Who is the EU responsible person under the GPSR?

The responsible person is the part of the GPSR that confuses the most Shopify sellers, so let us make it simple. One of the biggest changes the GPSR brought in is the idea of a responsible person inside the EU. If you sell products made outside the EU, this is the part most sellers have to act on. If you have not read it yet, our overview of the GPSR gives the background.

What is the responsible person?

The responsible person is a business or individual established in the EU who takes on certain safety duties for your product. Their name and contact details must be shown with the product. The rule exists so that EU authorities and shoppers always have someone inside the EU they can contact about a product's safety, even when the maker is on the other side of the world.

Who can it be?

Depending on your setup, the responsible person can be:

• the manufacturer, if they are based in the EU;
• an importer, if the product is brought into the EU by an EU-based business;
• an authorised representative the manufacturer appoints in writing; or
• a fulfilment service provider in the EU, if none of the above applies.

If you make your products outside the EU and ship directly to EU shoppers, you generally need to arrange one of these before you sell.

When you need one

If your manufacturer is outside the EU, which is very common for dropshipping, print-on-demand, and most stores sourcing from Asia, you almost certainly need an EU-based responsible person before you can sell that product compliantly. If you are not sure who yours should be, start with whoever imports the goods into the EU, since that is the most common answer for stores selling non-EU-made products. Our guide on GPSR for dropshipping and print-on-demand goes deeper for that case.

What does the responsible person do?

In broad terms, they help make sure the product is safe and traceable. That includes checking that the required safety documentation exists, such as a declaration of conformity or technical paperwork where relevant, cooperating with authorities, and taking action if a product turns out to be unsafe.

What you have to show shoppers

The responsible person's name and contact details, including a postal address and a way to reach them such as an email, generally need to be available to the shopper, on the product or its packaging and in your online listing. The practical problem is that most stores have a small number of responsible persons but hundreds of products, so the real work is applying the same details across the catalogue and keeping them in sync when they change. Make sure that name and contact is visible on every listing, not just sitting in a spreadsheet. Our guide on what every product page needs shows where it goes.

How GPSR Safety Sync helps

You save your responsible person once in the app's contacts library, set it as a default, and the app fills it onto your products and shows it in the storefront safety panel, so you are not retyping the same address on every product. Store each responsible person once, apply it across products, and update it in one place when it changes.