General Product Safety Regulation Regulations December 2024

[knit-in-styles]

I am part of the Ebay Expression where you participate in surveys. Today I received a survey re the new regulations which are coming in later this year if you sell to the EU. The survey was all about the wording of the email that will go out to sellers.

I have to admit, I was not aware of this and have no idea of which products this will affect but is a major change as the suggested email mentioned having to add the product manufactures name, address and contact details, add product safety and compliance information, product manuals on all listings. There is a link to to eBay EU if you are not aware where you can read some of the info.

https://www.ebaymainstreet.com/eupublicpolicy/issues/product-safety

[the_book_seekers]

That looks like a lot of work and this bit is one of many that caught my eye. 

Going forward, the EU is reforming the Product Liability Directive from 1985, which sets general liability rules for manufacturers, importers, distributors and fulfillment services providers in the case of damages incurred from defective goods already in the hands of the consumer. The new PLD proposal could enable compensation claims for any type of harm resulting from these defective products, including data loss, physical or psychological harm.

[wyntersemporium]

Might just drop gsp to Europe. Too much hassle 

amazon is asking the same for packaged products  which mine aren't as make them up as I go along 

[wyntersemporium]

Same here I got the email too

[litp*records]

---

@the_book_seekers wrote:

That looks like a lot of work and this bit is one of many that caught my eye. 

Going forward, the EU is reforming the Product Liability Directive from 1985, which sets general liability rules for manufacturers, importers, distributors and fulfillment services providers in the case of damages incurred from defective goods already in the hands of the consumer. The new PLD proposal could enable compensation claims for any type of harm resulting from these defective products, including data loss, physical or psychological harm.

---

Psychological harm?  What a load of baloney.  How the heck would you prove that?  Does the EU think its residents are all emotionally incontinent children?

Yeah I may just block Europe also.  Every year they bring in some new insane regulations it seems.  

[the_book_seekers]

Opens up a whole new area for scamming.

[the_hoff]

I've just been reading about this.  Looks like I'll be blocking GSP to the EU and NI from 13th December 2024 then!  What a load of hassle.  This over-regulation is going to strangle small businesses like mine.  It all just seems to be an exercise in stacking the odds in favour of the big companies who have the money and resources to comply with these changes.

[bojangled]

Just started a similar thread, it's a hoop too far for me. 
I complied with the German requirements last year, but I think I'll have switch EU and NI off.

Jo

[ojewellery]

@litp*records I actually had a customer try it on regarding psycological harm a couple of years ago.  He'd purchased a ladybird necklace for his girlfriend for Christmas and she was phobic against ladybirds - my fault of course.  I should have known the unnamed person he was buying for potentially could be triggered by a branded necklace.  It made me rethink responding to customers on Christmas day.

I wondered at the time if we'd end up with every plausible warnings on our products - like hot drink containers: contents may be hot.  Bag of nuts - may contain nuts (the may always makes me laugh).  In construction, late 90's, the number of warning options got so broad that sites started having giant every plausible warning sign printed and put up at their entrance.  There were then rumoured to have been a couple of prosecutions for effectively not having warnings because by spamming warnings the actual relevant site information was lost.  I think thats what we risk here - how many customers are actually going to link to some long en number hard to digest document.  

I'm going to watch this one from the sidelines until November and put an alarm on my calendar for last week November so I can make the decission as more information comes out.  My gut is I'll be turning EU off too.

[mahpetsupplies]

That'll be No NI sales and GSP to EU switched off... massive amount of work with zero benefit. 

Do they really think that publishing every supplier and manufacturer's contact details for every product in every listing is fixing anything? 

Wonder if NI residents are even aware of their soon to be reduced market?

[ojewellery]

I've just skim read four documents.  The original link above and then the three associated linked documents.  Very dry stuff.

The crux that I'm getting is this adding supply chain data element is for CE (or UK equivalent) marked products.  These products in the main part already have various requirements as part of the CE marking legislation so the manufacturer etc is already required to be identified on packaging.  Therefore adding to eBay shouldn't be a major issue.  But for many, many products this isn't going to be an issue.

Some products have extra legislation in certain countries - a quick skim read of the products with special extra requirements is worth a skim read but other than pop up pools, none of those were a surprise to me.

Happy to be called out as completely wrong but on first skim read my interpretation is this might be another of those slightly over zealous communications that is almost scare mongering for what could for many of us be a non issue.

[ojewellery]

Forget that, the more I read the more confused I become!

[Anonymous]

From the River board from 10 hours ago -

Hi everyone,

It's been a while! I'm here to share an update regarding the GPSR in North Ireland from the partner team:

For listings on our UK-based store only, including FBA products, Amazon’s GPSR policy does not apply.

You must, however, submit the required GSPR information for listings on our EU-based stores (e.g. Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, etc).

It is not possible to exclude Northern Ireland from FBA shipments. FBA shipments for the UK Store include the entire United Kingdom, including Northern Ireland.

Thank you for your patience.

Best regards, Ezra

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So all being well, I'll continue to buy from Prime and be delivered to here in N.Ireland, while the pool of Ebay UK buyers further diminishes.

[changgoldleaf]

The amount of red tape today is passed a joke.

This will just reduce the revenue to sellers who switch off gsp to Europe and Northern Ireland.

When this happens, buyers in Northern Ireland will have less exposure to ebay items being sold in the UK.

What I don't understand, is why is Northern Ireland included in this regulation, when (last time I looked) it was part of the UK and not the EU.

[moonspender]

Selling to the EU is already an issue, if this is required in my collectables catagory even though most items are antique we will exclude sales to the EU

[555njp]

Just been replying to another thread. We got this in February/March via the expressions team and was asked to explain our understanding of the communication before it was sent out.

One question was "what do you understand from this communication" to which I said "From December 2024 all products sold in the EU would require the manufacturers name and address, a certificate of compliance and original instructions for use".

Next question was "How would your business comply with this directive" to which I said "From December 2024, I will ensure all listings are available to UK buyers only!"

I asked for clarity as to what is/is not affected but got no answers.

I know my answer was flippant, but this is another piece of ridiculous legislation that we will find nearly impossible to comply with so easier to just stop selling to those markets.....

[bluefrogtoysltd]

I'm so confused about the GPSR message from ebay...does this mean I need to remove the N.I delivery from our delivery options, and if not will they start removing listings or something?

I went to revise a product and it want details of a responsible person in the EU for each product...we don't have one, neither do most of our manufacturers. Sounds like it's going to be just as complicated to sell to N.I as it is to the EU which is virtually impossible...we tried and gave up. So is this the end for N.I orders?

Bit stressed about this, can anyone clarify?

[vintagewatchpart]

I think EBay should have had more sense to have realised the unbelievable level of uncertainty and questions after their email today about this and need to put together more information that is category specific.

Nothing of what I sell is new and I cannot obtain any information that is requested so unless something changes it will be no more EU and NI sales for me.

Clarity required before tens of thousands of businesses press the panic button and stop selling to the EU and Ebay loses a lot of revenue (did a quick calculation and its around £3000-£4000 a year in fees Ebay get from me just for the EU sales)

[mahpetsupplies]

Haha!  ebay? Sense? 🤣

[camerapartsuk]

Sooooo

I've found contact details for one of my suppliers, I've inputted the name, address and an email.

Is that all I have to do? Especially if there's no retail packaging or warranty.