How to become an EU economic operator for GPSR compliance ?

[rclark8449]

So i have been an ebay seller since 1999 (actually earlier then that) and have seen it all over the years , i have bent and twisted to fit every new hoop and distraction , its way way harder now then it was at the beginning , So finally this new EU rule coming in december is a camel breaking one , its been coming for the last 4 years but this is the first time its actually going to impact most of us , i left the uk for france when Brexit was clearly unstoppable and the shedload of paperwork would have been too much , so my question as a french buisness could i become an economic responsible entity and if so how would i go about that ?, Because i list on the uk site the same rules will be applicable to me in december and its daft to not be able to sell to europe when i live there pay tva there etc  , any answers or insights people ?   

[therenewalworkshopltd]

By EU responsible entity, do you actually mean responsible person?

If so, then the answer is likely to be yes.  

The question is, are you prepared to take on the full responsibility of it?

The various companies that have popped up to cover this, are not really doing anything special.

They don't have any particular legal authorisation etc.

As long as you understand everything that you are required to do (and do it), then it really shouldn't be an issue.

[ojewellery]

There are two things. An Economic Operator and a Responsible Person.  For the earlier, to me.  the role appears to be to live in Europe, to identify the products meet EU legislation and should a safety recall ever occur, fill in the central safety recall database.

The responsible person does as the economic operator but for products that have EU legislation like CE marking. The obligations and record keeping trail appears to be a bit more involved.

The only qualifying criteria appears to be being an EU resident

[cernak.m]

@rclark8449 was you able to find the answer on how to do that?  I may be interested to it as well if necessery.

Meanwhile I found also this info:

It’s mentioned here in this official GPSR document, Article 51: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32023R0988  that there should be an exception for the products produced before Dec 13 2024:

Article 51

Transitional provision

Member States shall not impede the making available on the market of products covered by Directive 2001/95/EC, which are in conformity with that Directive and which were placed on the market before 13 December 2024.

The transitional provision means that EU Member States cannot prevent products that were covered by Directive 2001/95/EC, and that comply with its standards, from being sold on the market if they were placed on the market before December 13, 2024. In other words, if a product was already on the market before this date and meets the previous safety directive, it can still be sold, and there is no need for it to comply with the new General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR).

If I understand it well, it means that anything produced before this date and complies with Directive 2001/95/EC, which it must, otherwise it would not have been possible to place it on the market in the first place, is exempt from the GPSR.

If this is correct, eBay should just create a new item-specific field “Produced before Dec 2024” - YES or NO, and if NO, ask for additional info for the GPSR, and if YES, then nothing....

Also, so far I found that only eBay is placing this GPSR burden on sellers. If you look up Vinted or other online platforms selling second-hand items, there is no info about it. Why? Maybe it’s because GPSR is a concern for new items, not used/second-hand items, and eBay is maybe just overdoing it?

[jonat_broad]

If you have that item-specific 'Produced before Dec 2024' field available, any unscrupulous sellers will just tick it to avoid GPSR requirements.

This is the problem ebay have  - they have to build their systems to the lowest common denominator. its also not clear from the EU rules what 'placed on the market' means in reference to a product.

Take for example a Nintendo Switch. The original Switch was first available 3 March 2017. But Nintendo are still rolling them off the assembly line. So was a Switch manufactured on 13 Dec 2024 placed on the market before GPSR, or after? i get this doesn't really answer the question on second hand goods - but if the burden of proof is on ebay as to whether a listing complies with GPSR - they are likely to look at the risk and decide it should apply to all listings.