Selling in Northern Ireland and the EU? Find out if you’re affected by GPSR, and how to get ready for December’s deadline…

The new General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR) comes into force on 13 December 2024, bringing new compliance requirements for most non-food consumer products sold in the EU – and Northern Ireland.

Thing is, quite a lot of Amazon brands either haven’t started preparing themselves, or aren’t even aware of the GPSR.

If this is you, there’s time to get ready – but you need to start now.

Are we affected by GPSR?

Very possibly.

Even UK-only sellers find they’re making sales to Northern Ireland, and most non-food products fall within the scope of the regulations, except:

  • Food
  • Animal feed
  • Medicinal products for human or veterinary use
  • Living plants and animals (including genetically modified organisms and genetically modified microorganisms in contained use, as well as products of plants and animals relating directly to their future reproduction, like seeds)
  • Animal by-products and derived products
  • Plant protection products (like pesticides)
  • Equipment on which consumers ride or travel when that equipment is directly operated by a service provider within the context of a transport service provided to consumers, and not operated by the consumers themselves
  • Aircraft
  • Antiques

So all you Amazon aircraft sellers can rest easy!

For everyone else…

What do we need to do to comply with GPSR?

The key requirements of the regulations are that you must:

  • Make sure all the products you sell in the EU or Northern Ireland in the scope of the GPSR meet GPSR requirements, as well as existing labelling and traceability requirements. For more information, read Amazon’s Product safety and compliance.
  • Have a Responsible Person* based in the EU for those products.
  • Label* all the products with the contact information, including the postal and electronic address, of the Responsible Person.
  • Label* all the products with the contact information, including the postal and electronic address, of the manufacturer and, if applicable, of the importer and, where different, the postal or electronic address of the single contact point at which they can be contacted.
  • Label* all the products with the type, batch or serial number or other element to make it possible to identify the product, and ensure the information is easily visible and legible for consumers.
  • Display the Responsible Person’s name and contact details, including the postal and electronic address, in online listings.
  • Display the manufacturer’s name and contact details, including the postal and electronic address, in online listings.
  • Display a product picture and any other information needed to identify the product in online listings.
  • Display warning and safety information, plus any other information concerning the labelling and marking required in compliance with applicable EU product safety and compliance law, in online listings, in the language of the country of sale.

* A “Responsible Person” can be the manufacturer or brand (if established in the EU), an importer established in the EU, an authorised representative established in the EU who is appointed in writing as the Responsible Person by the manufacturer or brand or a fulfilment service provider established in the EU, if no manufacturer, importer or authorised representative is established in the EU.

* Labels can be attached to the product, its packaging, the parcel or an accompanying document.

What happens if you’re not compliant by 13 Dec 2024?

If Amazon becomes aware that your product/s aren’t compliant, your listing/s will be deactivated.

Where do we start?

Our expert team suggest your key action points are to:

  • Work out who your Responsible Person will be
  • Sort out your labelling
  • Update your online listings to display the Responsible Person and manufacturer details
  • Get your warning and product safety information images ready for all of your applicable listings

Amazon says they’ll be releasing a widget to help upload your manufacturer’s name and contact details for each product, and the Responsible Person for non-CE-marked products.

And, though that widget’s not available yet, it’ll save you a lot of time and faff later on if you’ve got the information to hand when it is.

Need our expert help? Get in touch with the team

Useful links

Amazon Vendors? Don’t miss our Mastery Masterclass on 29 Feb…

For brands using Amazon Vendor, staying ahead in 2024 needs more than just knowledge; it needs *mastery*

And so, at 10am on 29 February 2024, we’re bringing you exactly what you need to nail Vendor this year.

For this hour-long live webinar, our panel of four renowned Vendor experts are primed and ready to share their time-earned experiences and best strategic insights – all designed to hand you the keys to Amazon supremacy in 2024.

SAVE MY SEAT

You can expect…

Game-changing Insights

Joining Venture Forge CEO Andy Banks, our panel of 4 is an elite team of Amazon Vendor specialists, each with years of invaluable experience, tips and strategies.

