The EU’s new General Product Safety Regulations (GPSR) will take effect on 13 December 2024, introducing significant changes that will impact your EU sales. To help you quickly understand these changes, Kixto has prepared this guide. Drawing on the original EU directive and industry bodies, we’ve distilled the key points you need to know.

In our view, the EU has done too little to raise public awareness of this far-reaching legislation. We regret that many businesses, ours included, are only now becoming aware of it.

We believe the GPSR are a manageable challenge, not an insurmountable one. There is currently a lack of clarity, even from official sources, but past experience suggests any significant issues will be ironed out in the next 6 months.

We have lifelong experience of digesting large RPG rulebooks, but that’s the limit of our legal training. This article aims to clarify the GPSR but we’re not real lawyers and this is not legal advice. For advice specific to your products, please consult a legal professional or a Notified Body.

Scope

The GPSR are a catch-all safety law for products supplied to EU consumers, including books and e-books, including by distance selling from outside the EU. The law applies universally and is unrelated to Brexit.

Transitional provision

GPSR comes into effect on 13 December 2024 but has a clear transitional provision, that the supply of products which were first made available to the EU market before 13 December shall not be impeded. In short, the GPSR does not limit the supply of existing products already available to the EU.

The GPSR clearly do apply to products you will first make available to the EU on or after 13 December. The act of enabling delivery to an EU country satisfies the conditions of “making available”.

The transitional provision is critical to limiting the scope, so please satisfy yourself that these clauses in the GPSR text are unambiguous:

Article 51

Transitional provision

Member States shall not impede the making available on the market of products covered by Directive 2001/95/EC which are in conformity with that Directive and which were placed on the market before 13 December 2024.

and

Definitions

(7) placing on the market’ means the first making available of a product on the Union market;

Merging Article 51 and the definition of placing on the market gives our understanding, and we are seeking official confirmation that this is the case:

Transitional provision

Member States shall not impede the making available on the market of products covered by Directive 2001/95/EC which are in conformity with that Directive and which were first made available on the market before 13 December 2024.

*Directive 2001/95/EC was the prior general product safety directive from 2001, repealed by this new one. For this article we are assuming existing products do comply with prior law.

Books?

We believe that books clearly come under GPSR, but do not require the inclusion of saftey information.

Practical reality of enforcement

To monitor distance selling, authorities will pick a sample of packages and check them – first at documents level, then perhaps physically checking. In theory, each country should interpret and enforce uniformly across the EU. However, prior experience tells us there will be differences.

We believe that the best approach is to make it really easy for any person conducting a check to see that the package does comply with GPSR. Kixto now offers the option to have attached to the outside of each EU parcel a label, in the destination language, that the contents comply with GPSR, and internally a declaration that these items were first available prior to 13 December 2024.

Your obligations for new products (released after 13 December)

You, the publisher, are responsible for ensuring and documenting that products you place on the EU market comply with applicable legislation. You have this responsibility because your trade name is on the product. You may have your products physically manufactured or designed by another business, but you remain the manufacturer.

GPSR apply to all products on the EU market, including those covered by specific “CE-mark” directives.

Historically, Directive 2001/95/EC required all products placed on the EU market to be safe. However, until now, only certain classes of products, such as games for under 14s, required specific documentation to prove they conform applicable standards. GPSR changes this.

Authorised representative

All products you first place on the EU market on or after 13 December 2024 must have an EU Authorised Representative (AR) and their contact details must be given with the product.

The AR must have a written mandate to act for you. Their tasks are normally to provide an EU point of contact, to verify and keep copies of your GPSR documentation for possible inspection, to deal with reports of dangerous incidents concerning a product.

Kixto will very soon be able to provide Authorised Representative services to our clients at minimal cost.

Technical documentation

For each new product you place on the EU market, you must draw up a technical document, which should contain the necessary information to prove it is safe and correctly labelled. Safety should be primarily achieved through product design. Remaining risks, if any, should be mitigated by safeguards, such as warnings and instructions.

For games for 14s and over, the EU Toy Safety Directive would be a reasonable starting point for the requirements of a safe game (broadly its physical, mechanical and chemical characteristics) and documentary requirements.

The GPSR also require manufacturers to consider mental health, so trigger warnings may appropriate for some content.

Specific advice is beyond our knowledge. If you are unsure, we suggest you consult with one of the “Notified Bodies” – organisations who are deemed able to give definitive opinion – listed here:
https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/single-market-compliance-space/notified-bodies

Suggested GPSR process for books (not definitive)

Engage an Authorised Representive for your “books” group of product. It should be possible to cover large numbers of book titles for a single fee, concrete information to follow.

Conduct a risk analysis and draw up technical documentation containing at least a general description of the book and its essential characteristics relevant for assessing its safety.

Article 9.7 of the directive says there is no requirement for a product to include instructions and safety information if the product can be used safely without instructions. We agree with the Federation of European Publishers’ statement that books (except for children) are inherently safe. That said, some subjects may require greater caution.

