Since GPSR has become directly applicable, something structural has changed in how marketplaces handle product information: where they initially mainly asked you to complete a mandatory field, an increasing number of platforms now actively check whether that field is also correct in substance. For you as a seller, this means that a listing which previously went live without problems may still be flagged during a review or update if the GPSR fields turn out to be incomplete or incorrect.
This particularly affects sellers who quickly filled in the mandatory fields back then in order to go live, without substantive documentation behind it. Those acting as manufacturer, importer or own-brand seller notice this first, because marketplaces typically require more data from those roles than from a pure resale of an existing product.
What exactly is changing
The regulation itself has not been amended since it came into force. What is changing is the way marketplaces fulfil their own obligations as online marketplaces: they must reasonably ensure that the mandatory information is present before a product is offered. In practice, this translates into stricter validation when creating or modifying a listing, and spot checks on existing listings afterwards.
The result is that data which were previously accepted — a generic email address, an incomplete address, a missing type or batch number — are now more often flagged with a request to complete them. This is not a new legal requirement, but stricter enforcement of a requirement that was already there.
Who will notice this
This is most noticeable for sellers marketing products under their own name or brand, for those importing products from outside the EU, and for those operating via fulfilment without clarity on who holds which role in the chain. A pure reseller who resells an existing product unchanged typically has fewer fields to deal with, but even there the marketplace may ask for basic information that was not previously checked.
Whether a particular role applies to you, and what information obligation comes with it, is not the same for every business. in a few questions see which role fits your situation provides initial guidance on this, without requiring you to set up an account immediately.
What a marketplace does and does not ask of you
The fields a marketplace requests — name and contact details of the responsible party, product identification, safety warnings — reflect what the regulation already requires on the product page itself. A marketplace does not add a new legal obligation; it checks whether what should have been there is actually completed. This also means that completing those fields in itself is not a guarantee that the underlying documentation is in order — it is a visibility check, not a substantive assessment of the product.
What you can prepare now
Because checks seem to be happening more often and more targeted, it makes sense not to wait until a listing is flagged. For most businesses, that amounts to three things: establishing which role you actually hold per product, verifying that the information on your product pages is complete and up to date, and ensuring that the documentation behind it — risk analysis, technical documentation, supplier information — is at hand if requested.
The latter does not need to start from scratch: you probably already have much of that documentation with your supplier or in earlier correspondence, just not structured in one place. per topic worked out what applies to you provides an overview of which documents belong to which role, so you don't have to search blindly.
What does not change
What does not change is the regulation itself, nor the basic rule that responsibility for the information lies with you as the seller — a marketplace performs a check, but does not assume that responsibility. It also remains the case that a completed field on a marketplace is not a judgment on the safety of the product itself; that judgment lies with you and, where necessary, with a specialized partner.
You can read where the information on these pages comes from and how it is maintained via an explanation of the working method behind the content. If you want to know what it costs to bring this into order structurally instead of repairing it per listing, then an overview of the subscriptions and what they include provides insight into that.
If you do not yet have a clear picture of your role or what exactly must appear on your product pages, start with the free role check or browse through the topics in the knowledge bank — both can be consulted without an account and give an immediate indication of where you stand.