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Which EU rules apply when you buy packaged goods inside the EU?

Packaged goods bought inside the EU and resold to consumers: why your supplier's registration does not cover your market, and what does. This page is one fixed set of answers to the product check, written out in full. The wording comes from the same rule set the questionnaire uses, so the two cannot drift apart.

Triage, not a clearance. It sorts this situation into the right regimes; it does not classify your specific product, and classification is where most of the cost sits. Your own case may differ on any of the answers below; run the check with your own.

The answers this rests on

Open the check with these answers →

3 regimes apply to this situation

GPSR; General Product Safety Regulationapplies, no threshold

Every consumer product placed on the EU market falls under it. There is no turnover threshold and no small-importer exemption, and marketplaces enforce it themselves by suspending listings.

  • Confirm who the Responsible Person is; if the manufacturer is in the EU, it may already be covered.
  • Manufacturer and Responsible Person name and address on the product or packaging, plus a type, batch or serial number; and, as importer, your own name and postal and electronic address alongside them.
  • Warnings and safety information in the language of every country you sell into.
  • A copy of the manufacturer's technical documentation kept at the disposal of the market surveillance authorities for ten years from placing on the market. Drawing it up is the manufacturer's job; having it is yours.
Regulation (EU) 2023/988, Articles 2(1), 4, 9, 11 and 16, applicable since 13 December 2024 · 2023/988 on EUR-Lex · read the full answer

EPR; extended producer responsibilityper member state

You are the producer in every country where you first place the goods on the market, and registration is national. There is no EU-wide register: each state has its own scheme, number, fee and report.

  • Packaging triggers it on its own, whatever the product is.
  • Bought inside the EU: your supplier's registration covers his market, not yours. Are you the first to place these goods on the market in your own country, then you are the producer there; on export he even deducts those volumes from his own declaration.
  • You named 2 member states; that many separate registrations, each with its own register, number and fee.
  • Germany: packaged goods need the LUCID register; marketplaces like Amazon.de ask for the number before you can list.
  • Register before the first sale into that country; several states treat selling without a number as an offence.
  • From 12 August 2026, if you make packaging or packaged products available for the first time in another member state directly to end users, you must appoint an authorised representative for extended producer responsibility there, by written mandate and per country. Sell to a distributor established in that country instead and he is the producer there, not you.
  • That first rule already covers you if you sit outside the EU and supply end users directly: Article 3(1), point (15)(c) and (d) says established in a member state or in a third country. Only if you sell to a distributor in that country instead is the mandate a member-state option rather than a duty.
National EPR regimes implementing Directive 2008/98/EC, Article 8a; Regulation (EU) 2025/40 (packaging), Article 45(3) read with Article 3(1), point (15)(c) and (d), and Article 71 (applies from 12 August 2026) · 2025/40 on EUR-Lex · read the full answer

Sanctions screeningstill applies

It applies to every EU business regardless. Lists change with every round, so a party screened clean in January says nothing about a shipment in April.

  • Screen the name free on this site before you pay an invoice.
  • Ownership above 50% by a listed person catches a supplier that is not itself listed.
  • Your bank's screening is not your screening, and it is not a defence.
  • If you may have to show later that you checked, keep a dated record naming the list versions.

This is the list of things to check, not a clearance. It leaves out CE, RoHS/WEEE, EUDR, food and cosmetics law and customs. Something wrong or missing? Corrections are made with the source noted.

What to do next, in this order

  1. Screen the name against nine sanctions lists before you pay, not after
  2. Verify the VAT number on the day you invoice VIES, and keep the response
  3. Walk the fifteen GPSR checks ticks are saved on your own device

Where each of these is worked out

Does this not fit your case, or is something missing? Ask it here; questions are answered with the regulation and the article, and the questionnaire gets fixed. Providers who do this work are listed separately; being named there is not a recommendation.

Other situations, worked out the same way

What this does not cover

Named, because a triage tool that stays quiet about its edges is worse than none: