GPSR Compliance - Manufacturer no longer in business / pre date CE marking

[reynardnoirrailwayana2015]

Hi all, 

We sell mostly second hand model trains, quite a few go to the EU, we stock a range of different manufacturers, and some of them are no longer in existence, and some of the stock pre dates CE marking etc and there is no safety documentation.

I have questions relating to GPSR Compliance

- If the manufacturer no longer exists is it no longer possible to sell that item into the EU ?

- If you pay and appoint a person to be the representative person can you then sell items from defunct organisations again

- Many items we sell pre date the safety standards and have no relevant markings - are these now banned?

- Not a single item we have ever sold has instructions in all of the following - Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish and Swedish. So to sell to EU the literature needs to be in all of those??

- "This information must be presented in the local language of the country where your item is being sold." We list on ebay UK, but listing seemingly also appear on ebay.de, so does that mean just English and German needed??

This is exceptionally complex, Brexit to blame of course. 

[lukey52133]

I'm not sure how Brexit is to blame considering this is an EU directive that applies to everyone in the EU if I read correcly. If anything you can thank Brexit because sales within the UK don't apply to these stupid changes.

The entire thing is a complex mess. So many questions unanswered. The requirement of the information in all languages that it's for sale in is insane. They're literally expecting you to have like 20 different versions of text on your listing with every language that you hope google translator accurately translates.

I mostly sell loose trading cards (read pieces of paper). They have no instructions, no health and safety, no product warnings or safety labels/symbols. Despite this I'm still supposed to fill out this trash. Guess I'll just have to write watch out for paper cuts and flammable if you set it on fire or something stupid like that...

[vintagechinashop]

I've read through it and honestly I sell maybe 10 items a years to EU buyers and probably a dozen to NI. I really can't be bothered to jump through all these hoops so at the end of the year I will be excluding all these countries from my listings 

most of the things I sell the manufacturers no longer exist so it's really not worth my while 

thank goodness we left the EU as far as this is concerned. A prime example of jumping through hoops that do not serve us 

[mannyman0_1]

We sell “vintage” i.e antique light fittings; lamps, chandeliers, ceiling pendant lights, wall scones etc

99% of what we sell is historically 100+ years old, very rarely a manufacturer’s name can be deduced through guess work, long-winded research, and associative pairing up, none of which is of any degree of certainty, so, if we can’t even establish who made the item, how are we to find some form of archives with information about these pioneers, who is to say that they left any legible documented records behind? Those were the geniuses who had no more than a pen, a piece of paper, and measuring device as their design tool kit; no CAD apps, no Gemini, No AI, they didn’t even have crash test dummies, I bought and sold 18th Century’s dentist’s practice’s ceiling lighting fixtures that took two adults to operate where many many patients lost their lives on the dentist chair through this light fixtures

If this is the case of UK sellers, how would sellers on the content deal with the issue considering that across the EU, there must be 1000s folds the designers and manufacturers who practiced in the UK between the 18th and the 21st century, so how would EU sellers climb this mountain?

Is this simply another crack of the Brexit punishment whip aimed at anything UK?

I have spoken to about 10 C/S advisers hoping for some help, and all they say is just “enter N/A”, something I can’t see being acceptable in the logical time of day, so, how in God’s name are we going to deal with this? Anyone?  Please! Is this the end of selling on eBay? Don’t they realise that this is what it adds up to?

[jonat_broad]

If it's over 100 years old that is the general considered antique so is exempt.

its also again nothing to do with Brexit if sellers in the EU also have to comply.

[mannyman0_1]

you know it is considered antiques and so do I, why is eBay constantly reminding me that my items will be obscured from EU buyers if I didn't comply? and why is it that eBay C/S never have any logical answer to this issue? thank you 

[brockbargains]

Like you, i will just not bother to sell cycle parts, bought in job lots with unknown manufacturer to EU or NI. Their loss if they want the rare part i have, and it is once again a demonstration that NI is not part of the UK any more.