What must a recall action meet under the GPSR?

A recall is first and foremost an obligation of the manufacturer

A recall complies with the GPSR when it effectively reaches consumers and offers them an appropriate remedy: repair, replacement or refund, as Article 37 of the regulation prescribes. This obligation rests with the manufacturer — and that is a broader concept than most businesses realise. Anyone who places a product on the market under their own name or brand is considered a manufacturer, even if it is a purchased product with only their own logo applied, or a product that has been substantially modified. For this party, the recall obligation applies in full, including notifying the competent authority and providing the remedy to the consumer.

A distributor who resells a product without carrying it under their own brand does not need to set up a recall themselves. For this role, a notification and cooperation obligation applies primarily: flag that a product is dangerous and inform the manufacturer, importer or competent authority about it. Without an identifiable EU-responsible person — first the manufacturer, then the importer, then the authorised representative, then the fulfilment service provider — a product may not be offered, and the party that last in that chain cannot point to another becomes responsible for it themselves. Communication to consumers must be in their own language: Dutch in the Netherlands, German in Germany, and in Belgium Dutch, French or German depending on the language region. Reports of safety incidents are submitted via the Safety Business Gateway, the common European portal that the national competent authorities — including the NVWA, the German state authorities via the BAuA, and the FOD Economie in Belgium — also consult.

This follows from Articles 35 and 37 of the regulation

The recall obligation and the remedy for the consumer are set out in Articles 35 and 37 of Regulation (EU) 2023/988; the distribution of roles between manufacturer, importer, distributor, authorised representative and fulfilment service provider determines in each case which party bears which part of these obligations.