New requirements come into force on 13th December 2024 for sellers selling into the EU from an external or third country. If you only sell in Great Britain (that's England, Scotland and Wales) then everything is fine, but selling into Northern Ireland is the same as selling into the EU from a GPSR point of view. Amazon and eBay will enforce the regs and are encouraging retailers to address the requirements as soon as possible. You may have already received email alerts related to the actions you must take.
Sellers who only sell within the UK might opt to exclude Northern Ireland as a permitted destination and thus limit their sales to the GB part of the UK. Hardly a good solution, but it may prove to a useful interim option for some.But bear in mind FBA sales don't currently allow for that exclusion.
If you sell into the EU/NI you have work to do before the 13th December 2024.
There is an excellent article on the Amazon site that explains what you must do, you can find it here. eBay also explain what they are looking for and this page is useful - click here. We explain GPSR below in summary form.
Almost all product types and their related online listings and packaging/labelling are impacted. So in 99.99999% of cases this impacts you.
1. The first thing that you must do is make sure your product can be easily identified - this is typically using the GTIN or EAN. You'll probably already have this if you are selling on the marketplaces. So this should not cause any trouble. And the product must meet existing laws and regulations. So again this should already be the case. The identifier must be on the product ideally, or on the packaging or documentation.
2. Next you need a responsible person in the EU. Basically a local company that will represent you. This sounds like a pain, but as you might have expected businesses already exist that will do this for you. Contact us and we can introduce you if you need help. It isn't expensive to register with one - so don't be anxious. If you are not the manufacturer then contact them to see who their appointed EU responsible person is.
3. Once you have that responsible person, their details need to be added to your listing and packaging information (and ideally on the product itself). As must the manufacturer. You may already have manufacturer info to hand due to the need on some marketplaces to have the MPN (Manufactures Part Number).
4. For each country you sell into you'll need to register the EU responsible person with that marketplace.
5. You may be expected to provide Technical documentation such as Hazmat and Energy Certificates in your listings as appropriate, you should at least have them available to you in case it is insisted upon.
We encourage you to act soon - it's not as hard or as onerous as you might fear - but it will take time.