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1. Introduction

COMMISSION NOTICE Guidelines on the application of the EU general product safety legislative framework by businesses · European Union

As of 13 December 2024, the new General Product Safety Regulation, Regulation (EU) 2023/988 (the GPSR) (1) sets a new general framework for the safety of consumer non-food products in the EU. It also repealed the previous General Product Safety Directive (Directive 2001/95/EC). (2) These guidelines, required under the Article 17(2) of the GPSR, aim to help businesses and particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), including micro-enterprises, to better understand and fulfil their obligations under this new Regulation. To ensure this objective, when preparing these guidelines, the Commission consulted representatives of SMEs and micro-enterprises in the context of the GPSR SMEs Sounding Board and also reflected questions raised by stakeholders on the GPSR interpretation during the first year of its implementation. The main objective of the GPSR is to ensure that only safe products are placed or made available on the EU market. It is important to protect EU consumers against dangerous products, and to ensure a level-playing field for businesses. The GPSR establishes the general safety requirement that economic operators should place or make available only safe products on the EU market. The GPSR establishes a coherent set of minimum product safety requirements that businesses need to comply with in order to ensure that only safe products are circulating on the EU market. It applies to products insofar as there are no specific provisions with the same objective under Union law that regulate the safety of the products concerned or a risk associated to such product. National market surveillance authorities enforce the obligations laid down by the GPSR. They check that products on the EU market are safe and that businesses comply with their obligations. If a dangerous product is detected, Member States inform each other via the EU Safety Gate Rapid Alert System, which is managed by the European Commission; the public is informed via the Safety Gate Portal. (3) Member States may also fine businesses that breach their obligations under the GPSR.

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-09-07 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.