1.2 What is a safe product?

The GPSR requires that only safe products be placed on the market. This is what we call the general safety requirement. A product is considered safe if, under normal or reasonably foreseeable conditions of use, including the actual duration of use, it either does not present any risk or only presents the acceptable minimum risks compatible with the product’s use, thereby being consistent with a high level of protection of the health and safety of consumers. In line with the definition of health established by the World Health Organization, this definition also includes risks to mental health. For example, the design and the foreseen use of your product should not create risks for consumers’ cognitive abilities or cause depression, anxiety or poor sleep quality. Any environmental risk must also be taken into account, insofar as it entails a risk to the health and safety of consumers. In order to meet the general safety requirement, the product must therefore be subject to an assessment of the potential risks that it can pose to the health and safety of consumers (a risk assessment), taking all relevant aspects of the product into consideration, and be designed to address those risks. A product is presumed to be safe if it complies, for each of the safety risks it may pose, with the relevant applicable European standards the reference to which have been published in the Official Journal of the EU (6) or, in the absence of such standards, with national health and safety requirements contained in the law of the Member State in which it is made available. In other words, such products will benefit from a presumption of conformity with the general safety requirement. (7) What does the precautionary principle entail for you? The precautionary principle requires that precautionary measures are taken when there is reason to doubt the safety of a product’s impact on human health. A reference to the precautionary principle figures prominently in Chapter I of the GPSR, highlighting that all actors who are subject to the obligations of the GPSR must take due account of the precautionary principle when implementing these obligations. This means that all businesses (economic operators or providers of online marketplaces) must take due account of the precautionary principle when fulfilling their relevant obligations under the GPSR. In short, the precautionary principle requires all economic operators to proactively prevent hazards to human health, and to foresee, as far as possible, what dangers a product can pose.

← d1e434-1-1__para__5 · All articles · sec_1_2__para →

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