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Over the past few weeks you may have seen quite a few small businesses posting about something called GPSR and how it might affect their ability to sell from the UK into the EU. There are multiple complications surrounding these new regulations, the biggest one being the complete lack of transparent information!
Now that we *hopefully* have everything sorted, I wanted to share our strategy in case it might be helpful for other small paper-based businesses!
DISCLAIMER: This blog post is based on our own research and experience. We have taken care to try to find the best solution based on the products we sell and the information available to us. We are not a GPSR specialist and would advise you do your own research if selling into the EU.
GPSR stands for General Product Safety Regulation and comes into effect on 13th December 2024. It replaces the previous legislation (GPSD) and aims to ensure the safety of all non-food products being sold into the EU.
There are big fines for non-compliance, so small businesses are facing a decision: Make changes to comply, stop selling to the EU or risk a penalty!
There are 5 key elements of the regulations to consider:
Brexit has had a huge effect on our sales to Europe. Prior to the change we had large EU customer base, but thanks to the new customs charges now placed on every EU order, the percentage of our total sales to EU countries now sits at around 2-3%.
Choosing to no longer ship to the EU was a very valid option, given the time and financial demands of complying with these new regulations. However, we have some very loyal long-term customers that have stuck with us through Brexit and I felt we owed it to them to do whatever we could to continue shipping!
It is also believed that the UK will soon have its own version of these regulations, so complying will be necessary at some point anyway.
Finally, we are proud to be a UK small business that ships worldwide. This is a simple message and I didn’t want it confused with “Worldwide shipping excluding the EU and Northern Ireland” – Although Northern Ireland is in the UK it will potentially be treated as EU because of the soft border with the Republic of Ireland.
I will now outline my understanding of the regulations and the actions we have taken to become compliant.
If the products you sell are subject to any safety regulations (such as the CE mark) then you should already be ensuring that your products comply with the rules laid out. The complication for us comes that the majority of our products are paper based/stencils and therefore no official guidelines exist.
In the absence of formal guidelines, it is the manufacturer’s responsibility to risk assess the product. The risk assessment is based on “expected use”. (I.e. Does your product pose a risk to the consumer if used as intended?)
Our actions: I did a LOT of research in this area and after seeking guidance from our new EU representative they agreed that our products are low risk. We received a risk assessment template from our EU representative that we have completed for all of our product types and will continue to keep this updated and log any changes as necessary.
GPSR applies to businesses inside and outside of the EU, so although Brexit was a complete nightmare for us as a business, we would have had to comply with these regulations regardless. However there is now an additional loophole in the form of an EU representative.
If you are based outside of the EU you will now need to appoint an EU responsible person (RP). The contact details for this person will need to be included in online listings and product packaging for all products being sold into the EU.
From the research I have done, it appears that the role of the RP is not to be responsible for your products, but rather to act as a go-between from the authorities to the manufacturer in case of any issues. Businesses inside the EU can be their own RP, therefore saving on the additional costs this creates.
There seems to be a huge disparity in costs for this, depending on the services offered and the product types you are selling.
Our actions: We approached an online company called EUCompliancepartner.com who gave us a quote of €200 per year to act as our RP given that our product portfolio is low risk. Although it is very early days, we have been very happy with the guidance materials provided so far.
You may be required to present your product’s journey through the supply chain and are advised to keep appropriate documentation for your products for 10 years after being placed on the market.
Our actions: In order to track products and materials ordered externally to the business, we keep a google spreadsheet that is updated every time an item is ordered and again when it is received into HQ. This includes the supplier details, date ordered and received and any costings. This document was already in place prior to GPSR to allow us to keep a tab on quantities received and items outstanding but will now double as our supply chain document for GPSR purposes.
Each product listing should include:
All of the above should also be in ‘a language which can be easily understood’ where the product is for sale. This means you may need to have information available in multiple languages or alternatively use symbols for any safety warnings.
Our actions: We have added a tab to all of our product listings which contains all of the appropriate details, including the product SKU. All of our shop products include a product picture. Our subscriptions do not, and we do not believe this to be feasible given the ever changing nature of a subscription product. Although our products are classed as low risk, to be fully “belt and braces” we have included a safety symbol on all of our listings to indicate that our products are not intended for use by children under 6 years of age.
An example of our product listing tab is shown below:
As per the online listings, your product packaging should also include:
All of the above should also be in ‘a language which can be easily understood’ where the product is for sale. This means you may need to have labels available in multiple languages or alternatively use symbols for any safety warnings, if possible.
Our actions: Following guidance from our RP and other online sources, the information above doesn’t necessarily need to be directly on the product or product packaging. It can be included as an insert to the parcel, or be adhered to the outer packaging. We have opted to update our invoices to contain the address and contact details of the RP, and the same safety icon as the listings. They already included our registered name, address and contact email, as well as the product SKUs, which act as identifiers for the individual products. Should we create products in the future that have specific safety concerns, we can insure that the relevant safety symbols and information is printed onto the product packaging.
An example of our invoice is shown below:
The introduction of GPSR has been incredibly stressful for many UK small businesses. The timing was incredibly poor (Whose bright idea was it to introduce this twelve days before Christmas?!) and the lack of any real clear guidance has made the whole thing much more complicated that it needed to be.
I don’t personally believe that the “target” for these regulations is small businesses, who are already struggling to do what they can to compete in a difficult marketplace. Rather, that it will give EU countries the power to control mass produced unsafe products from flooding into the EU.
We have, to the best of our ability, implemented a solution that we believe meets all of the criteria. We hope that should any changes need to be made, that the fact that we have made clear attempts to be compliant will go a long way with the authorities that will implement the regulations.
I hope that by sharing what we have done to comply, might help other small businesses who are struggling to find their way through a maze of misinformation, rumours, and scaremongering online.
In the words of Jerry Springer, take care of yourselves, and each other… and whatever you decide to do regarding GPSR, have a lovely and prosperous Christmas time.
Big Love
Jo x
(Founder of Oops a Daisy UK)
