If you sell anything physical through an e-shop or a marketplace, the GPSR regulation has applied to you since 13 December 2024, even if you import nothing and run a one-person firm. Your product page must show the manufacturer, their contact, and safety information. And a marketplace like Amazon already enforces this: without those details, it will not publish your listing.
The product page GPSR is about is something I have in front of me every week: at DevNova we build e-shops and product catalogues, and I, Tair Khamitov, am the one rebuilding them. The regulation runs to over a hundred pages and is written for lawyers. This is the version for an e-shop owner: what you actually need to add to product pages, why the marketplace pushes it faster than the state, and how to check it in one afternoon.
Contents
1. The myth: this only affects big importers
On e-shop forums and in Facebook seller groups I read the same thing over and over: GPSR is supposedly for manufacturers and big Chinese importers, and it does not touch a small local seller. "I just resell goods from a Slovak wholesaler, leave me alone." It sounds logical. And it is the mistake that can cost you a vanished listing or a fine.
The regulation does not ask how big you are. It asks what role you play in the chain, and whether the product reaches a Slovak consumer through your page. If it does, part of the duties is on you. Not because you are large, but because you are the last link between the goods and the buyer.
The other half of the myth goes: "even if it applies, nobody actually checks." Under the old 2001 directive there was something to that. Under GPSR it no longer holds, and it was not an inspector who changed it, but the platform you sell through. Why, is in section 4.
GPSR does not ask how big you are. It asks whether the product reaches the buyer through your page.
2. What GPSR actually is and since when
GPSR stands for Regulation (EU) 2023/988 on general product safety. It applies directly across the whole EU since 13 December 2024 and replaces the old general product safety directive from 2001. Because it is a regulation, not a directive, there is no softer Slovak version: the text applies the same way in Bratislava as in Vienna. The European Commission has a clear summary too.
The scope is broad. GPSR covers practically all non-food consumer products (clothing, electronics, toys, cosmetics, accessories, furniture) sold online and in a physical shop. If an ordinary consumer uses it and it is not food, a medicine, or something under its own special regulation, it belongs here. Slovakia passed its own implementing law (Slovak Ministry of Economy), in force since 1 May 2025.
Traceability is part of the regulation too. As a seller you must be able to trace who you bought the goods from and who you sold them on to, so a product can be pulled from the whole chain if something goes wrong. In practice that means keeping supplier records, not binning them after a year. Without them you cannot show where the goods came from, and that is the first thing an inspector or the marketplace asks for when something goes wrong.
3. Who it applies to, not just the maker
This is the core of the whole article. GPSR splits responsibility across so-called economic operators: manufacturer, importer, distributor, and yes, the seller who offers the goods through their own e-shop or a marketplace. If you buy from a wholesaler and resell, you are a distributor. That means concrete duties regardless of whether your turnover is 20,000 or 2 million euro.
The key term is the responsible person: an economic operator established in the EU who stands behind the product. The regulation is clear: a product may not be placed on the EU market unless someone established in the Union is responsible for it. If your manufacturer is in the EU, it is usually them. If you sell goods from a manufacturer outside the EU (typically direct import from Asia), the responsible person must be the importer, an authorised representative, or, as a last resort, you. The detail is in the EUR-Lex summary of the regulation.
Now the good news, because the panic pieces skip it. If you sell branded goods made in the EU, the manufacturer already supplies most of the data, and your job is to display it correctly on the product page, not invent it. It gets harder only when you import directly from outside the EU or sell under your own brand. Then the responsibility really does sit with you.
A concrete example, so it is not abstract. You order silicone baking moulds from a Chinese wholesaler, put your own brand on them, and sell them through your e-shop. At that moment you are, under GPSR, both the manufacturer and the responsible person in one, and all the data and safety information is on you to provide. The same goods from a Slovak distributor carrying an EU manufacturer's brand are far simpler: the manufacturer supplies the data.
What does own-brand actually mean in practice? Your name and address must be on the product or its packaging, the product must go through an internal risk assessment with technical documentation behind it, and you must be able to supply instructions and warnings. This is not extra paperwork for its own sake. It is exactly what imported goods with no documentation are most often missing.
A distributor has it easier, but not for free. Your duty is to check that the required details are on the page, not to sell goods you know or should know are unsafe, and to cooperate with a withdrawal. It is not a certificate or an audit. It is order in what you show about the product on the page.
If you buy from a wholesaler and resell, you are a distributor. And a distributor has its own duties under GPSR.
4. The marketplace already enforces it
While the Slovak state is only spinning up inspections, the private marketplaces already act. Amazon has required manufacturer and EU responsible-person details from sellers since 2025, through its "Manage Your Compliance" section. Without them it quietly removes or hides the listing. Kaufland Global Marketplace has the same requirement.
It is not a coincidence. GPSR gives online marketplace operators their own duties: they must register in the Safety Gate system, keep a contact point for surveillance authorities, and take down a dangerous product on order. So the marketplace pushes the duty onto you to protect itself. The result is simple: enforcement is already running, it just does not come through an inspector, but through the interface where you sell.
What does the marketplace actually ask for? The manufacturer's name and address, the EU responsible person's contact, and the product's safety labeling. The sequence is usually graded: first a warning in the compliance section, then the listing hidden from results, finally its removal. And one more thing has changed. Platforms can no longer present themselves as a passive intermediary. They carry responsibility for dangerous offers too, which is why they pass it to the seller.
The marketplace pushes the duty onto the seller to protect itself. Enforcement is already running, through the interface, not the inspector.
5. Safety Gate: the numbers that make it real
So this does not read as a paper threat: the EU runs a rapid alert system called Safety Gate, through which member states report dangerous non-food products to each other. In 2024 it recorded 4,137 alerts, the highest since the system launched in 2003, according to the Commission's press release. Over 4,200 follow-up actions followed, meaning withdrawals and sales bans.
