Does GPSR Apply to Digital Products or Software?

Many online sellers offer a mix of physical goods and digital downloads, so a natural question is whether the https://prestashopcompliance.com/eu-laws/gpsr/ reaches software, e-books, subscriptions or other purely digital products. The short answer is that the Regulation is aimed at physical consumer products, but the boundary deserves a closer look. What the Regulation Is Built Around The General Product Safety Regulation applies to non-food consumer products placed on the EU market, covering new, used, repaired and refurbished items. Its concept of safety is grounded in physical characteristics: how a product is made, its composition, its packaging and the instructions that accompany it. A file that a customer downloads, with no tangible article behind it, generally does not fit that framework. Pure Digital Goods: Usually Out of Scope Standalone software licences and apps sold as downloads.E-books, digital templates and online courses.Streaming or subscription access with no physical item. These are typically addressed by other EU rules on digital content and services rather than the https://prestashopcompliance.com/faqs/what-is-gpsr/ product-safety regime. Where Digital and Physical Meet The picture changes once software is embedded in, or connected to, a physical product. A smart speaker, a fitness tracker or a connected toy is still a physical consumer product, and its safety can depend on the software it runs and on the updates that keep it safe. In that context, the digital element is part of assessing whether the physical product is safe, so the Regulation is relevant even though the code itself is not the product. The practical takeaway: if you sell purely digital goods, the GPSR usually will not apply to them, but if your product is a physical device with software inside it, treat it as an in-scope product and document its safety accordingly. This answer is for general education and does not constitute legal advice.

Do I Need an EU Responsible Person If I Only Sell in My Own Country?

A common misunderstanding is that the responsible-person requirement only bites when you ship across borders. In fact, it does not depend on how far your parcels travel. What matters under the https://prestashopcompliance.com/eu-laws/gpsr/ is where the product was made and who first places it on the Union market. The Test Is the Product's Origin, Not Your Delivery Radius The General Product Safety Regulation says a product may only be placed on the market if an economic operator established in the EU is responsible for it. This flows from Regulation (EU) 2019/1020, Article 4. The trigger is a product manufactured outside the Union that reaches EU consumers. If you import goods from outside the EU and then sell them, even only to customers in your own country, you have placed those goods on the Union market and a https://prestashopcompliance.com/glossary/responsible-person/ is required. When You Probably Do Need One You import products from outside the EU and resell them domestically.You dropship items shipped directly from a non-EU manufacturer.You sell own-brand goods manufactured for you outside the Union. When It May Already Be Covered If you buy products from an EU-based manufacturer or importer, that upstream operator is usually the responsible person, and their details should appear in your https://prestashopcompliance.com/faqs/what-is-gpsr/ compliant listings. You still have to show that information under Article 19, but you may not need to appoint anyone yourself. The safest approach is to confirm in writing which party in your supply chain holds the role. So domestic-only selling is not an exemption. The question is always: was this product made outside the EU, and is there already an EU operator responsible for it? If not, that responsibility falls to you. This answer is for general education and does not constitute legal advice.

What are the penalties for GPSR non-compliance?

There is no single EU-wide penalty figure for GPSR breaches. The regulation requires penalties to be effective, proportionate and dissuasive, but leaves the actual sanctions to each Member State to set under national law. This means the fines and other consequences you face depend on which country's authority is enforcing, so a breach affecting sales in several markets can expose you to several national regimes at once. Financial penalties are only part of the picture. Market surveillance authorities have a range of powers that can be more disruptive to an online store than a fine: Withdrawal or recall — authorities can order a dangerous product to be taken off the market or recalled from consumers.Safety Gate listing — dangerous products can be published on the EU Safety Gate rapid alert system (formerly RAPEX), visible across all Member States.Marketplace takedowns — online marketplaces must act on notices about dangerous products, so listings can be removed and seller accounts restricted.Sales bans and destruction — in serious cases authorities can prohibit supply or require products to be destroyed. For PrestaShop merchants, the practical takeaway is that non-compliance risks losing the ability to sell a product entirely, not just a monetary penalty. Check the enforcement notes for your main markets, such as Germany and France, and work through the Complete GPSR Guide to reduce your exposure.

