GPSR Compliance

[bojangled]

This is as clear as mud to me. Been to the gov. advice website and various others.
How does a 1972 poster fit in to this process?

It's not an exempt category. 

Advise buyers this item is for viewing only ? 

My initial reaction, sadly, to to switch EU and NI off. 
Jo

[haymax98]

Royal Mail had a big exercise a year or so back to take all recent non-picture stamps back in and exchange them for barcoded ones. So they will not honour any pre-barcode stamps apart from Christmas issues or other commemorative/picture stamps as postage. That should exclude most post 1971 stamps.

[roverviews]

Just wondered how people are getting on with the GPSR. Have you added all the required information, or have you simply switched of EU and NI?

Ive seen lots of sellers, happily still selling to EU with no issues, no evidence of manufacturer details, safety information or EU representative supplied (unless Im not seeing it on UK site).

Is it all just a storm in a teacup?

[555njp]

I switched both EU and NI off, but as you say many are still happily carrying on as before without any apparent disruptions…..YET!

It’s a huge undertaking for customs to stop, check and apply the new rules, which require a degree of interpretation. It never was fully understood or clarified as to what actually constituted “made available for sale on the market prior to Dec 13th”. 

I suspect the receiving countries simply don't have sufficient resource or individual product knowledge to be able to apply GPSR effectively whilst keeping their imports moving?

It may well tighten up in future but no sign or reports of parcels not getting to customers or being returned/destroyed as yet.

[bzmotman]

I sell paper collectables with most sales going overseas. Some are 100+ years old so exempt but no box to tick. Others may or may not be exempt depending on your point of view.

I have not attemped to complete manufacturer etc but have made an additional disclosure in the GPSR section & also within the description. This reads -

"This item is exempt from the European Union GPSR for one or more of the following reasons

It was available for sale in the EU prior to December 13th 2024

It is an antique as defined in Annex IX of the VAT Directive

It is a collectors item of sufficient interest to justify collecting"

I am also including where justified Antique or Vintage in the item title. Hoping that all this will stop any AI Bot flagging my items up.

As a control I have listed a couple of similar items on my private account without any of this.

So far my regular European buyers are able to see, buy & receive items on both accounts.

Interestingly the last time I went to look at the specific GPSR forum on Ebay Germany it had been removed.

My gut feeling at the moment is that the EU countries, like us, have plenty on their plate at the moment - migrants - some countries have suspended Schenegen, Ukraine, economic problems, Trump etc that GPSR enforcement is way down the list of things to divert resources to. However if Trump tariffs come in & a trade war starts that will rapidly change.

[houseoftheyuccas]

I haven't changed anything--this year so far I've had more sales to Europe--probably because some sellers have excluded it now. I sent a package to Germany 2 weeks ago and it arrived within 3 days

[blackcatbooksuk]

I decided to not turn anything off an wait to see what happens. I have sold 1 to Ireland, which arrived with no issues. And sold one to Italy this week. So far no issues. 

What has surprised me is that Ebay are still allowing these sales to go through. I was under the impression that if you hadn't filled in any GPSR details you items would be automatically blocked from sales in the affected countries. So far that hasn't happened.

[the_book_seekers]

Is the responsibility for complying with GPSR with the business seller or ebay or both? I can't see the EU allowing this to go on for too long. It has a track record of hitting tech companies with large fines for what it considers to be non-compliance. The question is what will it do to business sellers. 

[blackcatbooksuk]

That is the point isn't it. Is it us as the business that has to do this, or the platform? I suppose time will tell on that score. 

[russellmattin]

You are right, also it may turn out like many other regs eg GDPR, PAT testing etc where there`s an initial big panic then everyone just ignores it!

[trafton.-47]

I've just listened to the latest webinar from the Dept of Biz & Trade. Well, still work in progress, it seems. Comments from prsenters included: "Not aware of problems getting products into the EU. General panic over GPSR has died down." Still lots of SMEs and individual sellers unaware of GPSR or what they have to do to comply - or even whether they need to.

If you're selling business-to-business, as opposed to an individual customer, you don't need an AR as the distributor will take on that role, BUT you do still have to produce a technical file as the distributor will need it.

If you're selling lots of things of the same type, eg postcards or paperback books, you just produce one generic safety risk assessment. If it doesn't have any appreciable safety risks (PCs and books again) you don't need to translate any 'safety statement' or similar. 

If you're importing someone else's product, eg from Japan, and selling to customers in the EU and NI, and if tyhe product does NOT include your name/badge/logo/imprint etc, then the Japanese company is the one that has to do all the GPSR heavy lifting - you're just counted as the distributor. But you do have to check that the manufacturer has fulfilled its GPSR obligations.

Goods found to be non-compliant are being returned rather than destroyed. It doesn't seem as though the MSAs are coming down very hard on 'honest' non-compliance. Germany is operating the strictest regime. Customs are currently more interested in the value of products than in the letter of GPSR compliance.

If you have an AR, then their address needs to be on the product itself and on your website and on customs paperwork, commercial invoices etc.

Hope that's helpful.

[555njp]

Very, thank you!