Amazon FBA and marketplace selling into the EU

• Regulation (EU) 2023/988 — GPSR, Articles 16 and 19
• Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 — Article 4
• Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 — Digital Services Act, Article 30
• National EPR laws for packaging, WEEE and batteries

Who has to appoint one

Every seller established outside the Union that ships physical goods to EU consumers through a marketplace or its own store. Being on Amazon does not transfer the obligation to Amazon: under Article 30 DSA the marketplace must collect and verify your details, and under GPSR it must suppress offers that do not show a valid EU responsible person. Sellers in the United Kingdom, the United States, Turkey, China and Switzerland are all third-country sellers for this purpose.

Thresholds and exemptions

None. A single unit shipped to a consumer in one member state is enough. Using Amazon's own fulfilment network does not make Amazon the responsible person: FBA is a logistics service, not an acceptance of the Article 16 role.

What must appear on the label

Manufacturer's name and postal address, the EU responsible person's name and postal address with an electronic contact, the product identifier or batch number, and warnings in the national language, all on the product or its packaging. Article 19 GPSR additionally requires all of this to be visible in the listing itself before the consumer buys, which is why marketplaces added dedicated fields rather than relying on the product photos.

Marketplace fields

Amazon enforces Manufacturer and Responsible Person fields across all European stores and suppresses non-compliant ASINs automatically. eBay, Etsy, Zalando, Kaufland, Temu, Shein, Allegro and TikTok Shop apply equivalent checks. Beyond GPSR, Amazon requires an EPR number for packaging, WEEE and batteries for each country you ship to — Germany's LUCID and EAR numbers and France's UIN are validated against the national registers, and an invalid or lapsed number suspends the listing even if the GPSR field is correct.

Documentation you must hold

Technical documentation and risk analysis for each product, proportionate to its risk. The written mandate accepting the responsible person role. Traceability records identifying your supplier and your business customers. National EPR registrations with the annual quantity declarations. For CE-marked categories, the declaration of conformity and test reports, which marketplaces request when a listing is challenged.

Standards and testing

Determined by the product category rather than by the sales channel. What is specific to marketplace selling is that you must be able to produce the evidence quickly: reinstatement decisions are made on documents supplied within days, and a missing test report costs sales while it is obtained.

Language requirements

Warnings, safety information and instructions in the language of every member state you ship to. Listings in the local language must carry the safety information in that language too, not only in English.

When it applies

Everything must be in place before the offer goes live, because Article 19 attaches to the offer and not to the shipment. EPR registration must precede the first parcel into each individual country.

How long records are kept

Technical documentation for ten years from placing on the market, traceability records for the same period, and EPR declarations per national law.

What happens if you do not comply

The first and most expensive consequence is commercial: automatic listing suppression across the European stores, with no negotiation and no grace period. Then customs holds on inbound FBA shipments, national fines, retroactive EPR fees for undeclared volumes, and Safety Gate alerts naming the brand. Repeated suppressions also affect account health, which can end in account closure with stock stranded in a fulfilment centre.

Who enforces it

National market surveillance authorities, national EPR registers, customs at import, and the Digital Services Coordinators supervising marketplace obligations. In practice the marketplace enforces first and the authority second.

Where the boundary lies

Three separate obligations are routinely confused. The GPSR responsible person covers product safety across the Union with one appointment. The Article 4 economic operator covers CE-marked categories such as toys, electricals and PPE. Packaging, WEEE and battery EPR are national and need registration in each member state you ship to. A single provider can hold the first two; the third requires per-country mandates that no EU-wide appointment can replace.

Questions we are asked

Does Amazon act as our responsible person?

No. Amazon verifies that you have named one and suppresses the listing if you have not. Fulfilment by Amazon is a logistics contract and does not include accepting legal responsibility for the product.

We sell from the UK — do we still need this?

Yes. Since Brexit the United Kingdom is a third country, so a UK address in the responsible person field is rejected by the marketplaces and does not satisfy Article 16.

Our listing was suppressed — how fast can it come back?

Usually within hours of entering a valid EU responsible person, provided the entity has genuinely accepted the mandate and the address is in the Union. Where the suppression concerns a missing EPR number, it stays down until the national registration exists, which can take weeks.

Can we use a virtual office address in the EU?

No. The responsible person must be an entity that has accepted the role in writing and can produce documentation to authorities. An address without an entity behind it fails the marketplace check and the legal test.