dedicated public page and that your team can demonstrate a 2-working-day take-down workflow for recalls.

Run a free scan of your live storefront. ComplianceGuardHQ flags missing or hidden Article 4 responsible-person information and missing text-based warnings on a sample of product listings. The scan takes about 60 seconds and requires no install.