Cosmetics (36%) and toys (15%) drew the most alerts, then electricals and chemical products. Those are exactly the categories you find in small e-shops and marketplace listings. The 2024 figures are the latest closed annual data so far, and the trend is rising, not falling. Enforcement is not a theory for the future, it is happening now.
The reason behind the alerts is telling too: chemical substances were the main risk in almost half of the cases, so not exotic gadgets, but everyday drugstore items and accessories. That is exactly why enforcement reaches small e-shops, not only the big electronics importers.
4,137 alerts in 2024, the most in Safety Gate's history. Enforcement is not a theory for the future, it is happening now.
6. What a product page must actually contain
Let us get practical. This is the minimum a product page should carry to meet GPSR in distance selling. It is not a long list, but it must be visible before the purchase, not buried in the footer.
| Item on the page | What it is | When it is required |
|---|---|---|
| Manufacturer / importer | Name or trademark + postal and email address | ALWAYS |
| EU responsible person | Name and contact of an EU-established entity standing behind the product | If the maker is outside the EU |
| Product identification | Type, batch or serial number + product image | ALWAYS |
| Safety warnings and instructions | Warnings and use instructions in Slovak | If relevant to the product |
The two things people trip on most: the address must include an email one, not only postal, and the safety information must be in Slovak when you sell to a Slovak customer. When we build an e-shop, we put these fields straight into the product template, so the seller does not have to add them by hand on every item.
One more thing that is not obvious at a glance: legibility. The information must be understandable and available before the purchase, not a photographed foreign-language label somewhere in the image gallery. And keep the product and supplier documentation. When a question comes from an inspector or from the marketplace, the "who from and what" record is what gets you out of trouble in an hour instead of a week.
One more common confusion is worth clearing up: GPSR versus CE marking. GPSR is the general safety net. It covers consumer products that have no specific rule of their own, and complements the ones that do. A toy or an electrical appliance carries CE marking under its sector rules, and GPSR applies on top, in the part about general safety and information. One does not replace the other.
7. How to check it in one afternoon
You do not need to pay for an audit. Walk through your own e-shop like this:
- Pick your three best-selling products. Open their pages exactly as a customer sees them.
- Look for four things: the manufacturer with an address, product identification, safety warnings, and, for goods from outside the EU, the responsible person. Anything missing? You have a gap.
- Check the language. Are the warnings in Slovak, or did they stay in English or Chinese from the supplier?
- Open your marketplace account. If you sell through Amazon or Kaufland, open the compliance section and you will see what the platform asks of you and what it blocks.
- Start a simple record. For each product line, note the manufacturer, the responsible person, and where you source the goods. When a question comes, you have the answer immediately.
If it turns out the fields are missing across the catalogue, that is a template job more than a copywriting one. That is exactly what we handle in e-commerce development: a product page with fields for GPSR data, so it is filled once and shown everywhere. Prices are public on our pricing page (e-shop from €1,399). GPSR is only one of the rules that hit small e-shops at once. It ties into the EU AI Act and into how you handle a chatbot on an e-shop, and it fits the wider digitalisation of a business.
Frequently asked questions
Does GPSR apply even to a small Slovak e-shop that imports nothing from Asia? Yes. If you sell non-food goods to a Slovak consumer, you are in the chain as a distributor and part of the duties is on you. For branded EU goods the manufacturer supplies most of the data and you just display it; for direct imports from outside the EU the responsibility sits with you.
Since when exactly does GPSR apply and what does it replace? Regulation (EU) 2023/988 applies directly across the EU since 13 December 2024 and replaces the general product safety directive from 2001. Slovakia passed an implementing law in force since 1 May 2025.
What information must a product page carry to meet GPSR? The name and address (postal and email) of the manufacturer or importer, product identification with an image, safety warnings and instructions in Slovak, and, for goods from a maker outside the EU, the name and contact of the EU responsible person. They must be visible before purchase.
Why does the marketplace already require product safety data from me? Because GPSR also gives duties to online marketplace operators. Amazon and other platforms therefore ask sellers for manufacturer and responsible-person details, and remove or hide listings without them, protecting both themselves and you.
Who is the "responsible person" under GPSR and when must I name them? It is an economic operator established in the EU who stands behind the product's safety. If the manufacturer is in the EU, it is usually them. If you sell goods from a maker outside the EU, the responsible person must be the importer, an authorised representative, or you, and their contact belongs directly on the product page.
What penalties does a Slovak e-shop face for breaching GPSR? Penalties are a member-state matter. The Slovak general product safety law allows fines ranging from hundreds up to hundreds of thousands of euro; the Slovak Trade Inspection supervises it. In practice the first real impact tends to be a removed marketplace listing, not the maximum fine straight away.
How do I check in one step whether my product pages meet GPSR? Open your three best-selling products through a customer's eyes and look for four things: the manufacturer with an address, product identification, safety warnings in Slovak, and, for goods from outside the EU, the responsible person. If anything is missing across the catalogue, it is a job for the product page template.
Do I need CE marking alongside GPSR? It depends on the product. Some categories such as toys or electronics have their own rules with CE marking that apply alongside GPSR; GPSR does not replace them, it adds general safety and information duties. If you are unsure what applies to your goods, ask the manufacturer or a lawyer.
About the author
Tair Khamitov runs the Bratislava studio DevNova. He builds e-shops, websites and automation for small and mid-sized businesses across Central Europe, and translates new rules for owners into the language of "what do I actually do with the product page". He is not a lawyer, and this article is an orientation overview, not legal advice. For a specific inspection or dispute, consult a lawyer. Contact: b2b@devnova.eu.