In 2025, 4,671 alerts were validated in the EU Safety Gate, the highest number since the system started (source: European Commission, Safety Gate 2025 report). Around 2,000 of them concerned products made in China.
For a seller outside the EU, that is how you are most likely to run into Safety Gate: not by reading about it, but when a parcel is stopped at the border, a marketplace takes a listing offline, or a letter arrives from an authority in a country you have never shipped a container to.
An alert is public and stays public. It shows photos of the product, the brand, the model, the risk and the measures taken, and in many cases the marketplace and the listing number where it was sold. Authorities in other EU countries then presume the product is dangerous and check their own markets.
This article explains what Safety Gate is, how a product ends up in it, how to check whether your product or your product type is already listed, and what the rules expect from you when it is your product.
- What the EU Safety Gate is
- How a product ends up in a Safety Gate alert
- What a Safety Gate alert shows, and what happens next
- How to check your product in Safety Gate
- What you must do when your product is dangerous
- Which products appear most often
- Checklist
What the EU Safety Gate is
Safety Gate is the new name of RAPEX, the rapid alert system the EU has used since 2003 for dangerous non-food products. Since the General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR, Regulation (EU) 2023/988) took effect on 13 December 2024, it consists of three parts (recital 68 GPSR).
The first is the rapid alert system itself, through which national authorities and the European Commission exchange information on dangerous products and the measures taken against them (Article 25). Only authorities have access, and it can contain confidential information. The second is the public Safety Gate Portal, where a selection of that information is published free of charge for anyone to search (Article 34). The third is the Safety Business Gateway, the online portal where companies and online marketplaces report dangerous products and accidents to the authorities (Article 27).
Safety Gate covers consumer products and professional products, and both products under the GPSR alone and products with their own EU rules, such as toys, electrical equipment or protective equipment (Article 26(1) GPSR together with Article 20 of Regulation (EU) 2019/1020). Food, medicines and medical devices have their own systems.
How a product ends up in a Safety Gate alert
An alert is not the start of a case but the result of one. A national market surveillance authority finds a problem, for example during a customs check, a test purchase, a complaint or an inspection of a marketplace. It then normally asks the company responsible to take corrective action within a deadline (Article 16(2) of Regulation (EU) 2019/1020). Before it takes a formal measure, the company must get the chance to respond within at least 10 working days, unless the risk is so urgent that the authority acts first and hears the company afterwards (Article 18(3)).
The measure can be voluntary, such as a recall by the brand itself, or ordered by the authority, such as a sales ban, a rejection at the border or a removal order to a marketplace. For a product with a serious risk, the country must notify the measure in Safety Gate within four working days (Article 26(4) GPSR); measures against lower risks may be notified too. That applies to measures by companies as well as by authorities, and a voluntary recall is not a way to stay out of the system. Under the EU's own risk method, a product that was recalled, withdrawn or taken offline on a voluntary basis is presumed to present a serious risk (Delegated Regulation (EU) 2024/3173, Annex II, point 4).
This is also why a letter from an authority deserves a fast and complete answer. The period to respond is the moment where you can still influence what happens: show your technical documentation, explain the risk analysis, propose a correction. Our article on the GPSR risk assessment shows what that analysis looks like.
What a Safety Gate alert shows, and what happens next
A public alert contains the product category and name, the brand, model or type number, barcode and batch number where known, photos, the country of origin, the risk and the legal requirement the product did not meet. It lists the measures, split into those taken by the company and those ordered by the authority. Since the GPSR, authorities also record the web address of the offer and the name of the online marketplace (Delegated Regulation (EU) 2024/3173, Annex I, point 2.2), and in published alerts that often appears as the marketplace with the listing number, such as an Amazon ASIN.
The consequences go beyond one country. A product that one national authority has found dangerous is presumed dangerous by the authorities of the other member states (Article 29(1) GPSR). Online marketplaces must take Safety Gate alerts into account when they decide what to remove (Article 22(6)), must act on a removal order within two working days (Article 22(4)), and must inform you when they take your offer down (Article 22(12)). The Commission also runs web crawlers that search marketplaces for dangerous products, including products already in Safety Gate. In 2025 they inspected more than 1.6 million web addresses, and more than 20,800 of them contained dangerous products (Safety Gate 2025 report).
An alert does not disappear after the problem is solved. Only the country that notified it can ask the Commission to change or remove it, and only in justified cases. After ten years it moves to a public archive section of the portal.
Selling in the EU from outside the EU? Every consumer product needs an economic operator in the EU who is the contact point for authorities (Article 16 GPSR). Our EU Authorised Representative service under the GPSR costs 150 euros a year, for an unlimited number of products.
