Responsibility for product safety

Economic operators are responsible for ensuring the safety of general consumer goods and making sure that their products include all necessary instructions and warnings.

Roles and obligations of economic operators

Every economic operator in the product distribution chain is responsible for only offering safe products. The term ‘economic operator’ means the manufacturer of the product, the authorised representative, the importer, the distributor and the fulfilment service provider. In addition, the EU GPSR lays down obligations for the providers of an online marketplace.

Operators’ statutory obligations differ in scope and content. That is why it is important that each economic operator recognises their role and responsibilities. The GPSR includes definitions of economic operators which you can learn about in the drop-down menus below.

A manufacturer is any natural or legal person (such as a company) who manufactures a product or has a product designed or manufactured, and markets that product under its name or trademark.

An authorised representative is an operator established in the EU authorised by the manufacturer. The manufacturer can appoint an authorised representative with a written mandate.

The GPSR does not include a distinction between producing and ordering manufacturers; the obligations of a producing manufacturer apply fully to any entity that places a product on the market under its name or trademark or significantly changes a product. For example, if a company orders products from a producing manufacturer to sell under its own brand or attaches its own brand to the products, the company is considered a manufacturer. In this case, the company is subject to all obligations concerning manufacturers.

Under the GPSR, an importer is a natural or legal person (such as a company) established within the EU who places a product from a third country on the Union market.

An operator importing a product to Finland from another EU Member State is not an importer under the GPSR, but a distributor. In some special legislation, the definition of importer can also include a party that imports a product from another EU Member State to Finland.

Under the GPSR, the provider of an online marketplace is a provider of an intermediary service using an online interface which allows consumers to acquire (for example buy or rent) products from traders. The provider of an online marketplace does not necessarily sell the products itself on the online marketplace, but if it does so, it is considered a distributor, importer or manufacturer. The same company may have different roles with regard to different products in the same online marketplace.

This means that the provider of an online marketplace is a company that provides a digital platform, such as a website or mobile application, where several different sellers and consumers meet.

A fulfilment service provider, or a fulfilment house or fulfilment centre, is a natural or legal person (such as a company) offering, in the course of commercial activity, at least two of the following services without owning the products being processed:

warehousing
packaging
addressing
dispatching.

Under the GPSR, the definition of fulfilment service provider does not include providers who only offer postal or transport services.

The GPSR requires that one economic operator in each product distribution chain is established in the European Union and acts as the responsible person for products placed on the Union market.

The primary responsible party for a product is the manufacturer if it is established in the EU. If the manufacturer is not located in the EU, the responsible party may also be an importer established in the EU, an authorised representative appointed by the manufacturer or a fulfilment service provider.

Obligations of economic operators

The premise of the EU GPSR is ensuring product safety at different stages of the distribution chain and that only safe products are sold on the market (= general product safety requirement). Therefore, the GPSR defines obligations for economic operators in different roles, meaning manufacturers, authorised representatives, importers, distributors and fulfilment service providers.

The scope and quality of the obligations vary somewhat between different operators, but all operators also have common obligations to ensure product safety. That is why it is important that each operator in the distribution chain recognises their role and is able to act as required when making a product available on the market or placing a product on the market and when a product is found to pose a risk or to be dangerous.

You can learn more about the different roles of operators and their role-specific obligations in the Tukes learning environment.

Use the drop-down menus below to see the obligations of each role.

Only safe products are sold

Before placing a product on the market

Conducting an internal risk analysis
Drawing up technical documentation
Keeping technical documentation available for 10 years
Affixing a type, batch or serial number or other element enabling the identification of the product
Affixing a name or trademark and contact information to the product
Affixing instructions and safety information to the product in Finnish and Swedish
Maintaining up-to-date technical documentation
Quality assurance in serial production
Ensuring that products are designed and manufactured in accordance with the general safety requirement
Making a publicly available communication channel for consumers on product safety matters
Investigating and keeping a register of complaints and accidents in product safety matters
Providing market surveillance authorities with all information and documentation on product safety upon request