EU Compliance

EU GPSR: The Inspection Checklist for Goods Made in China

Published October 2026 · By SSTI Inspection Team

The EU General Product Safety Regulation, Regulation (EU) 2023/988, has applied since December 13, 2024. It covers consumer products sold in the EU, including through online marketplaces, and it places clear requirements on who is responsible for a product and how it can be traced. Several of those requirements show up physically on the product, its packaging or its documents. That makes them checkable in a factory in China before shipment. This guide turns them into an inspection checklist.

What GPSR Means for Goods Made in China

GPSR replaced the earlier General Product Safety Directive. It applies to consumer products that are not covered by more specific EU safety rules, and fills gaps where those rules do not cover a risk. For an importer, three practical points matter most. A product needs an economic operator established in the EU who is responsible for it. The product must carry information that identifies it and its manufacturer. And safety information must reach the consumer in a language they understand.

Online marketplaces must also show identification and safety information in product listings. For marketplace sellers, the physical product and the listing need to match.

This guide is general information, not legal advice. Products with their own EU rules, such as toys or electrical equipment, have additional requirements; see our guides to toy inspection and electrical product inspection.

The Checklist

• Manufacturer identity. The manufacturer's name, registered trade name or trademark, and a postal and electronic address, on the product or, where that is not possible, on the packaging or an accompanying document.
• EU responsible economic operator. Under Article 16, a product can only be placed on the EU market if an economic operator established in the EU is responsible for it, such as the manufacturer, importer, authorised representative or fulfilment service provider. Its name and contact details must be shown on the product, its packaging, the parcel or an accompanying document.
• Product identification. A type, batch or serial number, or another element that allows the product to be identified, visible to consumers. Where the product is too small, it can be on the packaging or a document.
• Instructions and safety information. Included where needed for safe use, in a language easily understood by consumers in the country where the product is sold, as that country requires.
• Warnings. Any warning required by the product's risk assessment or other EU rules, legible and in the right place.

What the Inspector Checks On Site

GPSR responsibility sits with the economic operators, not the inspector. But the inspector can confirm that what is on the goods matches what the buyer has arranged:

• Every sampled unit and package carries the manufacturer and EU operator details exactly as in the approved artwork, with no missing fields or outdated addresses
• Batch or type numbers are printed, legible and match the production batch
• Instructions and warnings are included in the specified languages and versions
• Labels are durable, using the same adhesion and rub checks as for origin marking, covered in our guide to country of origin marking
• Packaging that will go to different EU countries has the right language version for each

Write the exact text and placement into the inspection checklist, and treat missing operator or traceability information as a major defect in the defect classification, because it can stop goods being sold.

Common Problems

• An EU operator address on the artwork that was updated after printing had started
• Batch numbers printed on the carton but not on the product or retail package
• Instructions in English only for goods sold in non-English-speaking EU countries
• Different label versions mixed in the same shipment

All of these are easy to fix at the factory and difficult to fix in an EU warehouse. SSTI includes GPSR marking checks in pre-shipment inspections when the buyer provides the approved artwork.

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