General Product Safety Regulation
On this page, you can read what the General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR) is, how bol handles it, and what this means for you.
What is the GPSR?
The GPSR aims to better ensure general product safety within the European Union. The goal is simple: to ensure that only safe items are placed on the European market and that, if something unexpectedly goes wrong, customers are helped quickly and unsafe items are promptly removed from circulation.
The GPSR contains obligations that specifically apply to various economic operators, such as manufacturers, importers, distributors, and fulfilment service providers.
The law applies to most items sold via bol, with some exceptions, such as medicines for human or veterinary use, foodstuffs, and animal feed*. If you want to know more about the GPSR, please visit the website of the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority.
What does this mean for you?
Platform role
If an item turns out to be unsafe, in certain cases, as a partner, you are obliged to initiate a recall. In that case, bol must inform all affected customers about the recall and, as far as possible, cooperate with the recall. Another obligation that bol has is to take measures against partners who repeatedly offer items that do not comply with the GPSR. This means that policy points can be deducted if it turns out that you do not comply with the GPSR. In addition, bol may be obliged to take dangerous items offline.
Mentioning manufacturer details and responsible economic operator
The GPSR requires you to add the details of the manufacturer and responsible economic operator in the EU to our platform for your items*. Specifically, this means that for each item, the manufacturer's name, manufacturer's address, and the manufacturer's electronic address (this can be an email address or a direct link to a contact page on a website) must be filled in. In addition, you must also state the name, registered trade name or registered trademark, and contact details, including the postal and electronic address of the responsible economic operator in the EU (e.g., importer or authorized representative). Without a responsible economic operator in the EU, the item may not be offered on the EU market.
Soon, new product ranges for which the manufacturer's or responsible economic operator's details are missing will no longer go online. For manufacturer details, this applies from March 5, 2026; for the responsible economic operator, from April 1, 2026. From April 1, bol will also gradually take existing items offline if the manufacturer's details are missing. As soon as we start enforcing your existing product range, we will inform you by email. Don't wait for this, but get started already!
Please note: If you have previously provided the details of the responsible economic operator, you do not automatically comply with the GPSR: you must specifically include the aforementioned details of the manufacturer and the responsible economic operator for each item.
Safety warnings
Under the GPSR, bol is expected to make it possible to fill in all required content, such as (safety) warnings. Based on the GPSR, as a partner, you are obliged to provide the mandatory information. Therefore, we want to emphasize once again how important it is to handle this carefully, to prevent items from your product range from having to be taken offline.
Need advice?
It is important to be well-informed and, if necessary, seek professional advice to ensure that you fully comply with all GPSR obligations. This helps you minimize risks and prevent problems.
Want to know more?
Would you like more information about the GPSR or do you have other questions? Please contact our Partnerservice.
*The GPSR does not apply to:
a) medicinal items for human or veterinary use;
b) foodstuffs;
c) animal feed;
d) live plants and animals, genetically modified organisms and genetically modified micro-organisms for contained use, as well as items of plant and animal origin directly related to their future reproduction;
e) animal by-items and derived items;
f) plant protection items;
g) equipment with which consumers move or travel if that equipment is directly operated by a service provider in the context of providing a transport service to consumers and is not operated by the consumers themselves;
h) the aircraft referred to in Article 2, paragraph 3, point d), of Regulation (EU) 2018/1139; i) antiques.
Insofar as these items are sold via our platform, the aforementioned obligation under the GPSR does not apply.