Does GPSR apply to dropshipping?

Yes, the GPSR applies to dropshipping. The regulation covers online and distance selling regardless of how the goods are fulfilled or where the seller is based. Dropshipping does not create an exemption; it simply changes who occupies which role in the supply chain. The key question is which economic operator role you occupy. If you list and sell products to EU consumers under your own store, and your supplier is outside the EU, you may be treated as the importer — or even the manufacturer if you sell under your own brand. Either role carries substantial duties, including ensuring the product is safe, documented and traceable. See our glossary entry on the economic operator. Crucially, a product may not be placed on the EU market unless there is a responsible person established in the EU. A dropshipper sourcing from outside the EU cannot rely on the overseas supplier to satisfy this. You must ensure an EU responsible person exists — an importer, authorised representative or qualifying fulfilment service provider — and display their details on your listings alongside the manufacturer's contact information, product identifiers and any warnings. In short, dropshipping models that source directly from non-EU suppliers face some of the hardest GPSR compliance challenges. Before scaling such a model, work through the requirements in the Complete GPSR Guide and confirm you can meet the distance-selling information rules for every product you list.

Which Country's Rules Apply When I Sell Across the EU?

The short answer: EU-wide regulations give you a single baseline that applies everywhere, but a number of national obligations follow the country you are selling into. When you ship across the EU, you meet the EU rules once, then add the destination country's specifics for each market you serve. EU-wide regulations are the baseline Regulations such as the GPSR (product safety), the Omnibus rules (price transparency and reviews), the PPWR (packaging) and the European Accessibility Act apply across all 27 member states. Their core requirements - a safe product, a responsible person in the EU, honest price reductions, accessible e-commerce - do not change from one country to the next. Get these right and you have your common foundation for the whole single market. National transposition adds detail Where EU rules take the form of directives, each country writes them into national law and can add detail. Germany's price-display rules sit in the Preisangabenverordnung; Italy's consumer rules are in the Codice del Consumo; Spain uses the Texto Refundido consumer statute; France layers on strong consumer-protection practice. The substance is harmonised, but the exact wording, disclosures and enforcement bodies are national. Language follows the customer Consumer information must generally be in the language of the destination country: French for France (the Toubon law), Italian for Italy, Spanish (and sometimes co-official regional languages) for Spain, German for Germany. This covers product descriptions, safety warnings, instructions and the required pre-contractual information. A single English storefront is not enough for these markets. EPR is per destination country Extended Producer Responsibility registrations are national and depend on where your goods and packaging end up. If you ship to Germany, you register in the LUCID packaging register before selling. If you ship to France, you deal with the REP system and a unique identifier via ADEME, plus packaging EPR. Italy uses CONAI; Spain applies Royal Decree 1055/2022. You need the right EPR registration for each destination country you supply, not one blanket registration. In practice Meet the EU-wide regulations once as your baseline.For each destination country, add local language, transposition detail and EPR registration.Confirm specifics with the named national authority, as they change over time. See our country hubs for France, Italy, Spain and Germany for the destination-specific detail.

Guide

GPSR vs the Old General Product Safety Directive: What Changed

By Compliance Editorial Team Updated July 5, 2026 5 min read

GPSR

For more than two decades, general consumer product safety in the European Union was governed by the General Product Safety Directive (GPSD), 2001/95/EC. From 13 December 2024, that Directive was repealed and replaced by the General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR), Regulation (EU) 2023/988. The change is more than a renaming exercise. It reshapes who is responsible for a product, what an online listing must show, and how enforcement works across the single market. This guide compares the old regime with the new one so you can see exactly what changed.

From a Directive to a Regulation

The first and most structural change is the legal instrument itself. A directive sets out objectives that each Member State must transpose into its own national law, which historically produced twenty-seven slightly different versions of the same rules. A regulation applies directly and uniformly in every Member State without transposition. In practice this means the core obligations of the https://prestashopcompliance.com/eu-laws/gpsr/ are now the same whether you sell into Germany, France or Ireland, which reduces fragmentation but also removes the local wiggle room some businesses relied on.

Online-Selling Information Duties

The GPSD was drafted in an era before the modern e-commerce marketplace and said very little about distance selling. The GPSR addresses online sales head-on. Article 19 sets out what a product offer made available online, or through any other means of distance sales, must clearly show before a consumer buys.

The name, registered trade name or trade mark and postal and electronic address of the manufacturer.
Where the manufacturer is not established in the EU, the name and contact details of the responsible person.
Information allowing the product to be identified, including a picture, its type and any batch or serial number.
Any warning or safety information that must accompany the product, in a language easily understood by consumers.

For an online store this is a concrete, day-one obligation. Listings that once carried only a photograph and a price now need traceability and safety data on the product page itself. Our https://prestashopcompliance.com/guides/complete-gpsr-guide/ walks through how to structure this on a PrestaShop catalogue.

The Responsible Person

Perhaps the single biggest practical change is the requirement for an economic operator established in the Union. Under the GPSD, a product could reach EU consumers without any operator physically present in the EU. Under the GPSR, a product covered by the Regulation may only be placed on the market if there is an economic operator established in the Union who is responsible for it. This mirrors the mechanism already found in Regulation (EU) 2019/1020, Article 4.

That operator, commonly called the https://prestashopcompliance.com/glossary/responsible-person/, can be the manufacturer, an importer, an authorised representative, or a fulfilment service provider, depending on the supply chain. Their tasks include verifying that technical documentation exists, keeping it available to authorities, cooperating on corrective action, and informing regulators of safety risks. If you import from outside the EU, appointing this operator is not optional.

Online Marketplaces

The GPSR introduces specific duties for online marketplaces, which the GPSD never contemplated. Marketplaces must register with the Safety Gate portal, designate a single point of contact for authorities and for consumers, and act on notices about dangerous products, typically within two working days. They must also design their interfaces so that sellers can display the Article 19 information. If you sell through a third-party platform as well as your own shop, both sets of duties can apply.

Traceability and Technical Documentation

Traceability is far more explicit under the new rules. Manufacturers must ensure products carry a type, batch or serial number, and their name and contact details, either on the product or its packaging. They must also prepare technical documentation containing a general description of the product and its essential safety characteristics, and keep it for ten years. The GPSD spoke of traceability only in general terms; the GPSR turns it into a documented, retained obligation.

Safety Gate and Recalls

The EU rapid alert system, once known as RAPEX, continues as the Safety Gate, but the GPSR strengthens the recall process. Where a recall is needed, operators must send affected consumers a clear, standardised recall notice and offer an effective remedy: repair, replacement or refund. A consumer cannot be offered only a voucher as the sole remedy. Operators must also give consumers a way to register a product or report incidents. These consumer-facing recall rules are new compared with the older Directive.

What Is Still the Same

Not everything changed. The core principle survives: only safe products may be placed on the market, judged against a general safety requirement where no specific harmonised standard applies. Coverage remains broad, spanning new, used, repaired and refurbished consumer products. And penalties are still set by each Member State rather than fixed at EU level, so the size of a fine depends on where enforcement takes place.

Summary of the Key Shifts

Directly applicable Regulation replaces a transposed Directive.
Detailed online-listing information duties under Article 19.
A mandatory EU-established responsible person for products from outside the Union.
New, explicit obligations for online marketplaces.
Documented traceability and ten-year technical documentation.
Stronger, consumer-focused recall and Safety Gate procedures.

If you are unsure how these changes map onto your own catalogue, our https://prestashopcompliance.com/prestashop-compliance-audit/ and free https://prestashopcompliance.com/tools/ can help you spot gaps quickly.

This article is for general education and does not constitute legal advice.