EU Authorised Representative for GPSR: How to Stay Compliant When Selling into the EU

In the first three months after the General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR) took effect on 13 December 2024, we onboarded fifty new brands who had received the same email from Amazon: "Your listings will be suspended within 30 days unless you provide EU compliance contact details." Most of them had no idea what those details were or where to get them. This guide is written for that reader, the non-EU manufacturer or online seller who suddenly needs an EU Authorised Representative and wants a clear, practical answer instead of another compliance-textbook article.

You will find out what an EU Authorised Representative for GPSR actually does, when you need one and when you do not, what our onboarding looks like step by step, and how much it costs. Where useful, we share what we have seen with real clients, anonymised. We are Westwood Sourcing, based in Breda, and we currently act as EU Authorised Representative for over 200 non-EU brands under GPSR, Medical Devices Class I and Cosmetics.

What is an EU Authorised Representative under GPSR?

The General Product Safety Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2023/988) requires that every consumer product sold in the EU has a named EU-based economic operator who is legally responsible for safety and compliance duties. For sellers established outside the EU, that operator is usually an EU Authorised Representative appointed by written mandate (source: EUR-Lex, Regulation (EU) 2023/988, Article 16).

In practice, the EU Authorised Representative is your official EU contact for three groups: marketplaces such as Amazon and Etsy that request compliance details, EU market surveillance authorities such as the Dutch NVWA, and consumers who need to reach a responsible party inside the EU. The role covers documentation checks, communication with authorities, coordination of corrective actions, and the display of EU contact details on your product or packaging.

If you want a broader explainer on the difference between an EU Authorised Representative and the medical-device version (EC REP), we have a separate article on EU REP vs EC REP.

Who actually needs one?

The clearest way to know is by category. You need an EU Authorised Representative for GPSR if all three of these apply to you.

You sell physical, non-food consumer products in the EU. GPSR covers almost every product a consumer might buy: electronics, toys, apparel, furniture, cosmetics packaging, tools, home goods. Food, medicinal products, aviation equipment and a handful of other categories fall under separate regulations.

You are established outside the EU. If your company registration is in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, China, or any other non-EU country, you need an EU-based responsible economic operator. Selling from Norway or Switzerland also counts as non-EU for this purpose.

You do not already have an EU importer or fulfilment provider taking on the role. Sometimes an existing partner already acts as your EU economic operator, either because they physically import your goods or because they took on the compliance mandate in writing. Check the contract, because most freight forwarders and 3PLs explicitly refuse this role.

If you are the EU importer yourself, you do not need an Authorised Representative but you do take on the obligations directly. We explain what that means here.

If all three are true, you need an EU Authorised Representative. If any of them is not true, you probably do not, and paying for one is wasted money. Two situations that we see regularly and want to flag: dropshipping from China without any EU touchpoint still triggers the requirement if the end consumer is in the EU, and selling through Amazon's EU marketplaces almost always triggers it, even if you never see or touch the product yourself.

What our EU Authorised Representative service actually does

Non-EU sellers often think of the EU AR as "a stamp on paper" or "an address to put on the label". It is more than that. Here is what we handle for our 200+ current clients under the GPSR mandate.

Named contact for marketplaces. When Amazon, Etsy, TikTok Shop or Alibaba requests EU compliance details, our name and address go on your listing. We keep the responses ready so you do not have to negotiate compliance forms with a support team in a different time zone.

Named contact for EU authorities. If the NVWA, the German BAuA, the French DGCCRF or any other market surveillance body has a question, they contact us. We forward the request to you, help translate what they need, and coordinate the response.

Documentation checks. We verify that your product safety documentation (test reports, technical file, EU Declaration of Conformity where required) exists and is complete before something goes wrong. Not creating the documentation, but checking that it is there.

Support during recalls and corrective actions. If a product turns out to be unsafe or gets flagged, we help coordinate the response: notifying the right authorities, publishing safety warnings, managing communication with retailers. Nobody plans for this, but when it happens you want it to run fast.

Contact details on the product. The GPSR requires clear EU contact information on the product, packaging or accompanying documents. We provide the exact wording and format you need to add.

One mandate covers all 27 EU member states. You do not need a separate representative in each country. One written mandate with us covers France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and every other EU member state (source: EUR-Lex, Regulation (EU) 2023/988).

A real case: US toy seller, three weeks from listing suspension

One of our clients, a US-based children's toy brand, contacted us in early January 2025. They had received an Amazon notice threatening to suspend their EU listings within 21 days unless they provided a valid EU Responsible Person contact.

Day 1: They filled out our intake form and sent us their existing product safety documentation, plus their Amazon seller ID. We confirmed that GPSR applied to their products (toys are always in scope) and that no existing EU partner covered the role.

Day 2: We signed the written mandate, added them to our client register, and provided the exact EU contact wording they needed to add to their Amazon listings and physical product packaging.

Day 4: They updated their Amazon listings with our name and Breda address as the EU Responsible Person. Amazon accepted the compliance details within 48 hours and the suspension threat was lifted.

Week 3: The Dutch NVWA sent us a routine documentation request for one of their SKUs. We pulled the relevant EN 71 safety test report from the file the client had shared with us, forwarded it to the NVWA, and closed the request within four working hours. The client, in California, was on their way to lunch and did not have to touch it.

Total client time investment across those three weeks: about 90 minutes. Total cost: 150 EUR for the first year of coverage. That is the outcome we optimise for.

Onboarding in 5 steps

Getting set up takes half a day of your time or less. This is the workflow we use with every new client.

1. Intake and product category check. You share what you sell, where you sell it, and any existing compliance documentation. We confirm GPSR applies and that our mandate covers your categories.
2. Written mandate. We send a one-page mandate document. You sign, we counter-sign. This is your legal appointment of Westwood Sourcing as your EU Authorised Representative under GPSR.
3. EU contact details package. We give you the exact text to add to your product, packaging or accompanying documents, plus the exact fields to fill in on Amazon, Etsy, Alibaba or your own site.
4. Documentation access. You give us access to your product safety file (test reports, Declaration of Conformity where required, risk assessment). We check that it is complete and flag any gaps.
5. Live listing update. You update your marketplace listings and product labels with the new EU contact. From that moment you are covered.

Steps 1 to 3 can be completed the same day. Step 4 usually takes a week because most clients need to gather documentation from their factory or previous compliance provider. Step 5 depends on your listing volume.

Pricing and what you get

Our GPSR EU Authorised Representative service is a flat annual fee.

There are no per-SKU surcharges, no hidden fees for authority requests, no extra costs when you add a new marketplace. If a compliance situation becomes so large that it goes beyond normal representation (for example, a full product recall requiring on-site coordination in multiple countries), we discuss that separately in advance.

For medical devices (Class I) and cosmetics we have separate services with their own pricing, both listed on our shop pages.

When our service is not the right fit

We are not the right EU AR for everyone, and we tell clients this openly. Three situations where we would send you elsewhere.

You sell medical devices in Class IIa or higher, or in vitro diagnostics. Those require an EC REP under MDR or IVDR with specific device-class experience. Our Medical Devices Class I service does not cover higher classes.

You are already covered by an EU importer who has taken on the responsible economic operator role in writing. In that case you do not need us. Save the 150 EUR.