GPSR scope: which products are covered, and which are excluded

Consumer products, including some professional ones

A product is any item intended for consumers, or likely to be used by them under reasonably foreseeable conditions even if it was not meant for them (Article 3(1)). A professional drill sold on a consumer marketplace counts. Industrial equipment only professionals will use does not.

It does not matter whether the product is sold or given away, new or second-hand: the GPSR covers products placed or made available in the course of a commercial activity, whether new, used, repaired or reconditioned (Articles 2(3) and 3(6)).

The excluded products

Article 2(2) leaves out products that other EU law covers:

• medicines for human or veterinary use;
• food and feed (but items that touch food, such as cookware, are in scope for risks food-contact law does not cover);
• living plants and animals, GMOs, and products of plants and animals relating directly to their reproduction;
• animal by-products and derived products;
• plant protection products;
• equipment consumers ride in that a transport service operates, not the consumers themselves;
• aircraft referred to in Article 2(3)(d) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1139;
• antiques.

Products sold to be repaired or reconditioned before use are also outside, but only if they are clearly marked as such (Article 2(3)).

Products with their own EU law (CE marking)

Many products already have EU safety law: toys, electrical equipment, radio equipment, machinery, cosmetics, personal protective equipment. For them (Article 2(1)):

• the GPSR safety requirement applies only to risks that law does not cover;
• the GPSR duties of manufacturers, importers and distributors, including the responsible person in Article 16, do not apply; the sector law's own duties do;
• the rules on online listings (Article 19), accident reporting (Article 20), online marketplaces (Article 22) and recalls still apply.

Sales from outside the EU

An online offer counts as making the product available in the EU when it targets EU consumers, for example by shipping there, using EU languages or showing prices in euros (Article 4). A website that can merely be opened in the EU is not enough.

Not sure about your product? The GPSR check walks through these questions and shows the article behind each answer.