If I was publishing a book, my technical documentation for each title would comprise:

The book’s title
Its ISBN
Its physical properties
The printer’s details
The materials used in production (paper, ink, varnish, glue, etc) and, for each, the Material Safety Data Sheet from the materials manufacturer to identify any risks from materials
Mental health risks and trigger warnings arising from the subject matter.
Labelling requirements – see Imprint Page, below.

On an Imprint Page, include

Your name and address
Print run / impression number (so a book can be matched to a manufacturing batch)
Your printer’s location details, e.g. “Printed in Lithuania”
Your EU authorised representative’s name, address and contact details
Declaration of Conformity – stating your product complies with GPSR regulations

Your printer may be able to include the imprint information as a patch in reprints, without need to reset the whole print. Alternatively, as a service Kixto can apply an overlabel of your design to the outide or inside of each book.

Suggested GPSR process for games (not definitive)

Create a technical file that details:

The game’s title
Its barcode
A general description
Its physical properties
The materials used in production and, for each, the Material Safety Data Sheet from the materials manufacturer to identify any risks from materials
An assement of foreseeable risks, including mechanical, physical, chemical and allergen risks and how they have been mitigated to make the product safe
Assessment of specific “CE-mark” standards that may apply, such as the Toy Safety Directive for games intended to be played by children under the age of 14.

Label the product with

Your name and address
Manufacturing batch number (so an item can be matched to how manufactured)
Your manufacturing location, e.g. “Made in China”
Your EU authorised representative’s name, address and contact details
Declaration of Conformity – stating your product complies with GPSR regulations
If specific standards apply, a CE-mark. (GPSR by itself does not have a CE-mark)

Include with the product:

Any relevant safety warnings in all EU languages. This can be done using DeepL, which was recommented to us in a seminar run by the Department for Business and Trade.

Document history:

10 December 2024

Removed that CE-marked products on EU market before 13-Dec did not require an Authorised Representative.

Like all well-developed economies, the European Economic Area (EEA) has product safety legislation to protect consumers. At the EEA end of the supply chain, Kixto has an ethical and legal duty to only ship compliant products.

RPG publishers, well-used to conversing with intricate rules from multiple game systems, needn’t feel intimidated by EEA safety requirements. With an early understanding of the rules and process, compliance can be kept simple. But trying to address non-compliance late, while customers are expecting delivery, can be an expensive nightmare. That’s why we encourage you to talk to us early.

Designing for simple compliance

As an example, take a core rule book. It’s a book that is designed for reading and therefore comes under general product safety regulations. Supposing it’s printed using non-toxic chemicals, it’s a product that is safe in normal or reasonable foreseeable use and your product is good to go.

Next, add an adventure module and a slipcase. Your product is now two books and a box: the safety requirements have not changed.

Now add a bag of dice. As well as introducing general safety considerations such as the size, ventilation and micron thickness of the bag, potentially your products is now subject to the Toy Safety Directive and CE marking. Keeping in mind that most gamers have bucketloads of dice, was this addition essential to the game design or a stretch-goal to regret?

EEA Product Safety

All products supplied to the EEA must be safe and fit for purpose. Some categories of products are covered by specific safety regulations and use CE marking to show conformance. If no specific regulations apply to the product, catch-all general product safety rules apply instead.

When Kixto ships a product, we must satisfy ourselves that it meets the applicable safety regulations. Most commonly for us, those are the General Product Safety Regulations and the Toy Safety Directive.

The Toy Safety Directive

The Toy Safety Directive 2009/48/EC applies to any product designed or intended whether or not exclusively for use in play by children under 14 years of age.

A book (or set of books) that is read is generally not a toy because, although it may be about a game, it is not normally a plaything in itself. Examples of books that are playthings are those for under 3s and, potentially, cloth books, bath books, board books and books that have an interactive element apart from reading (e.g. flaps to lift).

If the game contains items other than reading books, these indicative criteria help form a considered opinion about the product’s age range and, therefore, if it’s subject to the Toy Safety Directive:

Theme and complexity. Mature themes or complex rule systems can be indicative of products not intended for under 13s.
Place of selling. Although toys can be crowdfunded, if crowdfunding is your only channel to market then you’re not selling in a location that’s accessible to children.
Target audience of advertising and packaging. Packaging and advertising that is not designed to be child-appealing can be an indication that the product is not a toy.

A game that is subject to the Toy Safety Directive must be assessed for safety and conformity. The first step in the process is for the manufacturer to assess the various chemical, physical, mechanical, electrical, flammability, hygienic and radioactivity hazards the toy may present. In many games, all the hazards can be addressed by applying “harmonized” standards (EU-wide rules that limit the risk) and, where this is the case, the manufacture can use a self-verification process. The process is documented with a Technical File, an EC Declaration of Conformity and a CE mark on the product itself.

CE-marking needs forethought but isn’t necessarily onerous. For help with self-verification, we suggest you contact Conformance about their Self-Certification Pack for Toys, currently £150 including 2 hours of support.

Further information on manufacturer’s responsibilities is available from gov.uk

Kixto accepts no responsibility or liability whatsoever with regard to the information or advice given here. It is of a general nature only; it is opinion that is not authoritative; it is not intended to address the specific circumstances of any particular individual or entity.

GPSR – Navigating the EU’s new General Product Safety Regulations (GPSR)