do I need to comply with GPSR if I sell items privately on a marketplace

Private sales usually fall outside GPSR

If you sell personal items occasionally on Marktplaats, you generally do not fall under GPSR. The regulation targets market participants who place products on the market as part of a commercial activity, and this is normally not the case with private sales of your own used goods. The roles distinguished by GPSR — manufacturer, importer, distributor, authorised representative, fulfilment service provider — do not apply, simply because there is no market participant as defined by the regulation.

This changes once the sales activity becomes structural or commercial in nature. If you regularly purchase items to resell them, if you offer new products from stock, or if you run an activity that functionally resembles an online shop but happens to operate via a marketplace platform, you could be considered a market participant — with the corresponding role and obligations. The precise boundary between occasional private sales and commercial trading is not fixed in a specific amount or number of transactions within GPSR itself; this is an assessment made on a case-by-case basis. If you are unsure whether your sales activity is still private or has become commercial, you can use the question which role someone holds in the supply chain as a starting point, and for those reselling second-hand goods commercially, there is specific guidance on second-hand and vintage products.

What this is based on: Article 1 and 2

Article 1 and 2 of Regulation (EU) 2023/988 define the subject matter and scope of GPSR, and link obligations to market participants who place products on the market as part of a commercial activity. Purely private sales of your own used goods outside a commercial context do not fall under that description. NVWA, as the supervisory authority for product safety in the Netherlands, confirms this picture on its overview page on GPSR: the rules target businesses and entrepreneurs in the supply chain, not individuals selling something occasionally. Once sales take on a structural, profit-driven or commercial character, the assessment shifts towards market participant status, and the question becomes relevant which role is precisely assumed.