How to check your product in Safety Gate
The public search is at ec.europa.eu/safety-gate-alerts. You can search by free text and filter on criteria such as product category, country and type of risk. Results can be exported to Excel or as a PDF. Through the subscription page you can receive a weekly email with new alerts, also tailored to the categories you choose.
Three searches are useful for most sellers. First, your own brand and model names, to see whether your product, or a counterfeit using your brand, is already listed. Second, your product type combined with your country of origin, for example LED string lights from China, to see what authorities find wrong with comparable products. Third, the alerts for your category over the past year, to recognise the failures that keep coming back, such as a banned ingredient in cosmetics or loose small parts in toys.
What you find there is useful input for your own product. An alert in your category is a free test report on someone else's product. If products like yours keep failing on the same point, that is exactly what to check in your own test report and in your EU Product Compliance Check.
The Commission also offers a risk assessment tool, SAGA, at ec.europa.eu/saga, which works with the EU risk assessment method for consumer products.
What you must do when your product is dangerous
The GPSR sets out who acts when a product turns out to be dangerous, and the duties start with the company, not the authority.
A manufacturer that considers a product it placed on the market to be dangerous must immediately take corrective action, such as a withdrawal or recall, inform consumers, and inform the authorities of every country where the product was sold through the Safety Business Gateway (Article 9(8)). Importers and distributors have comparable duties (Articles 11 and 12). Accidents with a product that cause death or serious harm to someone's health must be reported through the Safety Business Gateway without undue delay. When the manufacturer is outside the EU, the responsible person in the EU, such as an authorised representative, who knows about the accident must make sure it is reported (Article 20(4)).
A recall has its own rules. Consumers you can identify must be informed directly. The recall notice must carry the heading "Product safety recall", describe the hazard without softening words such as "voluntary", "precautionary" or "in rare situations", and tell people to stop using the product immediately (Articles 35 and 36). The consumer must be offered a free remedy, normally with a choice between at least two of repair, replacement or a refund of at least the price paid (Article 37).
For our clients outside the EU, we are the contact point that authorities reach first. That first contact with an authority is included in our 150 euros a year. If a recall has to be organised, we handle it at an hourly rate, after the client has agreed. The technical documentation decides how quickly such a contact is closed; our technical file service puts it together if you do not have it yet.
Which products appear most often
The 2025 figures show where authorities focus. Cosmetics led the alerts for the third year in a row, followed by toys and electrical appliances. Italy, Germany and France notified the most alerts.
| Product category | Share of 2025 alerts |
|---|---|
| Cosmetics | 36% |
| Toys | 16% |
| Electrical appliances and equipment | 11% |
| Type of risk | Share of 2025 alerts |
|---|---|
| Chemical | 53% |
| Injuries | 14% |
| Choking | 9% |
Source: European Commission, Safety Gate 2025 report. One alert can list more than one risk.
One ingredient stands out. Lilial, a fragrance substance banned in cosmetics since March 2022, accounted for 1,278 alerts, or 77% of the chemical-risk alerts for cosmetics. For sellers outside the EU, the lesson is that a formula or material your supplier has used for years can be the exact thing EU authorities test for.
Checklist
- Search Safety Gate for your brand, your model names and your product type with your country of origin.
- Subscribe to the weekly alerts for your product categories.
- Compare the failures in your category with your own test reports and risk analysis.
- Make sure your product (or, where that is not possible, its packaging) and your online listing both show the manufacturer and the EU responsible person; the product also needs a type, batch or serial number, and the listing a picture and the type.
- Keep your technical documentation ready to send, so you can respond within the period an authority gives.
- Answer an authority's letter within the deadline, with documentation and a proposal for correction.
- If a product turns out to be dangerous, report it through the Safety Business Gateway and prepare a recall notice that meets Article 36.
Want to know which rules and tests apply to your product before an authority looks at it? Our EU Product Compliance Check maps them for you.
Sources
- Regulation (EU) 2023/988 on general product safety (GPSR), recital 68 and Articles 9, 11, 12, 16, 20, 22, 23, 25, 26, 27, 29, 34, 35, 36 and 37. EUR-Lex
- Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 on market surveillance and compliance of products, Articles 16 and 18 (applied to GPSR products through Article 23 GPSR) and Article 20 (through Article 26(1)(b) GPSR). EUR-Lex
- Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2024/3173 on the functioning of the Safety Gate rapid alert system, Annexes I and II. EUR-Lex
- Commission Notice C/2025/6233, guidelines on the application of the EU general product safety framework by businesses.
- European Commission, Safety Gate 2025 report. op.europa.eu
- Safety Gate Portal, alert search and subscription. ec.europa.eu/safety-gate-alerts
- Consulted October 2026.
