What is the GPSR? A plain-English guide for Shopify sellers

The GPSR is the EU's General Product Safety Regulation. It sets the baseline safety rules for consumer products sold in the European Union, and it changes what you have to show shoppers when you sell to EU customers, including from a Shopify store based outside the EU. This is the plain-English overview; once you have it, our seven-point compliance checklist tells you exactly what to fix.

When did it start?

The GPSR has applied since 13 December 2024. It replaced the older General Product Safety Directive and brought in clearer rules for selling online. If you were compliant under the old directive, you still need to check the new points, especially the parts written specifically for distance and online sales.

Who does it apply to?

It applies to most non-food consumer products placed on the EU market, whether you sell in a shop or online. Importantly, it applies based on where your customer is, not where your business is. If you ship physical consumer products to shoppers in the EU (or Northern Ireland), you are generally expected to follow it, even if your store is based elsewhere. That is why so many US, UK, Canadian and Australian stores are now in scope.

Some products covered by their own specific safety laws (for example toys or electronics) follow those rules first, with the GPSR filling the gaps. Our guide on warnings and the declaration of conformity covers when those extra documents come into play.

What does it require?

In plain terms, the GPSR expects that:

• Every product can be traced back to its maker. The manufacturer's name and contact address must be available to the shopper.
• There is someone inside the EU responsible for the product's safety, often called the responsible person. For products made outside the EU, you generally need to name one before selling. See our guide on the EU responsible person.
• Shoppers can see the warnings and safety information they need, in a language they understand, before they buy.
• The specific product can be identified, for example by a model, type or batch number, so a particular item can be traced.

What it means for Shopify sellers

For most Shopify stores selling to the EU, the practical effect is that your product pages now need to show specific safety details: who made the product, who is responsible for it in the EU, and any warnings, in your shopper's language. Online platforms are also expected to make sure this information is present, so missing it can affect more than just compliance. Our guide on what every Shopify product page needs shows where each detail goes.

How to get compliant fast

This is the gap GPSR Safety Sync fills. It collects those details inside Shopify, stores your manufacturers and responsible persons once so you are not retyping them, and shows everything in a clear safety panel on every product page, in 21 EU languages. If you are a dropshipping or print-on-demand store, where suppliers sit outside the EU, start with our guide on GPSR for dropshipping and print-on-demand, since you are the most exposed.