What does Amazon want from the responsible person in the EU?

Amazon asks for the responsible market operator from Article 16

Amazon asks this because GPSR requires that for every product there is an identifiable responsible market operator within the EU, and the marketplace passes this requirement on to its sellers. Without that name and address, a product cannot be listed there — Amazon refuses the listing or removes it. The underlying principle is that supervisory authorities and consumers must always be able to hold someone within the Union accountable for the safety of a product, even if the manufacturer itself is located outside the EU.

Who the responsible market operator is follows a fixed order: first the manufacturer itself if located in the EU, otherwise the importer, otherwise a representative designated by the manufacturer, and only if none of these three can be identified does the fulfilment service provider come into play. For a web shop located in the EU itself and selling products under its own name or brand, this is not a distant matter: that web shop is itself considered a manufacturer, even if it is only a matter of its own logo on a purchased product, or a product that has been substantially modified. Anyone who merely distributes — resells products from an EU manufacturer without its own brand and without modifications — does not need to fulfil this role itself; that obligation then rests with the manufacturer or its importer or representative.

Where this cascade appears in the regulation

Article 16 of Regulation (EU) 2023/988 describes this order of responsible market operators and the requirement that there is always someone identifiable within the EU; Amazon's seller information on product safety in the EU translates this requirement into the practice of the platform. We structure who is next in the cascade of Article 16, but do not ourselves designate anyone as responsible and do not declare that a product complies with the law — for this we refer to specialized partners.