What is the General Product Safety Regulation ?
The General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR) is a new key instrument in the EU product safety legal framework, replacing from 13 December 2024 the current General Product Safety Directive and the Food Imitating Product Directive . It modernises the EU general product safety framework and address the new challenges posed to product safety by the digitalisation of our economies.
The GPSR requires that all consumer products on the EU markets are safe and it establishes specific obligations for businesses to ensure it.
It applies to non-food products and to all sales channels. The GPSR provides a safety net for products or risks not regulated in other EU legislation. This safety net function means that EU consumers are always protected against dangerous products, be it now or in the future.
Objectives:
- ensuring the safety of all products, including those linked to new technologies
- addressing challenges posed by the growth of online sales and in particular via online marketplaces;
- ensuring a better enforcement of the rules and more efficient and even market surveillance;
- improving the effectiveness of recalls of dangerous products in the hands of consumers.
What's new?
- Precautionary principle shall be widely applied by all stakeholders for product safety
- Specific product safety obligations for both economic operators and providers of online marketplaces
- Reinforced product traceability requirements
- List of aspects to be taken into account when assessing the safety of products, including for new technologies
- Accident reporting to authorities by businesses
- Reinforced market surveillance rules
- Specific rules on how to handle product safety recalls, including a mandatory recall notice template, and right to remedy for consumers
Timeline and process
23 June 2020 - 1 September 2020: Feedback on the roadmap
30 June 2020 - 6 October 2020: Open public consultation
30 June 2021: European Commission adopted Proposal for a Regulation on Product Safety
The Council and the European Parliament reached a provisional political agreement on the GPSR proposal on 28 November 2022.
Coreper I approved the provisional agreement on 21 December 2022 and the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee (IMCO) on 24 January 2023.
The European Parliament adopted the text of the new General Product Safety Regulation on 30 March 2023.
The Council adopted the General Product Safety Regulation on 25 April 2023.
The General Product Safety Regulation was published in the Official Journal of the EU on 23 May 2023.
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