The European Responsible Person under GPSR, explained

What the regulation requires

GPSR is the EU's general product-safety regulation, applicable since 13 December 2024. It covers consumer products where no sector-specific harmonised law governs them, across every sales channel including online, and it reaches new, used, repaired, and reconditioned goods.

Market access in the EU is not granted to a product. It is granted to a chain of accountable operators, and GPSR closes the chain at the EU border. The named Responsible Person is where accountability becomes locatable: a real entity, inside the Union, that an authority can reach. A brand selling from outside Europe either appoints one or stays out of the market.

What the Responsible Person actually does

Article 16 of the regulation fixes what the named operator does, and the list is finite. The duties are accountability duties, held by a locatable entity. They are not a quality claim.

• Verify that the product's technical documentation and risk analysis exist, and keep them available.
• Carry the operator's identity and contact details on the product or its packaging.
• Cooperate with EU market-surveillance authorities on request.
• Take corrective action on a non-compliant product, and notify a dangerous one through the Safety Business Gateway.
• Serve as the EU point of contact for the product.

A European Responsible Person under GPSR is the EU-established operator named on an in-scope consumer product so a market-surveillance authority can reach a real entity inside the Union. It is the permission to sell, not a safety certificate.

What the role is not

The role is narrow by design, and the boundary is the point. A Responsible Person is not a declaration that the product is safe: the manufacturer designs safety in. It is not a conformity assessment. It is not a customs function. And it is not a single passport across EU product law: where sector-specific harmonised law governs a product, that regime applies in place of or alongside GPSR.

GPSR itself does not reach medicinal products, food and feed, living plants and animals, plant-protection products, certain aircraft, or antiques. Each of those carries its own regime.

Why non-EU brands need one, and how EFC holds the role

A brand with no establishment in the Union cannot satisfy the regulation by itself, because the regulation asks for an operator inside the single market. EFC acts as European Responsible Person under GPSR for in-scope consumer products, inside the same operation that holds the stock and clears the customs. The entity accountable on the product is the entity running the operation beneath it.

The role is stated at its true scope: in-scope consumer products under GPSR, and nothing beyond that. The full page on the role is at the Responsible Person page, and the operation it sits inside is described at the compliance service.