GPSR - What the new EU regulations mean for me

You may have already heard about the new European Union & Northern Ireland regulations, called GPSR (General Product Safety Regulations) coming into force on 13th December 2024.

Apparently they have been in development for years... so its a shame nobody thought to tell small businesses, as many of us have only just found out and are scrambling to find out as much as we can as quickly as possible.

The regulations have been developed with an admirable aim: to ensure that products imported into the EU & NI are safe to use!

Businesses selling in the EU & NI will need to ensure their products meet safety standards.  There are some quite strict labelling requirements that would be extremely difficult for many of my products, but of course I would be willing to develop these, even if it took me a while to do so.

The problem is that all businesses are required to have an authorised representative in the EU or NI.  No big deal for the big multinationals, but an impossible ask for a micro-business/sole trader like me.

There are some companies starting to offer this as a service, but naturally it comes at an astronomically high cost, which is prohibitive for a lot of small businesses.  Despite so many dedicated business owners researching for hours and hours, the consensus is there is no way forward right now, without prohibitive costs.

So it is with great sadness that I have to tell you that I won't be able to ship any products to the EU or NI after 6th December 2024.  As I write this, I believe that digital-only products are exempt, so these will still be available to EU/NI customers.

I know many EU customers were driven away from UK small businesses by Brexit and the extortionate fees and duties applied on import (often in error).  I fear this will be the "nail in the coffin" but I have to keep my hopes up and my fingers crossed that something may yet be done.

The details are very unclear at this point, so I sincerely hope that some way through this becomes apparent soon.  Whether that be exemptions for micro-businesses, online marketplaces acting as authorised representatives at a reasonable cost, or some other solution.

I am so sorry to my loyal customers in the EU & NI.  Please know that I value you, and I'm so disappointed to be in this situation.  I think it goes without saying that I didn't vote for this.

I am going to make it as easy as possible to navigate this on the website so nobody wastes their time, but all I can practically do is make it so that any customer entering an address in the EU won't be able to complete checkout.  Unfortunately, Northern Ireland is a bit more complicated!  If you place an order from NI without realising, I will contact you as well as cancelling and refunding your order.

If/when the situation changes, I will update accordingly.

Lizzy