Sharing their Vendor wisdom will be:

Innovative Strategies

This is set to be a year like no other for Vendors on Amazon, with a whole raft of new challenges on the horizon.

We’ll take a deep dive into all the latest trends, good and bad, and share the tactics you need to navigate the hurdles and spur your brand to Vendor success in 2024.

This isn’t just about keeping up with the competition; it’s about forging – and staying – ahead.

“Ask the Experts” Q&A session

After you’ve heard what they’ve got to share, pose your questions to our experts in this interactive discussion segment.

This is your opportunity to get the answers you need to the questions you’ve been struggling with – from a panel with unrivalled Vendor expertise!

Join us online at 10am on 24 February 2024 – we can’t wait to see you there!

SAVE MY SEAT

The Fake Review Purge is in session…

Way back in May ’23 we reported a fake review purge on the horizon, and it seems it’s in full swing – in the US at least.

Here’s what’s going on, and what else we hope will come out of Amazon’s efforts…

How is the review purge working?

Emails to affected Amazon Sellers and Vendors confirm that;

Amazon has taken an action to remove from your listings product reviews that were associated with buyers who have violated Amazon’s policies.

To offer better protection for your business, Amazon has launched an automated process to suppress product reviews associated with such buyers.

The emails then list how many reviews have been removed, with details of the top ASINs affected.

While some sellers are lamenting a lack of greater transparency – for example, you’re not told what the removed review is so you can’t pinpoint the specific reasons why it was an issue – we see this as a wholly positive move towards a fairer and more trustworthy marketplace.

Bye-bye Bad Acting Buyers *crossed fingers*

As well as waving bye-bye to fake reviews, there have long been misgivings from Amazon brands about buyers who use bad reviews and feedback for their own malicious purposes – usually angling to force a refund or a discount from the helpless seller.

Review removals in the US suggest that these rule-breaking buyers are being targeted, which is good news for honest Sellers and Vendors alike – here’s hoping this is a move that will make a strong mark!

Worried about fake reviews on your listings? Do this…

Bad reviews can have a shattering impact on the performance of your listings, so it’s crucial you keep a constant watch for bad actors posting fake feedback.

So, if you’re worried that you’re being targeted, follow Amazon’s Product Review Policy to the letter, and report anything you think is a violation as soon as possible.

And if you’d like a helping hand from our time-served Amazon experts, just click here to speak to the team.

A Key Opportunity for Vendors in 2024? Take a deep dive into your P&L…

It’s no secret that we’re all about maximising your Amazon profits here at Venture Forge – after all, you can drive all the growth in the world, but if you’re not making the money you need from your sales, what’s the point?

And, with a whole new Amazon landscape unfolding for Vendors in 2024, the issue of maximising every penny of profitability has never been more important.

But where do you begin?

In his recent guest post for Channel X, our CEO Andy Banks suggests Vendors make taking a deep dive into their Amazon P&L a priority this year.

“A detailed understanding of your Amazon operations is crucial,” he explains.

“Knowing where every penny goes isn’t just about financial prudence but strategic decision-making.

This deep dive can help you identify areas for cost savings, efficiency improvements and potential investment opportunities.”

Find all of Andy’s Vendor tips for 2024 here

How do you do that?

You need access to the most up-to-date financial information you can get your hands on, covering your:

  • Sales performance
  • Ads performance
  • Inventory management
  • Pricing optimisation data
  • Operational efficiency (order processing times, fulfilment rates, customer metrics)

Sounds like a lot?

Our experts use a tried-and-tested suite of the best profit reporting tools around to provide accurate and timely Amazon financials to all our clients – if this is an area you need help with, get in touch today.

And then?

  • Use unit economics modelling next to drill deep into your product performance, pinpointing the areas that need tweaking.
  • Make sure you’re on top of your ad spend, continuously optimising it to improve your ROAS.
  • And make sure your Seller Model is still working for you.

Choosing the right Seller Model is a dilemma that should be reviewed regularly, it’s a question that’s more relevant right now than ever before – we’re seeing lots of Vendor brands considering whether they should make the move to hybrid or even Seller.

Useful links

Looking to maximise any of these opportunities for your marketplace business? 

Click here to speak to our Award-Winning Amazon Team!