Regulation (EU) 2023/988
For product and e-commerce teams in the EU working out what product information the GPSR expects on packs and listings. This page covers what you need to know and ways to avoid running into issues.
What we've seen reported
The General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR), Regulation (EU) 2023/988, sets safety rules for consumer non-food products in the EU, including the product, manufacturer and safety information that goes with them on packs and in online offers.1,2
Last updated October 2026 · General information only, not legal advice. Sources.
What the rules cover
These are the kinds of product information the EU GPSR describes, according to its text, and where each is described as appearing.1
| Requirement | Where it applies |
|---|---|
| Type, batch or serial number | Manufacturers: on the product, or on the packaging or an accompanying document where size or nature does not allow it. |
| Manufacturer's name, trade name or trademark, and postal and electronic address | Manufacturers: on the product, or where that isn't possible, its packaging or an accompanying document. |
| Importer's name and contact details | Importers: on the product, its packaging or an accompanying document, without obscuring the manufacturer's label. |
| Contact details of the responsible person in the EU | On the product, its packaging, the parcel or an accompanying document. |
| Instructions and safety information | In a language consumers can easily understand, as decided by the member state where it's sold. |
| Online and other distance sales offers | The offer itself shows manufacturer details, a product picture, its type and identifiers, and any warnings. |
| Online marketplaces | Marketplaces: an interface that lets traders add this information to each product listing. |
Where it goes wrong
One approved set of product information ends up in many channels, markets and languages. Along the way it gets shortened, translated and reworded, and some versions end up without the warnings or details these rules require.
Aria 8 safety warning and EU contact details
How Arbitr helps
Read every version by hand? Or use AI to check what you publish against what you've already approved.
FAQ
On more than the pack. The EU GPSR describes product information on the product, its packaging or an accompanying document, and in online offers,1 which for most businesses means:
Treat each warning as approved wording with a version per language, not as text to retranslate every time. When the master warning changes, every language version has to change with it, and translated manuals and listings are where old versions tend to survive. Our packaging compliance page shows how teams track this.
Before a listing goes live, check it carries the manufacturer details, the product identifier, a picture and any warnings, in the language of the market, the four things the GPSR text describes for online offers.1 Marketplace templates often have no field for warnings, so that's where they tend to go missing.
How it applies to a specific listing is a question for your legal adviser. Where that listing appears across your markets and languages is a question Arbitr answers.
Product safety and regulatory teams usually own it, but the information is published by your packaging, e-commerce, marketplace and content teams, and often by retailers and distributors working from your feeds. Each needs to know which details travel with the product. Other product information rules are on our product labeling hub.
The GPSR replaced it. According to its text, Regulation (EU) 2023/988 repealed the General Product Safety Directive, Directive 2001/95/EC, with effect from December 13, 2024.1 For marking rules in Great Britain, see our page on UKCA marking.
According to its text, a product is any item supplied or made available that's intended for consumers, or likely to be used by them under reasonably foreseeable conditions even if it isn't intended for them.1
No. Your reviewers stop reading everything and read only what has been flagged, with the rule and the reason attached.
